Totally stoked: Victoria's five hottest fire and food festivals this winter

As the solstice approaches and cold nights grow longer, foodies are stoking their bonfires across Victoria as the state launches into another season of food, wine and fire festivals. From East Gippsland to the Great Ocean Road, there are more than 50 festivals, dinners and events embracing the cold this year with food cooked over fire under winter skies.

One of the biggest festivals is Winter Wild at Apollo Bay. Over two weekends in August, the seaside fishing village hosts live music and a dramatic street performance called Dog Watch in which wooden sculptures are burned and a feast of seafood and meat is cooked in dunes behind the beach.

"After the devastation of the 2015 summer bushfires, [Apollo Bay locals] wanted to rebuild tourism and the community spirit of the coast," says festival director Bill Hurley Fraser. "So Winter Wild was actually born of fire."

One of the chefs cooking at the festival is Peter Ford, known for roasting whole beasts over fire. "This is extreme cooking," he says. "We are at the mercy of the weather gods. If it rains, the embers get cold. If the wind picks up the coals get too hot."

Ford is cooking freshly caught fish over coals at Apollo Bay, brushed with aromatic lard for extra flavour. The Ballarat-based chef is also coordinating the Fire and Stars festival in his hometown, held amongst the forest and historic buildings of Ballarat Observatory in July.

"I'll be grilling eel over charcoal on the edge of the pine forest before the guests move deeper into the woods for [fish stew] bouillabaisse cooked in a cauldron," says Ford.

A new book by Tasmanian author Janice Sutton will be published next month and explore winter fire festivals around Australia. It is called Winter Wild: A Feast of Dark Delights, borrowed from the Apollo Bay event.

"Winter solstice festivals have been celebrated for thousands of years around the world," says Sutton. "These festivals come from the concepts of death and rebirth. The solstice marks the start of the agricultural year and an end of the darkness."

Sutton describes cooking with fire as the ultimate theatrical experience. "The smells, the hissing of the coals, the woodsmoke, the spitting of the meat, the constant tending to the fire and the beautiful dance of the cooks working the wood, the meat, the flames."

In Victoria's far east, more than 90 businesses and community groups are celebrating the solstice for the next three weeks with the East Gippsland Winter Festival. 20 of the festival's events are based around fire.

"After last year's summer of fires, then COVID, this festival has garnered extraordinary support," says organiser Hayley Hardy from local business community-funded East Gippsland Marketing.

"Locals are sharing what they love about the region with the greater community. To see people embrace fire in a positive way, in a way they can control fire for warmth and food, after the bushfires, is incredibly healing."

Events range from beer and burgers under the stars at Omeo Caravan Park to a laneway feast of local food heated by flaming braziers in the heart of Bairnsdale. In Lindenow, award winning chef Tania Bertino is cooking a six-course degustation dinner in The Long Paddock restaurant's old wood-fired baker's oven.

Further east come spring, the townsfolk of fire-ravaged Mallacoota are celebrating their commercial fishing culture at Wild Harvest Seafood Festival that features fireside conversations under the stars with author Bruce Pascoe in conversation with wine writer Max Allen discussing traditional Indigenous Australian fermentation of alcohol.

Back in the city, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is taking over the historic sheds of the Queen Victoria Market with two days of fire, flames, coals and embers for The Remixed Grill in August. It will be part of the festival's winter edition program, set to be announced in early July.

Featuring chefs from 10 restaurants such as Mabu Mabu, Dainty Sichuan and Maha, Remixed Grill is free to enter and will be complemented with wines from the Pyrenees and Grampians.

"It's not rocket surgery," says Melbourne Food and Wine creative director Pat Nourse. "Winter is dark and cold, fire produces heat and light. A fire makes you warm, it smells good, and it gives you something to gather around and look at while you drink your drink and talk to your pals. And that's before you even use it to make food delicious. What more can you ask for?"

East Gippsland Winter Festival June 20 to July 11. Bonfire, Burgers, Beer and Banter, July 1, free entry with registration beforehand.

Fire Under the Stars, Ballarat Observatory and Museum July 16, $100 for a three-course meal, mulled wine and entertainment.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Remixed Grill, Queen Victoria Market August (date TBC), free entry.

Winter Wild, Apollo Bay August 13-15 and 27-29. Wild Feast August 28, free entry.

Wild Harvest Seafood Festival, Mallacoota September 18-20. Wild Seafood Market, September 18, free entry.