Melbourne Cup Carnival swaps cult chicken sandwiches for foie gras burgers and croc monsieurs

• How to make Peter Rowland's famous chicken sandwiches at home

Classic chicken sandwiches will no longer be a staple of the food and drink offering at the Melbourne Cup Carnival – instead, punters are set to snack on foie gras burgers and zucchini flowers.

With Crown taking over the catering at the racing carnival, Peter Rowland's white bread mayonnaise-laden chicken sandwiches are being replaced.

Peter Rowland used to serve more than 20,000 chicken sandwich points at the Melbourne Cup carnival, enough to circle the track more than two-and-a-half times if laid end-to-end, but the caterer is no longer part of the Victoria Racing Club's line-up.

A spokeswoman for the VRC says Crown will serve its own version of a chicken sandwich.

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, the corporate marquees in Flemington's Birdcage are back and they have big-name chefs on board, among them Rosheen Kaul (Etta) at Lexus, Joel Bickford (Shell House, Sydney) at Mumm, and Clinton McIver (Amaru) at Villa Paradiso.

In the Landmark by Lexus marquee, guests at the 80-seat restaurant by Etta will eat from a Japanese-inspired menu created and cooked by Kaul including prawns with zucchini flowers and steamed Murray cod with purple shiso and citrus.

"The menu is just a really amazing way of showcasing our great Australian produce via my Asian Australian perspective," Kaul says. "It's really beautiful snapshots of what we do [at Etta]."

Kaul will be cooking at speed, serving three sittings of 80 guests at a time from what she says is "more of a show kitchen" at the marquee.

"Guests are only supposed to be there for 45 minutes [dining] so it won't really take away from the races of your whole breadth of experience."

To finish the meal, there will be a dessert trolley from Koi Dessert Bar with wild strawberry mille-feuille and oolong tea sorbet.

To mop up the booze at the end of the day Lexus will serve mini brisket and foie gras burgers from celebrity butcher Victor Churchill.

Over at G.H. Mumm, the champagne will be flowing and chef Joel Bickford will be cooking a "French garden party" themed menu, featuring coal-roasted marron and croque monsieur with a twist.

Bickford has created a "croc monsieur", a croque monsieur with a "French-Aussie spin". "Rather than having cured ham in there, I thought, 'Why don't we do the French notes with brioche, buttery goodness, comte, mustard white sauce and all of that?'," Bickford says . "Why not make my own ham and make it crocodile?"

Bickford cured the crocodile for a couple of days, smoked it, then air-dried it.

"I think it's nice to give the people going [to the races] something a bit different to remember," he says.

For dessert, he has created ice-cream sandwiches made with Malfroy's Gold honey from the Blue Mountains, calendula, marigold and elderflower.

Mumm expects to serve more than 2500 bottles of champagne and 15,000 canapes in its main marquee across Cup Week, and is promising roaming oyster shuckers and champagne cocktails.

The VRC is also opening its own 350-seat restaurant in the Birdcage called Villa Paradiso with Clinton McIver as the guest chef across all four days.

McIver will serve up a seven-course menu with matching wines from G.H. Mumm and Penfolds.

In Flemington's most exclusive area, the Chairman's Club – where politicians and CEOs rub shoulders with the VRC board – Crown will have Alessandro Pavoni (Ormeggio, Sydney) serving yellowfin tuna crudo and wagyu tenderloin tagliata.

Crown's Guillaume Brahimi (Bistro Guillaume) will be at The Byerley in the Member's Club Stand and Johnny Di Francesco (400 Gradi) at the Straight Six.

In the general admission area food options include Merrywell, Gradi, Oriental Tea House and Hella Good by Stalactites.

In Flemington's Park precinct, foodie destinations include Dos Amigos, Goldie Boy Co, Hochi Mama and Terminus plus the retro motel-themed Pony Bar.

The VRC describes this year's offerings as a "significant food and beverage enhancement" to what was previously available at Flemington.

"Racegoers will be spoiled for choice with traditional race day favourites reinvented, alongside new offerings from some of Australia's finest culinary talent using produce that is almost all sourced from Victoria," VRC chairman Neil Wilson says.