Conversation with a chef

When I first spoke to Kyle Nicol back in late 2020, he was head chef at Rascal, and Melbourne was lurching in and out of lockdown. He was already thinking deeply about sustainability in kitchens, not just in terms of produce, but of chefs themselves. Five years on, Kyle’s covered a lot of ground: Lilac, Hazel, a string of pop-ups, consulting, foraging, and even a side project in charcuterie. He’s...

Brooke is a pastry chef with a flair for precision and a competitive streak that’s taken her from Sydney kitchens to the World Food Championships in Indianapolis, where her buttermilk cheesecake earned her third place in the world for dessert. She’s now preparing to return in October to take out the top spot all while juggling recipe testing, private chef gigs, and her educational platform Capture...

The name Odette House came to Jojo Parkinson at 4.30 in the morning. Later, she discovered it meant “prosperous,” which felt right for a venue with three distinct levels: an all-day café downstairs, Uday restaurant upstairs, and a rooftop bar with a view of the city. Uday means “sunrise” in Sanskrit, a nod to new beginnings. Over her ceremonial-grade Matcha on a Cloud, Jojo spoke about building a...

Joe Vargetto has turned his restaurant into a truffle wonderland. Step inside Mr Bianco’s little bar, Bianchetto right now and you’ll find moss, fairy lights, oak leaves, and, if you’re lucky, a truffle-hunting spaniel on duty. Some chefs talk about truffles as a luxury. Joe talks about them as if they’re alive, creatures that seduce trees, steal nutrients and transform the soil they grow in, but...

In Carnegie, there’s a little patisserie turning out some of the most beautiful cakes in Melbourne. Tommy Er’s T6 Patisserie has been open just over a year and already has a loyal following, very definitely including me. Tommy’s pastries are French in style but layered with the flavours he grew up with in Southeast Asia. There’s pandan sponge with custard inspired by his great-grandmother’s onde-o...

The drive into The Dining Room At Lancemore Lindenderry in Red Hill takes you past rows of vines and manicured gardens that open out to 38 acres of rolling lawns, a tennis court, wood-fired hot tubs and 41 elegant rooms. It’s the sort of place you can settle into for the weekend or drive down for lunch and wish you’d booked a room. In the kitchen is executive chef Nick McGonigal. He started cookin...

I had dinner at The George Hotel in South Melbourne the night before this conversation, and I’m still thinking about that prawn toast. The parma came on the bone, the romesco on the pumpkin was deeply smoky, and the vibe was spot on. Fire crackling, carpet slightly retro, and classic pub food done with care, generosity, and just the right amount of zhuzh. Usually on this podcast I speak to chefs,...

Two years after our first conversation, Pawan Dutta has made the kitchen at The Royce Hotel entirely his own. The Showroom Bar still gleams. The menu is bolder, with flavours that travel from Peru to France and back again, yet nothing feels forced. He’s as hands-on as ever, still on the pans, still chasing that perfect balance of craft and instinct. We talk about how the team has evolved, the trus...

Stéphane Nguyen is the founder of the French Cooking Academy alongside his wife, Kate. Stephane has built a global following by teaching classic French techniques in a way that actually makes sense: clear, methodical, and with a real focus on understanding the why behind each step. But it didn’t start there. Stéphane moved to Australia, missed French food, tried to make a Boeuf Bourguignon and rea...

If Pepe’s Italian & Liquor is all swagger and spectacle: snow machines, themed decor, and a big personality, then Pepe’s Parlour offers something quieter and more composed. The original venue opened in 2019 in a former synagogue on Exhibition Street, serving Italian American classics in a space that leans into old-school New York glamour. Next door, Pepe’s Parlour channels the elegance of a London...

It’s not every day you get to have a chat in a former ship’s chandlery from the 1860s, but that’s exactly where I found myself with Dan Livingstone, chef, self-taught cook, ex-pop songwriter, and co-owner of The Chandlery in Port Melbourne. I first met Dan at one of his collaborative events a few weeks ago, a night of incredible wine, thoughtful food, and genuine connection. In this episode, we ta...

Mike McEnearney doesn’t follow trends. He follows his gut, his growers, and the seasons. He’s worked in some of the world’s toughest kitchens, cooked for Damien Hirst, and lived off the land in rural Wales. He opened Kitchen by Mike in a converted factory canteen in Sydney’s CBD, another Kitchen by Mike at the International Airport and will soon open one in the National Gallery of Australia in Can...

You can tell a lot about a chef by how they talk about repetition. For Aaron, it’s not tedious, it’s essential. He grew up in Perth, found his culinary footing in a small seafood kitchen, and went on to cook in some of London’s most intense and celebrated restaurants. Now heading up the kitchen at O’Connell’s Hotel in South Melbourne, Aaron brings with him the calm authority of someone who’s done...

II.II.VI is freshly open and in soft launch mode at the time of recording, which means the team is still getting into the rhythm of service and the full menu isn’t live yet. The grills haven’t yet been installed, which is significant, because open flame cooking is central to what head chef Haitham Richani has planned. I sat down with Haitham and executive chef Kerry Lam to talk about the thinking...

This week I sat down with Alberto Borghi of Del Bocia Butter, although calling it “butter” barely covers it. This is butter with soul, butter with story. I first came across Alberto’s work at DOC in St Kilda, where a seaweed butter and a very memorable Alfredo pasta got me hooked. I imagined the maker must be an old Italian man with a wooden churn…and then I found Alberto on Instagram. Not an old...

Giorgio Linguanti arrived in Australia from Sicily with no English, no cheese-making experience, and no plans to start a dairy empire, and yet, here we are. That’s Amore Cheese, the company he founded, is now beloved across the country and beyond our shores for its fresh, authentic Italian cheeses, from silky ricotta to smoky scamorza, and of course, the show-stealing burrata. Giorgio introduced b...

Dario Di Clerico’s culinary story began at just 14, when he first stepped into a professional kitchen in his native Italy. Since then, he’s forged a path defined by talent, grit and unshakeable passion. He trained under the youngest (at the time) Michelin-starred chef in the UK, refining his skills in high-pressure kitchens and learning what it takes to lead with precision and creativity. When he...

When Ian Ho was a kid growing up in Malaysia, he dreamed of being a firefighter, not for the danger or the drama, but because he lived next to a fire station and from what he could see, they got to play sport all day. Fast forward a few decades and, while there are fewer games and more spreadsheets, he is still putting out fires, in a metaphorical sense in day-to-day life in the kitchen. Ian's cul...

Step into Bar Magnolia on Sydney Road and you're wrapped in it straight away: the low golden light, the easy murmur of good conversation, the quiet thrill of something thoughtful happening behind the bar. Co-owners chef Mia Coady-Plumb and winemaker Lawrence Scanlon have created a space where classic French technique flickers with wit, soul, and a little rebellion. Mia’s food, which she calls "irr...

Guillaume Zika began his career in some of France’s most revered Michelin-starred kitchens, honing his craft in Paris and the south of France before moving on to Per Se in New York and Hibiscus in London. Australia became the next chapter, first as head chef at the iconic Cottage Point Inn in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park on Sydney’s northern edge, then as Executive Chef at Burleigh Pavilion...

Today, I’m speaking with Kate and Bryan, the team behind Ciao Cielo in Port Melbourne. We talk about how they adapted through Covid, how their vision for the restaurant has evolved, and what it takes to keep things moving in a fast-changing hospitality world. From sourcing ingredients to managing a busy service, it’s clear their passion for what they do hasn’t wavered. I first visited Ciao Cielo b...

When I first asked Daniel Migliaccio at Studio Amaro for a chat, he politely declined: not one for the media spotlight, he said. But persistence pays off, and second time lucky, I found myself at Studio Amaro with a chef who’s been quietly steering the ship across Commune Group kitchens for nearly seven years. From teenage dishwasher in Ferntree Gully to Grossi-trained pasta guy to Hanoi Hannah’s...

Every now and then, you meet people who radiate such generosity, such quiet brilliance, that you walk away feeling a little bit better about the world. Chae and Yoora, the couple behind the tiny six-seat Korean restaurantChaein the hills of Cockatoo, are exactly those kinds of people. This is a restaurant where time is the main ingredient. Years go into the ferments, and the big clay jars sitting...

From the bustling streets of Naples to the top of Melbourne’s pizza scene, Mariano De Giacomi is a pizzaiolo who lives and breathes his craft. Raised in a tight-knit family with five children and few resources, Mariano began working at the age of nine, lugging shopping bags from a local deli to neighbours' homes. His path into pizza began not with flour and fire, but with washing dishes and salvag...

There’s something grounded and quietly assured about Adam Sanderson. Maybe it’s the way he talks about kitchens as places of belonging. Or maybe it’s the way his journey, which began in the north of England, has moved through some of the most celebrated dining rooms in the world: The Fat Duck, where creativity and precision dance together, and Noma in Copenhagen, where he learned to see ingredient...