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 for a special one-day-only Boodle Brunch in collaboration with South Melbourne café Nine Yards and Chef Morris Danzen Catanghal, the Filipino-Italian chef, globetrotter, and Italian TV champion.
Represented by NYMA, Abi continues to elevate Filipino food on the world stage. With more than 10 million followers and international honors including Forbes 30 Under 30, James Beard, Webby Awards, and Tatler Asia Gen.T, she has become one of the Philippines’ most influential food ambassadors bringing Filipino flavors, creativity, and stories to audiences around the globe.
This festival marks a major milestone for her: her first time 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. Abi brings 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. “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 brings a unique culinary perspective shaped by his journey across the Philippines, Italy, and Australia. He added, “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 features a four-course Filipino-inspired feast, a welcome drink on arrival, two limited sittings, and banana-leaf-lined tables for an authentic boodle-style dining experience.
