Dirty Linen - A Food Podcast with Dani Valent

Dirty Linen continues our Looking Back, Looking Forward with a question. Is now the best time in a while for an aspiring restaurateur to ask, "Why not now?" Young front-of-house guy James Ness has done just that, opening his Jethro pop-up in Melbourne's Prahran with chef Gitai Ifergan. Conceived on a 'Chap Lap' (we explain) and full of energy and promise, Jethro feels very 2021. https://jethroprah...

We finish the week in Perth, with Tania Nicolo from Monsterella, a pizza place that's been slinging hard during Perth's five-day lockdown. It's a funny time to talk: a week ago, Perth locked down on the back of one COVID case out of hotel quarantine, and this week Melbourne DIDN'T lock down (thank god) after a very similar incident. Tania reckons WA did the right thing. I reckon Melbourne did the...

Who better to talk about the changing hospitality landscape than Stevan Premutico, founder of booking platform Dimmi and new ordering and paying app Me&U. We chat about the overlaps and intersections between the human touch and technology. What can data help with and what might it hinder? I'm not sure I want an app to know more about me than a favourite waiter but I'm all for help with splitting b...

Today on Dirty Linen, hospitality consultant Ilanit Bard talks about the industry problems that inspired her to launch Soigné during the pandemic. Her young business goes into restaurants to assist them with operations, profitability and culture. We discuss service and why the customer isn't always right, toxic masculinity, creativity, business identity and food media, including a free and frank d...

Dirty Linen's 2021 season kicks off with Looking Back, Looking Forward. We take stock and press on! Our first guest is Jake Nicolson, executive chef at the Ghanem Group, which has multiple restaurants in Brisbane (Blackbird, Donna Chang and more) and Melbourne (Byblos, Le Bon Ton). Jake talks about leadership, processes and mentoring, particularly in the context of young chefs who are missing out...

Dirty Linen is putting the Summer Series on ice and getting back into gear for 2021. We want to hear from you. What are the issues you want to hear about - and indeed, talk about? I'm thinking staffing, pricing, supply chains, the award and whether the customer is always right - plus many more ideas in today's short episode. Got ideas? Find me at hello@danivalent.com or hit me up on the socials! A...

Dirty Linen's Summer Series takes a detour to outback Australia. Dani tells the tale of her car roll on a deserted road and the pissing-in-bottle misadventures that followed. Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/deepintheweedspodcast/?hl=en Follow Dani https://www.instagram.com/danivalent Follow Deep In The Weeds on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/deepintheweedspodcast/?hl...

The Australian Open is a key marker of the Melbourne summer but this year's tennis tournament has been upended by COVID. We chat to Tennis Australia's Chief Revenue Officer Ben Slack to find out how things are tracking. Players are getting mouthy about quarantine, crowd management is an enormous logistical and infrastructure challenge, and ticket sales are under pressure with travel nigh on imposs...

Everyone wants to live more sustainably but it can be hard to know where to start. Today's guest on Dirty Linen's Summer Series has some ideas. Designer Sarah King works across many different fields and for a diverse range of clients but she always starts with Client #1 - the Earth - in mind. We talk about Marine Debris Bakelite, the food-safe ocean plastic tableware that Sarah designed...and that...

Today Dirty Linen's Summer Series heads back in time to New York, and an interview with Niki Russ Federman from Russ & Daughters. This iconic Lower East Side deli has been feeding New York since 1914. In what's been a devastating time for New York restaurants, with countless closures, it's a pleasure to hang out at Russ & Daughters on a busy Saturday morning. http://www.russanddaughters.com Follow...

Remember the film Jiro Dreams of Sushi? Dirty Linen chats to American theatre director Daniel Goldstein who saw the film, became obsessed with Jiro's Tokyo restaurant, and went to extraordinary lengths to have a meal there. Was it worth it? Daniel is in Melbourne to reopen the musical Come From Away, our first big post-lockdown production. It's a great show that celebrates kindness and connection,...

In today's episode, Dirty Linen hops on a potato truck and rumbles down the Indian Himalaya. This story from host Dani Valent discusses the perils of wearing white jeans in Calcutta, the lumpiness of a sack of spuds, and an Indian bus driver's capacity to deal with just about any tribulation with calm acceptance - disaster is just another situation to be stepped through.

Filipinos are the fifth largest migrant group in Australia so why isn't Filipino food better known, eaten and understood? On this episode of Dirty Linen's Summer Series, we rope in chef Ross Magnaye to talk about the food he grew up with, his path as a chef in Melbourne, and the food he wants to be known for cooking. Dive in for adobo, champorado, coconut vinegar and all the pig! https://www.insta...

Dirty Linen's Summer Series continues with chef Jesse McTavish. We asked Jesse to give us a food anecdote and he came through big time! It involves surfing, roadkill, ocean brining, snakes and an unexpectedly delicious roast dinner. https://www.jessemctavish.com Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/deepintheweedspodcast/?hl=en Follow Dani https://www.instagram.com/danivalent F...

Our Summer Series rolls on with another story from host Dani Valent. Dani looks back on a formative trip to Turkey, where she turned from travel writer to ever-obsessed food writer. Why did she need to eat a steak before she left home? What's the deal with Lonely Planet guides? And why will Dani never get tired of writing about food? Let's go to Istanbul to find out... Follow Dirty Linen on Instag...

Dirty Linen kicks off 2021 with a bright, welcoming New Year chat with Samantha Gowing. Sam is a clinical nutritionist and cooking teacher who completely transformed her business in 2020. We talk about reassessing everything, including the value you put on your own work. Sam also shares a killer summer salad recipe that you can cook on the barbecue. Bring on 2021! https://linktr.ee/chefsamgowing F...

For the last day of 2020, I get in a room with my stablemate Anthony Huckstep and our producer Rob Locke to record our first ever dual Dirty Linen / Deep in the Weeds episode. From Huck's Canberra recording studio (ie dining room), we reflect on the year that was and look forward to the year ahead. And then we go out for dinner! The last bit of this episode is recorded at Pilot restaurant, at the...

Dirty Linen's Summer Series continues with the one and only Alice Zaslavsky, whose In Praise of Veg book has become an instantly essential kitchen companion since its recent release. We chat joy, the art of active listening and the importance of inclusive food communication. We also laugh quite a lot. https://www.aliceinframes.com Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/deepinthe...

Dirty Linen's Summer Series will be a little bit different. Frequency will reduce and the content will include anecdotes, travel tales and focused chats with fascinating people. We kick off with a story called Christmas 2020: A Victory of the Possible. Dani's reflections on Christmas 2020. Dani didn’t grow up with hard-and-fast Christmas traditions – her family has built them as they went along. B...

The impacts of the Sydney cluster have rippled all the way around Australia, disrupting Christmas and holiday plans in every state, and affecting businesses like Pipit, in northern NSW but close to the Queensland border. We chat about border issues with Yen Trinh, who runs Pipit with her husband Ben Devlin. Yen is also a graphic designer and illustrator and her fun, insightful Chef Widow Club proj...

Four weeks ago, chef Jesse McTavish opened Bar Elvina, the restaurant of his dreams at Avalon on Sydney's Northern Beaches. It was going gangbusters - an instant hit with a close community. Last week, that all unravelled as a COVID cluster invaded the region, leading first to cancellations, then closure, then a lockdown and now to a swift reinvention of Bar Elvina as a takeaway business. Jesse is...

Sydney restaurateur Giovanni Pilu is deep in the uncertainty of the Northern Beaches lockdown, having had to deal with thousands of cancellations at his restaurant Pilu at Freshwater, plus the anxiety of shepherding his staff through a second closure, this time without JobKeeper. He's waiting for news on next steps from the NSW Government and is trying to stay calm and hopeful in the meantime. htt...

As Sydney scrambles to control a cluster of COVID cases on the northern beaches, and Australia closes its borders to Sydney residents, we chat to Frank Roberts, Food & Beverage Director at Merivale restaurant group which has three of its 70-odd venues on the northern beaches, plus another in Manly. Frank isn't quite having the pre-Christmas week he was planning - he's closed four restaurants and i...

We round off a week of discussing hospitality and representation by talking to Jacob Bettio, newly elected councillor for the City of Moonee Valley in north-west Melbourne. Jacob also owns Ascot Lot (started with partner David and best mate Lachlan when he was just 21) and the newly opened Holmes Hall, an ambitious venue in Moonee Ponds. In all his roles, Jacob is focused on creating rich experien...

We continue talking about representation with Michael Bascetta, co-founder of hospitality hub Worksmith. Michael talks about balancing the demands of his three food businesses - Falco, Capitano and Bar Liberty - with Worksmith, which became an essential virtual gathering place and information source during the pandemic. We discuss the difference between being a loud voice and a representative voic...