WINTER, IT SEEMS, is the new ‘cool’ season to be seen, and to be out and about, as we celebrate winter’s long, cold, dark nights as never before. Perhaps it’s my Celtic heritage, but I genuinely look forward to winter. I adore snow and huddling around a blazing bonfire with a hot toddy beneath vast, clear starry skies. I relish slow and fire-cooked dishes, stormy weather and wild and woolly walks on the beach – the icy snap in the air and the storm wind whipping my hair makes me feel exhilarated and alive, just as the magnificent winter festivals and events that take place here do.

The Museum of Old and New Art’s (Mona) spectacular Dark Mofo winter festival is held in June each year in nipaluna/Hobart in lutruwita/Tasmania over the winter solstice. I revel in the festival’s unapologetic and thrilling dark themes, its dark masses, astounding immersive art installations and high-altar rituals that invite unbridled revelry. I revel, too, in Dark Mofo’s sumptuous pagan feast that offers an unrivalled bounty of delicious fire-cooked and slow-cooked dishes to feast upon. For me, this now iconic, internationally renowned event, as winter festivals go, remains in a creative culinary echelon of its own.

It is the Dark Mofo winter festival and its Bacchanalian banquet, in fact, that not only provided the inspiration for this book, but lies at its heart, and I am thrilled to be able to share with you a wealth of recipes from the festival generously recreated and shared by some of lutruwita/Tasmania’s – and Australia’s – most lauded chefs and food producers to ignite your taste buds, and so that you can enjoy an authentic slice of the winter feast at home.