Lyndey Milan

Hi Lyndey, how are you? Thanks for your time. It is such a treat for me to be able to speak to you. I've just been looking over what the lucky participants of your Melbourne Food and Wine Festival tour get to do. Let's start with that because that's coming up soon and what an amazing experience those people will have. Can you tell me about this came about and what does the tour involve?

Sure. Well Jo, thank you for having me. Look, I've been kicking around the food business in Australia for over 40 years. Which is remarkable considering I'm 21. The story behind the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is a fantastic one. When Melbourne was bidding for the 1996 Olympics, they came up with this fantastic cultural program to go with it, which they thought when they didn't win the Olympics, well this is too good to let go. So that is how the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival was born. I came to the first one, which also involved Master Classes at a hotel, back in the nineties, and it's been incredible since then. Since then, I've presented at it, I've MCed rooms at it. But I just think it's absolutely wonderful the way it has evolved over all of those years. It's so vibrant and I think it very proudly takes its place on the world stage.

Pat Nourse, who is the creative director of the festival, rang me, because I've known him for a very long time. He was deputy editor of Gourmet Traveller when I was food director of the Australian Women's Weekly. He said, what about doing one of your tours to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival? I've been doing overseas tours since 2015. I said to him, it's a good idea, but what about lead times? He said, oh, well, the minister will be announcing the program on the 25th of November. And I said, yes and what about lead times? Anyway, that's what's happened. I've partnered with Intrepid; I got an introduction to them from someone I respect and we got together very quickly in late November and put together this program.

The idea with going on a tour is that everything's organised for you, and much as it's what you do, it's also knowing that if things go wrong, you're entirely cared for and I think that's really important. I've just come back from India and that was one of my considerations. Hopefully nothing will go wrong at all, but if it does, we've got the infrastructure.

We worked with Intrepid and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and had a look at some of the events. The World's Longest Lunch is rightly world famous. I've been to it in years gone by. This year it's curated by Curtis Stone, who I've known for a very long time as well. That is pretty much the opening day. We thought, well, we have to include tickets to that because it is extraordinary, sitting at it 600 metres of table, winding through Kings Domain. They're very sought after tickets and it's just a lovely relaxed thing. So, we are getting people to start the night, or the day before. We are going to do an Intrepid special tour, Melbourne Bites, Sights and Sky Deck just to make sure with planes these days and everything else that everybody's there. We will do this as a lovely casual sort of 5.00pm thing. Then a free morning and then World's Longest Lunch, and then people can kick on or relax. Then we are going to go to Rare Spirits and the world's best cheese. It's really interesting because they're flying in world class cheeses, especially for the event and we're going to be guided through a sensory journey of the flavours with the spirit, so that's amazing. The other thing too is we're going to stay at Melbourne Place, which is newly opened hotel, but it's also the official partner of the festival. Whenever you go to these things, you never know who you'll run into in the foyer or a breakfast or whatever. So that's really a bit of fun as well.

Absolutely, I've actually been to Melbourne Place twice now, but up to the rooftop bar Mid Air, which is so beautiful. The last time I was there, speaking of running into people, I shared the lift with a gentleman who introduced himself to me as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne.

That's part of it too. It's such fun to hang out and you never know who you'll see. Then I'm really keen on the Saturday where, once again, theres a free morning, you have to let people have time to themselves. They can discover more of Melbourne, but we will have done the laneways on that first evening. But from 1.00pm until 3.00pm, there's a show called Hungry Eyes, and this is about food photography. I find that people ask me, and I only had an email this week from someone saying, your food photography looks so good, how do you do it? I've employed stylists and photographers over the years, but of course I have picked up a bit. But we're going to go and Melbourne's most notable food photographers are showing their work and then we are going to get to taste some of what you see in the photos. How cool is that?

That's the whole thing with the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. It's so diverse in what it offers. We then have a bit of time to relax, but then we go to the Suckling Pig Feast with Adrian Richardson.

What a character. That'll be so much fun.

I know him as well. So, I'm hoping that my people will be able to meet these people especially as well. And a suckling pig feast and matching wines, that's great. Then the next morning we are going to set off towards the Macedon Ranges and we're going to go to the winemaker's lunch there. That's five courses of the region, seasonal produce. The Cleveland Estate executive chef is doing it and of course it's going to be matched with regional wines.

How beautiful.

But that's only on our way to the Bellarine Peninsula. We are going to stay in Geelong and the evening is going to be a leisure. We're staying actually at the Holiday Inn Suites, right in Geelong, so people can get out and walk to a cafe or a bar or a restaurant. The pier is only 20 minutes walk away, but they're going to have a free evening because they will have had a long lunch. The next morning we're going on the Q train x Merne Expess, and this is amazing: stunning views, but with a three hour degustation in between as we go on the train between Drysdale to Queenscliff. I just think that's going to be gorgeous. Once again, it's going to be local ingredients and local wines. But I've always had a hankering to go on the Orient Express and I never have. I did go on a gorgeous train in Vietnam recently. But I just think that's a really fun way to see the scenery as well as try the food and wine and do something a bit different. Then the next day, which is our last day, we are going to go to the Bellarine Smokehouse and find out all about how they do their award-winning smoked goods. We'll taste it, we'll be guided by a chef, and then we're going to return to Melbourne in the afternoon or people could go to Avalon Airport or Melbourne, CBD, whatever they like. Its six days, but five nights, which I think's a pretty good time.

How incredible. It's a nice small number of people as well, isn't it? So they're really getting that full experience.

We're having a minimum of eight and a maximum of twelve. Beyond that, we can always see if there's more accommodation and tickets available, but Melbourne Food and Wine Festival have reserved all of our places for this. But we really need to know if people are interested by the 14th of February, because we have to confirm the hotel accommodation more than anything. We can probably hang onto a few tickets for Melbourne Food and Wine, but we have to confirm the whole package.

I think it sounds amazing. Do you think you're going to mainly get out-of-towners? Or do you think there'll be some Melbourne people in there as well?

I would expect that it's people out of Melbourne. It might be regional Victoria. I've got two Canadians booked, which is pretty fabulous. And then I've got someone who's travelled with me and came on a cruise with me back in about 2015, it's going to be a really mixed bag. I usually find with my tours that because everybody is really interested and interested in food and wine, that it goes really well. I usually have a combination of couples, singles, maybe friends, traveling together. I always travel on my own because I want to devote myself to my people 24/7.

The other thing is that there's an Intrepid tour manager who comes with us. That person has to do all the nitty gritty, have your bags out, count the bags onto the bus, and I just look after the people and make sure everyone has a good time.

That just sounds perfect to me. I love that. I'd like your job.

It takes a bit of putting together. I guess my, this job for example is based on 40 years of experience because I know so much about food and wine, so I'm able to interpret things for people and try simple ways of doing things. I always follow up if they say, oh look, you know, for example, if at that photography exhibition and they say, I'd love to know how to make that, well, I'll follow up and I'll speak to the person, find out the chef, find that out. And if not, I'll figure out a recipe myself to share with people. So, when you come on a tour with me, it's not just the time of the tour, it's the ongoing relationship.

Absolutely. And look, knowing that you've been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for your services to hospitality and particularly to the food and wine industry and to the community, that really speaks to your experience and the time you've put into this and the relationships that you've cultivated. They're getting the best person for the tour. How did you get into this in the first place? Four decades ago, what were you doing?

Well let me tell you, I started cooking when I was 16, but I grew up to love the hospitality of the table. Mum was a good home cook, but back when I was growing up, people didn't go out to restaurants as much and if mum and dad had guests, we kids would sit around the table. I was the youngest of four. I was a high school art teacher. Then I went to London. I was an advertising executive in London and Sydney. It was only after the birth of my first child in 1981, a year or so later I started a catering business. What I've done really is I found a roundabout way of being a performer. I wanted to go to NIDA, but I had to go and get a proper degree. I was catering for 12 years, had a cafe as well and then I started doing some work in the media. In the late eighties, I started in radio, a little bit of television writing and then what I was able to do was just work really hard and increase the media work as I decreased the catering. But it's really good to have had that catering background. I've been reviewing for the Good Food Guide in Sydney since 1987, and all the chefs know I can go in the kitchen and do it. They know that I appreciate the difficulties. I can feed a thousand people, with staff, obviously, but I can organise it, I can do it. As you get older, you want to reinvent yourself. I left the Women's Weekly, not because I had to, but I just thought it's time for me to reinvent myself and in 2015, I hosted a cruise where we had three days in Rome, and then 10 days in the Mediterranean, and then four days in Tuscany. I did 2015, 2016, and 2017 in different parts of the Mediterranean. Then in 2018, I hosted my first tour in Puglia, which is in the boot of the heel of Italy. I'm about to do my fourth one there in May this year. And I did Japan in 2019.

Then of course, COVID intervened. Since Covid, I've done two more tours of Puglia and I've done two of Morocco and I'm going back to Morocco with people in late April this year. It's about reinventing yourself and becoming relevant. You can't get bitter and twisted that new people are coming up. Isn't it fantastic for them? I was a new person once, so I just have to harness my 40 years of experience and what that's given me and turn it into something else. And I love it. I'm a people person, so I absolutely love it. And I'm actually planning to do Greece to retrace the steps of my TV series, Lyndey and Blair's Taste of Greece in 2026.

Wow, there's a lot going on.

Oh look, there is, but I've got the energy and I just love it. I just think food and wine are so amazing and food is something that 100% of people have in common. We all have to eat, and as I said, it's the hospitality of the table. It's the joy that can come across the table. It's the conversations, it's the relationships. And to showcase Australia and some of regional Australia. How fantastic.

On another note, because I speak to so many chefs, people often say to me, where are the women chefs? I really like that you are a co-founder of Tasting Success, which is the mentoring program for female chefs. Are things changing for women in the kitchen or is that still a challenging situation?

It is still hard. We started that in 2006. To start off with, I had a few female mentors, Kylie Kwong and Chris Manfield, but there weren't enough women out there, so we've had some terrific male chefs too, and we still do: Matt Moran, Neil Perry, Peter Gilmore, Tetsuya Wakuda, we continue on because the thing is that biologically women have children, so might have a break in their career, but also in terms of kitchen strength, we try to give them a bit of resilience training and we give them extra Master Classes. They have 35 hours face to face with a leading chef because we want to show them what's possible. We want to expose them to Australia's best produce, and we want them to meet new people and then to be able to network. Chefs are usually really supportive of each other and it's just a lovely thing to do. We do all of that. But it's interesting because the culture in kitchens is finally changing where bullying is not okay. I think that's great, but we just want to give them the extra tools to help them get ahead. But it's still hard. What I'm thrilled with was that one of my mentees is executive chef in a hotel in Brisbane now, isn't that amazing? But also, you know Thi Le who who has Anchovy? Shes one of my girls. She's not only won Chef of the Year, she's won Restaurateur of the Year. I paired her with Chris Manfield and they are still in touch. And that's the other thing, you've then got a network of mentors who can remain your mentors. I think it's a really important thing to do.

It's fantastic having those connections. And as you say, I always like to think that there is a community of chefs out there supporting one another, but sometimes you have to push those connections and foster them as well. It's a great program.

It's very rewarding. The best thing is at the end when we have their graduation, the number of them who say to me, this has changed my life, it's extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary. They don't have to be apprentices. We have mature age as well. We have a lot of people who are career changing, and the older ones really get benefit out of it. But even with the young ones when they're apprentices, you put them with one of these chefs and it opens their eyes to what's possible in the industry.

I think that's really important, isn't it? Having that exposure and someone to listen.

It's wonderful. I give them presentation skills and media training, and I say to them, you all know how to contact me now, and that's what you have to do. That's what you've got to do with everyone. We teach them food photography on an iPhone. We do food and wine matching or patisserie chocolate work. Just the extra stuff. It's great.

Well, that leads into the question I usually ask at the end, which is: with all your years of experience, what would your advice be to a young person starting out, or, in fact anyone starting out as a chef?

If you are going to be a chef, go for it wholeheartedly. Because if you've made the wrong choice, it doesn't matter because you'll find that out and then you can go and do something else. But you have to understand it's hard work. Always be the one to put up your hand to do something extra. Be nice to people, be respectful, be polite, and be enthusiastic. And the other thing is, don't take things for granted. Take the opportunities, but aside from that: read. You don't have to be able to buy expensive cookbooks or anything anymore. You can look online. Follow the chefs that you admire. But being a chef is not about being a celebrity chef. That is .01% of the population. Be yourself and find what it is that makes you happy.

Culinary Adventure with Lyndey Milan In Collaboration with Intrepid and MFWF