The band Kiss has played a surprising role in Glen Goodwin’s career. A love of the group led to his first job, as delivery boy to restaurateurs such as Neil Perry. It also played a pivotal part in how he ended up in New York. He worked there for 12 years – with bosses such as Bobbie Flay and Wylie DuFresne – in a pre-gentrified Manhattan that had drug dealers on every corner. During this ultra-eventful time, Glen also ended up being quoted in a story called ‘Hey, Is That Sommelier Old Enough To ...
Sep 29, 2016•1 hr 30 min
“The fire was creeping up on me,” says Ibrahim Kasif. “It was pretty scary.” He was working at Porteno when smoke began to billow through the atrium. He headed up to to the roof to check for problems – and found it seriously in flames. The building had to be evacuated, firefighters were called and the street was shut down. The Porteno fire was one of many incidents that delayed the opening of Ibrahim’s first solo restaurant, Stanbuli. There were also the epic battles with council (which involved...
Aug 28, 2016•1 hr 19 min
Helen Yee is one of Sydney's OG food bloggers. Even unreformed blog haters probably make an exception for her site, Grab Your Fork, which she started back in 2004 – before the iPhone was even invented, let alone Twitter or Instagram. Since then, Grab Your Fork has been listed as one of the world's 50 best blogs by Times Online and it's been an excellent source for where to eat in Sydney. She's also written lots of great articles as a freelancer, including an epic top 50 cheap eats feature for th...
Jul 20, 2016•1 hr 21 min
How do you make an impression on Rene Redzepi? Turn up with 300 wild plants - painstakingly gathered over four days - to present to Noma's award-winning chef. That's what Elijah (EJ) Holland did - and hand-picking lemon aspen and diving for seaweed definitely paid off as EJ became a key part of the Noma Australia team when it opened in Sydney earlier this year. He joined the kitchen as a forager and a chef. EJ is the most casually fearless people I've ever met - and he's unafraid to scale a clif...
Jun 26, 2016•50 min
“We’re never going to work in a restaurant, nevertheless a Thai restaurant.” That's what Palisa Anderson told herself and her brother when they were growing up, but after some detours living in four different countries (and through other careers), she's ended up as co-director of the many Chat Thai restaurants across Sydney and the spin-off venues (like Boon Cafe, which is one of Dan Hong's favourite places to eat breakfast in Sydney). David Chang and Rene Redzepi ate at Chat Thai after their MA...
May 21, 2016•1 hr 3 min
From drinking supermarket Nescafe to the buzz of making coffee for his hero Rene Redzepi every morning (and being the Noma chef's personal barista), Corie Sutherland has certainly had an unexpected career. He tells his story of living in Japan, getting into 'specialty coffee' (a term he's wary of using), how he came to start the award-winning Edition Coffee Roasters with his brother Daniel Jackson, the next-level things he's witnessed at coffee championships, how his life intersected with Noma (...
Mar 09, 2016•1 hr 4 min
This has to be one of my favourite podcast episodes. Alex Elliott-Howery, who co-owns the Cornersmith Cafe and Picklery in Marrickville, was awesome to talk to. Her award-winning cafe has a hyper-focus on preservation, fermentation, urban beekeeping, avoiding waste and produce-bartering. As a flipside to the acclaim, she's also endured pickling disasters that've left her crying into her gin and tonic; and she once tried to preserve a summer bounty of tomatoes, only to find herself still up at 3a...
Feb 24, 2016•42 min
Patrick Friesen originally thought he was going to be a doctor. He also planned to be in Sydney for a short spell - but luckily for Australians (and their appetites), he did a U-turn on both points and we're now fans of the talented chef and his menu-ruling work at Merivale's many venues: Ms Gs, Work In Progress, Papi Chulo and the upcoming Queen Chow (which you may know via Insta-stalking its #enmorechinese hashtag). In this podcast, we talk about the true story behind his ‘Phat Pat’ nickname, ...
Feb 08, 2016•47 min
From producing macaron wallpaper for Adriano Zumbo to making dynamite-stick lights for ACME - and creating the "zombie-proof" exteriors for Momofuku Seiobo - Luchetti Krelle has been behind the attention-hooking designs for Sydney's noteworthy restaurants, bars and eateries. Co-director Stuart Krelle has worked on hospitality projects of all budgets and styles - from the mega-pop charm of the Hello Kitty diner to an installation of toy soldiers parachuting down into Single Origin's Surry Hills c...
Feb 02, 2016•51 min
Mike Eggert studied environmental science - a career path he returned to, in a way, when he cooked feral animals for a Pinbone/Young Henrys event for 2015's Good Food Month (an occasion that lead to a truly spectacular, poncho-staining food fight). After detouring from his studies and becoming a chef, he went on to work at many acclaimed Sydney restaurants – such as Oscillate Wildly, Sepia, Duke Bistro (with Mitch Orr, who is his co-host on The Mitchen podcast) and Billy Kwong (which is where he...
Jan 01, 2016•50 min
I chat to Magnus Nilsson about his epic new publication (The Nordic Cookbook, which has 700+ recipes that he collated from the region - including 400 recipes that he personally tested at home and features some of the 8000 photographs he took of the area), whether he believes as many World's 50 Best judges actually visit his tiny restaurant Faviken, why a sandwich can tell you a lot about a country's cuisine, what it's like to eat puffin and the recent time he got pulled over by American cops....
Dec 18, 2015•26 min
Annabel Crabb once put a laptop in the oven and it wasn’t even the worst thing she’s ever cooked. Rare culinary slip-ups aside, the host of Kitchen Cabinet is brilliant at mastering recipes (she’s just released an excellent cookbook , after all). And her food-transporting game is pretty strong, too – for her ABC TV show, she once carried a honey fig semifreddo cake to Senator Nick Xenophon’s place , with zero melting tragedies. Getting serving implements through airport security is another matte...
Nov 29, 2015•43 min
“There’s no $10 steak, that's for sure,” says Ben Greeno . There's nothing standard-issue about his upcoming ventures with Merivale , which is no surprise – Ben is far from a standard-issue chef. (In fact, there's question about whether The Paddington – the 'pub' he's opening for the hospitality group – is even actually a pub. And the chicken shop that will follow is not going to be your average takeaway outlet, either.) So there are many dynamite reasons why people are majorly excited about thi...
Nov 20, 2015•1 hr 4 min
Within the first minute of chatting, James Hird mentions the time his sister got caught up in a Chilean coup in Uruguay at the age of 11 – so you know it's going to be a good interview. And while overseas escapades in India and France played a role in shaping James' ideas about eating and drinking, there's no doubt that the local landscape strongly influences his outlook about what should end up on our dinner plates or in our glasses. After starting a law degree, James became an accidental somme...
Nov 14, 2015•48 min
When Ben Sears was working at Cutler & Co, the “biggest highlight” was when Quentin Tarantino came in for dinner. He's picked up quite a collection of memorable experiences throughout his career – from the time he worked at L’enclume, with its remote location (and tourist-magnet appeal as home of the sticky toffee pudding) to his burnout from having to make The Age's Dish of the Year way too many times, and his final spell as head chef at Claude's, when it closed after 37 years. “That was on...
Oct 30, 2015•50 min
Claire van Vuuren and Mitch Grady did not plan to become chefs. She wanted to be an artist and he thought he'd be a golfer. Luckily for Sydney diners, their career paths got redirected – and the pair met while working at renowned Sydney institution Claude's, where they bonded over practical jokes. They went on to open Bloodwood in Newtown – a venue that marked the tectonic shift towards young chefs running casual-but-brilliant places that they personally enjoyed, instead of the high-end fine-din...
Oct 15, 2015•40 min
Luke Powell was very young when he snuck into the world of food – he was enrolled in culinary classes at 15 (despite being far below the 17-year minimum cut-off) and by 19, he found himself in the kitchen at the prestigious Rockpool , while crashing at the dodgiest hostels in his off-hours. Throughout his career, he’s witnessed amazing things – the strangest party trick performed by a head chef in New Zealand; staff tackling 10-kilogram zucchinis at Mugaritz in Spain; and many memorable incident...
Oct 02, 2015•45 min
Since I last talked to Myffy Rigby, she's left Time Out Sydney (and boy did she go out memorably – one of her last hurrahs was an incident involving a nude bartender and dog track). Then she became the current editor of the Good Food Guide and the creative director of Good Food Month. In this podcast, we talk about the sleep she's lost over working on the guide, and how she tracked down the guests she wanted for Good Food Month (including the ones who got away, but hopefully will appear next yea...
Sep 15, 2015•42 min
Barbara Sweeney has made a great career out of her appetite. She's been regional editor for Good Food Guide, oversaw Cheap Eats for nine years, spends Saturdays as a 'talking cookbook' and even has been a honey judge. In this podcast, she also chats about her fascinating assignments – from interviewing wasabi farmers to rating vinegar. (Also, did you know that 'hen caravans' existed?). There's also a time trip to the oddball retro dishes that she remembers from decades past and plus, it's hard n...
Sep 05, 2015•50 min
Jake Smyth knows a hell of a lot about burgers. Along with Kenny Graham, he runs Mary's – which, despite only being two years old, has quickly become a much-worshipped Sydney institution. It's easily titleholder of the best burgers in Sydney and inspires the craziest queues, even on the coldest winter nights. David Chang, who famously said Australia screws up burgers like no other country, endorses Mary's as the exception he's on board with. No wonder Mary's sells 10,000 burgers a week between i...
Aug 25, 2015•42 min
Min Chai was an “unhappy accountant” before a tragedy inspired him to change the course of his life and open N2 Extreme Gelato . He had zero experience and friends even warned him against going ahead, but his one-of-a-kind way of making flavours soon led to four-hour queues at his first store. Min’s flavours can be wonderfully attention-seeking (such as Ferrero Reveal or Chinese Couch Syrup ), cheeky and controversial (think 2 Girls, 1 Cup ) and straight-up great ( Buttered Popcorn , Tease Ma Ma...
Aug 24, 2015•39 min
Working at a restaurant run by the Mafia – that was no big deal for Gregory Llewellyn. In fact, whether it’s blitzing through 300 covers a service in New York, enduring sanity-testing celebrity demands for hotel riders or watching smoke clouds billow into parts of a restaurant where they definitely don’t belong – Gregory has proven himself to be an unflappable chef. He started in hospitality as a 15-year-old, incredibly psyched just to be a dishwasher because it was a front-row seat to the full-...
Jul 28, 2015•36 min
“Analiese, you’re going to have to move your car, we’re going to blow up your car.” This has to be one of my favourite-ever interviews – Analiese Gregory is one of the most fascinating chefs that I've been lucky enough to talk to. Not that working in food was an obvious pathway for her – in fact, having a father who was acclaimed in the industry actually dissuaded her from cooking (her dad, Mark Gregory , was the first New Zealander to receive the Meilleur Ouvrier de France , a big culinary awar...
Jul 22, 2015•45 min
By opening Waterman's Lobster Co in Potts Point, Matt Swieboda wanted to create the " Mary's … of lobster roll places". Here, Matt not only serves the classic American dish in both the Maine and Connecticut styles , but even includes a vegetarian egg-nori version that unexpectedly teleports you to Japan. (This roll is a delicious butter-mayo bomb, by the way.) The menu also includes raw milk Wisconsin cheese with jalapenos and fish rillettes – but the stadium headliner here is the iconic crustac...
Jul 08, 2015•31 min
The fan base for Black Star Pastry is pretty large – after all, its stores attract long lines, have scored many Sydney food awards and even drawn the attention of an Argentinean TV show (its crew called up and asked for an updated pavlova). Black Star Pastry's success may seem unlikely when you consider that its creator Christopher Thé originally had a BA in Psychology and was also told the original Newtown location was "cursed" when he moved in; the DIY attitude that powered the first store mea...
Jun 19, 2015•45 min
Where do you even begin when listing Dan Barber 's achievements? You could point out that he's the award-winning chef behind the Blue Hill & Blue Hill At Stone Barns restaurants in New York. Or note that Time included him in their list of the World's 100 Most Influential People (with a write-up by Ferran Adria , no less). Or name-check the fact that he advises President Obama on nutrition. He's also the author of The Third Plate , a fascinating book that any food-curious person should read (...
Apr 25, 2015•39 min
Mitch Orr got into cooking after realising there were plenty of perks to studying food tech in high school (such as being the only dude in the class). Scoring an extra lunch as a byproduct didn’t hurt, either. Jamie Oliver’s TV show only added to the appeal of mastering recipes. Mitch went on to become 2010 Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year while at Sepia , picked up Time Out ‘s Best New Talent and People’s Choice Award honours while running the kitchen at Duke Bistro with Thomas Lim and...
Mar 30, 2015•52 min
In the year since I first talked to Andrew Levins on my podcast, he's notched up some major achievements – such as becoming a dad and accidentally ending up as face of the opposition to Barry O'Farrell's lockout laws. He also closed The Dip (where he found himself making 200 burgers in an hour) and landed on the other side of food-reviewing game – writing criticism as editor of TwoThousand. In this guise, he's really tested himself – such as enduring a Vegemite-crust-stuffed pizza so that we don...
Mar 16, 2015•56 min
A good restaurant doesn't have to be a stuffy one – Dan Hong has highjacked traditional expectations of fine dining in Sydney, and as executive chef at Merivale, a strong voltage of fun charges through the places he oversees, such as Ms Gs, Mr Wong, El Loco and Papi Chulo. He has helped redefine how we eat in this city. Yes, he has an impressive CV – which includes being named Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year when he was at Bentley and time in the kitchen at Tetsuya's when it was #4 bes...
Feb 24, 2015•38 min
A princess cake and a corporate job in banking seem like unlikely ingredients for a macaron company, but they each played a part in kickstarting MakMak Macarons . Carlos Heng and Dan Pigott began their venture in DIY style, with Carlos overtaking Dan's kitchen and selling his sweets in an underground fashion. Eventually MakMak went legit, getting crowned with the honour of Sydney's best macarons in Time Out magazine and opening a flagship store in Newtown, in a shop initially decked in fake seag...
Feb 20, 2015•59 min
