Teaming up for a special one-day-only Boodle Brunch.
Filipino cuisine steps into the international spotlight as award-winning creator and culinary storyteller Abi Marquez, known globally as the “Lumpia Queen,” joins the 2026 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.
She will be having a special collaboration with tje South Melbourne café Nine Yards and Chef Morris Danzen Catanghal, the Filipino-Italian chef, globetrotter, and Italian TV champion.
With more than 10 million followers on social media, Abi continues to elevate Filipino food on the world stage after bagging international honors including Forbes 30 Under 30, James Beard, Webby Awards, and Tatler Asia Gen.T.
Notably, this festival also marks a major milestone for her, as for the first time, she will be cooking inside a professional restaurant kitchen.
The Boodle Brunch offers diners a four-course communal feast that blends Filipino flavors with Australian ingredients while reimagining the tradition of boodle-style, hands-only dining. There will be a welcome drink on arrival, two limited sittings, and banana-leaf-lined tables for an authentic boodle-style dining experience.
Abi will bring her inventive culinary style, made widely known through her globally viral lumpia series, into a live and collaborative kitchen setting for the first time.
“Cooking in a restaurant kitchen for the first time and doing it at Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is an incredibly proud moment for me as a home cook from the Philippines,” Abi shared.
She continued, “This is a chance to share the joy, spirit, and creativity of Filipino food with a global audience. I am very grateful to the Nine Yards team and Chef Morris for this collaboration and excited to bring our flavors to Melbourne.”
Chef Morris, for his part, brings a unique culinary perspective shaped by his journey across the Philippines, Italy, and Australia.
He said, “Cooking has always been my way of connecting with people. When I present the flavors I grew up with, blending them with the native ingredients I have come to love in Australia, it feels like sharing a piece of my own journey.”
The exclusive Boodle Brunch will be held at Nine Yards, South Melbourne, Australia on March 28, 2026. Tickets are available through the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival website.