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Johnny Di Francesco at Gradi at Crown
Johnny Di Francesco is getting all old school traditional on it at Gradi at Crown. Wanting to create a menu with dishes from the heart, passed down through families with a story to them, he put the call out on the Italian grapevine for nonna nominations and was inundated. After a lot of thought, he…
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Cristian Folletti at The Essence at Melbourne Marriott Hotel
When Cristian Folletti talks about pasta, his eyes light up and he gesticulates even more animatedly than ever. A relative newcomer to the chef scene, Cristian had already learned a lot from his aunt in Italy, who is also a chef, so that when he went to culinary school, what he was learning was really…
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Jessi Singh at Daughter in Law
Jessi is eating a bowl of dahl when I go in and asks if I mind him eating. Having seen how crazy busy it gets at Daughter in Law from the minute the doors open at 5 o’clock, he should definitely be having that dahl. There won’t be a moment to breathe until much later…
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Joe Grbac at Saxe
Joe Grbac was my first Conversation with a Chef four or five years ago when he was at Saint Crispin and had the idea that talking to chefs would be a great thing to do. Today I went in to the city to have a chat with him about his solo venture, Saxe, which has…
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Michael Cole at Georgie Bass Cafe and Cookery
I drove to Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula on a wet and wild winter’s day to talk to Michael Cole, Chef of the Year Australia 2019 and 2017, and finalist in the international Finale of the Bocuse d’Or in Lyon earlier this year. I imagined I’d hear about his journey as a chef from the…
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Marco Valcarcel Alonso at Pontoon
Marco went from loving cooking with his mother and grandmother in León in the northwest of Spain to working in research and development at Mugaritz, a restaurant in the Basque country that annually makes it into the top ten restaurants in the world. He would spend 45 hours a week working on all the possible…
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Akad Al-Guepa at Balagan Kitchen
Akad, or AK, as he is known, always loved cooking as a child and couldn’t wait to leave school to become a chef. Having learned the ropes at Rockpool, he went on to Il Bacaro in Little Collins Street and then tried his hand at Chinese Fusion. He’s now happily cooking Middle Eastern street food…
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Charlie Watson at Lupo
I’m a big fan of Scott Pickett’s restaurants and, in fact, my very first Conversation with a chef was with Joe Grbac who, at the time, was co-owner of Saint Crispin With Scott. Having had a chat to two of Scott’s chefs already, Tim from Matilda and Valentin from Estelle, I was not about to…
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Savannah Sexton at Stokehouse Q
My friend, Alycia put me on to Savannah, the junior sous chef at Stokehouse Q. Savannah sounds like an incredibly driven young chef on paper and it is even better talking to her in person. As much as I love talking to people passionate about what they do, I am a terrible phone conversationalist. Lucky…
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Pierrick Boyer at Rêverie Café
Pierrick Boyer has worked with some of the top chefs in the world, the likes of Alain Ducasse, Christophe Michalak, Pierre Marcolini and Stephane Leroux. Pierrick himself, has won many awards and most recently was acknowledged as the Gault and Millau Pastry Chef of the Year in 2017. What’s even more impressive is that having…