Deep in the Weeds - A Food Podcast with Anthony Huckstep

After building and delivering some of the best eating experiences in Australia with the likes of Momofuku Seiōbo and the Merivale Group Ben Greeno (Hotel Centennial and The Paddington Precinct) decided to focus on how he was fuelling his own body. He challenged himself to cut out alcohol, meat and fish and the positive impact is driving him to create incredible vegetarian and vegan offerings in hi...

After 19 years operating one of Western Australia’s very best restaurants Russell Blaikie (Must Wine Bar, WA) decided the time was right to close the doors. Although the pandemic gave him pause to remodel and rejuvenate the space to much success, the events of the last year have him hungry for a new challenge. https://www.instagram.com/russellblaikie/?hl=en Follow Deep In The Weeds on Instagram ht...

After years out of the hospitality game to raise a young family Karena Armstrong (The Salopian Inn) found herself cooking more and more extravagant meals at home, before she realised she missed the connection and joy of working in the hospitality industry. When an offer to run her own restaurant popped up, it was too good to refuse and 8 years on she’s created one of Australia’s best restaurants w...

Last time we caught up with Rowie Dillon (Food & Heart Co.) her company Rowie’s Cakes had lost 90% of business, and with the airlines grounded she wasn’t sure how things would pan out. By late 2020 her dream was over, and the trauma of losing an award-winning gluten-free brand she’d spent over 20 years building took a monumental toll on her. But with her trademark never say die attitude she put th...

After a career working in and launching some of Australia’s best restaurants Nic Wong (Cicciabella) was feeling burnt out and took time out to travel to his fathers homeland of Burma (Myanmar). A country his parents had fled from decades early the connection with his cultural heritage and time with his father made him realise what maters and triggered a huge change in direction for his career. htt...

With over a role looking after the food offerings for over 30 venues across the country Telina Menzies (Australian Venue Co.) had to navigate border closures, restrictions and multiple product offering shifts to ensure the venues remained viable and hold onto as many staff as possible. But it took its toll. With extended lockdowns and more time on her hands, she turned to the pans to cook for staf...

Within a week of meeting in Italy Oskar Rossi and Federica Andrisani (Fico, Hobart) knew they wanted to open a restaurant together. After a series of pop ups, and considering options in Italy and Australia, they settled on Hobart and they’ve not only been a huge part of the new wave of dining sweeping the Apple Isle, they’ve created an incredible connection with local producers who star on their m...

After creating some of Australia’s very best regional restaurants, industry legend Sharon Romeo (Fino Seppeltsfield, Fino Vino) opened a restaurant in Adelaide’s CBD only months before the pandemic hit. After the challenge of lockdown her regional outpost has been booming as people escape the city and hit the regions, but in the CBD things are quiet, and although its meant she’s back running the f...

When Khanh Nguyen (Sunda Dining) was a child, picking herbs and helping in the kitchen was his mother’s way of disciplining him for errant behaviour. But he grew to love the connection he was forming with both the ingredients and techniques that underpin the food of his Vietnamese heritage. It lead to a career in food and a determination to take Vietnamese and South East Asian cuisine to new heigh...

A year ago to the day we launched the very first episode of Deep in the Weeds. I rang one of Australia’s culinary legends Neil Perry and two hours later we hit record. We had no idea what Deep in the Weeds would become, but back then Neil tried to make sense of the lockdowns and processed the heavy impact that loomed like a dark shadow over the hospitality sector. A year on it’s episode 225 and Ne...

After the initial shock of the lockdown, and keeping the doors shut for months Kylie Javier Ashton (Momofuku Seiōbo) re-opened the restaurant with new energy and enthusiasm, but a year since the pandemic hit down under comes news of the closure of one of Australia’s very best restaurants. Having run the restaurant from inception she takes us on a journey through the years, reveals why its time to...

Part 2 In Part 1 Ross Lusted (Woodcut) took us on a journey through his career from South Africa to Australia and all over the globe. In Part 2 he tells us what lured him home to Australia and the challenges of running a fine dining, multi-awarding restaurant with the Bridge Room and how its success lead to what may be the defining moment in his career, Woodcut Restaurant. https://www.crownsydney....

Part 1 After falling into the wrong crowd as a teen, Ross Lusted (Woodcut) found the energy and opportunity of the hospitality as a means to pull him out of bad habits and a life that was heading in the wrong direction. After building his career in hotels a chance dinner at David Thompson’s Darley Street Bistro changed his focus as a chef, and triggered a series of events that would see him create...

In March 2020 she delivered such a raw and real account of the impact of lockdown in just the second episode of Deep in the Weeds, it set the tone for the podcast series thereafter. In a year that included 6 months without work, Jacqui Challinor (Nomad) came face to face with her demons. In one of the bravest, open and inspiring episodes of the series she reveals how sweeping changes in her life h...

After years of owning a construction company, Jason Stephenson (Boston Bay Smallgoods) was spending too much time away form family and feeling burnt out. Wanting a greater connection to his loved ones and the region he lives in, he invested in a pig farm, and began to revolutionise pork production best practices with their extensive natural bush grazing systems, and chefs are taking note. http://b...

After securing on old pub to expand her Adelaide-based Sparkke brew pub concept into Melbourne the pandemic landed and stopped all Rose Kentish’s (Sparkke Change Beverage Co) hopes and plans in their tracks. A year on and Rose still hasn’t been to Melbourne to fitout the new space, but with a new vintage in McClaren Vale on the go, a new 4 bedroom luxury retreat to open, and having recently taken...

After falling in love with baking as a child in regional New South Wales, Nadine Ingram (Flour and Stone) began a career working in the pastry section of some of London’s best establishments. But it wasn’t until a stint at Bourke Street Bakery where she realised a whole new side to her craft – the connection and interaction with customers and the joy cakes bring people. It inspired her to go out o...

After being part of the ARC Dining team that took Brisbane and Australia by storm, sommelier Millie Gosney (Bianca, Brisbane) was on leave when news broke of its closure as the pandemic struck. Without a job she began working as a wine rep but felt like a fish out of water, until an offer to join on of the states most active and dynamic groups came along and it’s renewed her faith in her craft. ht...

With one of Sydney’s best local restaurants RJ Lines (One Penny Red, Vernon’s Bar) felt the full power of community spirit when his local community got behind their restaurant and supported it through the tough times of 2020. Even with that support they had to remodel and alter everything they do, and the changes have not only helped streamline the offering, but locals are loving the offering even...

With people working from home and a natural wine bar with food centered around a hulking wood oven and grill in the heart of the CBD, Dave Verheul (Embla, Saison Vermouth) knew he had to get creative and to stay afloat. He devised an at home model, opened a rooftop bar and cinema and started his own vermouth brand too. https://embla.com.au Follow Deep In The Weeds on Instagram https://www.instagra...

There are some that choose a life in hospitality, and there are others for whom hospitality choose them. Growing up in family run hospitality businesses, Nicky Riemer found the lure to carve out her own career in the industry was so strong it has felt like second nature. https://www.instagram.com/nickyriemer/?hl=en Follow The Crackling https://www.instagram.com/thecracklingpodcast/ Follow Huck htt...

With a restaurant in New Zealand and another in France, Nick Honeyman (Paris Butter, New Zealand and Le petit Leon in France) came face to face with failure and had to fight to save his establishments. He found solace in his family and realised everything would be ok if he lost the restaurants, because he had his family. The turning point and clarity allowed him to make better decisions and it’s c...

At the age of 14 Lucio De Falco (Lucio Pizzeria) began making pizzas at his Auntie’s pizzeria in Naples and it wasn’t long before he started to make a name for himself. At the age of 21 he was approached by a Sydney-based chef scout to work in Sydney for one year cooking Neapolitan pizzas at a new pizzeria. Thirteen years later and he now owns two of Sydney’s best pizzerias and has been crowned Au...

While carving out a career in California’s restaurant industry a trip down under had Danielle Alvarez (Fred’s) intimating to friends that she would love to work in Australia’s thriving food scene. It set off a chain of events that led to an offer by the Merivale Group to build her dream in Sydney - a farm to table style restaurant. Rather than doing it gratuitously. she set about forming connectio...

After leaving war-torn Lebanon for a better life in Australia, Ibby Moubadder (Nour, Henrietta, Cuckoo Calley, Lilymu) completed a nursing degree and was studying to become a doctor when we decided to buy a hole in the wall café to make ends meet. He soon fell in love with hospitality, let go of his dreams of becoming a doctor and jumped into the industry feet first. He now has four successful ven...