Rock oysters, red carpet and a string quartet: This is Tourism Australia's new campaign

It began with Sydney rock oysters, a red carpet and a string quartet on Hobart's Elizabeth Bay Pier. It ended with raw-milk cheese, ice-cream and whisky in an art gallery.

Tourism Australia's Restaurant Australia campaign came to a decadent end last night when 80 of the world's leading food writers and personalities descended on Hobart for Invite the World to Dinner – a movable feast designed to promote Australia as a global food destination. Guests included celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, US-based chef and activist Alice Waters and restaurant critic A.A, Gill.

Heading up the local contingent wereMaggie Beer, Matt Moran, and Matt Preston.

The world's top-tier foodies were treated to a menu highlighting Australian produce and cooked by by multi-hatted chefs Neil Perry (Rockpool), Peter Gilmore (Quay), and Ben Shewry (Attica).

Dishes included grilled baby corn with forest anise, roasted wallaby tail broth, and charcoal-grilled Tasmanian abalone with liver, sake, and mirin dressing.

"The amazing thing about Australia is that we're not bound by restaurant traditions," says Shewry. "Countries considered gastronomically great are those with history. It's the fact we don't have that strict history that lets us take a lot more chances, take all the influences, and make something unique."

The evening kicked-on with dessert and Tasmanian whisky in MONA's Void gallery. Highlights were Shewry's Great Australian Ice-Cream Cart, Neil Perry's famous date tart, and a raw-milk blue cheese from South Australian cheesemakers Udder Delights.

Prior to the Invite the World to Dinner event, international guests spent four days experiencing Australia's myriad food and wine experiences, from mud-crabbing in Kakadu to bar-hopping in Melbourne. The entire cost of the Restaurant Australia global awareness campaign was $40 million.

"Australia is on everyone's list," says Shane Mitchell, a travel and lifestyle writer for US food magazine, Saveur. "The only issue is the fact that only 25 per cent of Americans actually have passports."

In October, Tasmania was ranked number four on travel-bible Lonely Planet's list of Top 10 Places in the World to Visit in 2015.