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Maureen Andrews at Ostrich and the Egg
Maureen Andrews is one half along with Gary of the mother and son team behind Ostrich and the Egg, a South African eatery and bar in St Kilda. When you step through the door off Inkerman Street, you feel as though you are stepping into their home. Not surprising really, Maureen has always welcomed and…
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Carla Nery at Mandacaru
Mandacaru is a little bit of a different business model to the usual restaurants I visit. Chef and owner, Carla, is making delicious Brazilian dishes from a commercial kitchen just a little bit bigger than a shipping container out the back of an industrial-feeling complex in Port Melbourne. She feeds people through Menulog, Deliveroo, festivals…
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Dave Verheul at Lesa
I first met Dave a couple of years ago when I went into Embla for a chat. It would have been one of the first conversations I did and I loved every minute of it. Back then, Dave was running between Town Mouse and Embla and doing an excellent job at both. Now he is…
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Dan Cooper at Prince Dining Room
This was such a great chat. They are ALL great chats and I can’t even tell you how lucky I feel to be able to sit down with these chefs and just ask them anything I want to about their craft and things that occur to me mid-flight. Dan was so accommodating and really went…
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Silas Orre at Curly Whiskers
For the guests it feels like they are coming into our home. Like a French provincial little restaurant. And it’s a bit like a show. I’m just doing my thing. People feel like they are watching a cooking show. When you walk into Curly Whiskers in Brighton, it feels as though you are walking into…
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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…