Yesterday Hilton Brisbane general manager Martin Kendall announced the programme for the 2010 Hilton Brisbane Masterclass weekend held July 24-25. www.qldmasterclass.com

This is one of Australia’s longest running chef and winemaker featured events (since 1995) centred in one hotel where participants eat and drink exactly what the presenters demonstrate.

The hands-on weekend has previously invited many stars – Gordon Ramsey, Charlie Trotter, Michel Roux, Michel Richard, Antonio Carluccio and at the last event, Newcastle-born Brett Graham who has added his third UK Michelin star since visiting Brisbane.

Stars for 2010 amongst 41 presenters are Californian baker Peter Reinhart, Swiss Lindt Master Chocolatier Thomas Schnetzler, Susur Lee from Toronto, and for the first time ever a sliver of Hilton greatness with chefs from Beijing Wangfujing (Yu Xiang Gu), Kuala Lumpur (Latchumanan Supramanian), Auckland (Cristiano de Martin), Cairns (Jimmy Shu) and Sydney (mixologist Grant Collins).

Despite many past Masterclasses the Hilton chefs have supported the back of house plating the thousands of recipe morsels concurrently demonstrated by the glamour chefs. This is the first time ever to see some Pacific Rim Hilton stars on parade at a weekend a little Asian focussed.

So come to Brisbane for this, but book early if you wish to climb the lift to stay in the hotel, rooms sell quickly. brisbane@hilton.com

The headline wine event will be Brokenwood’s vertical of Graveyard Shiraz (AUD 100) celebrating 40 years of production in the Hunter Valley.

I will focus on more chefs and winemakers in further blogs. meanwhile I must finish reading Jeannie Cho Lee MW’s definitive and award winning wine and Asian food matching tome Asian Palate to be prepared for the Weekend. www.asianpalate.com