In memory of Kerby Craig, here's the podcast I recorded with him in 2014.

I listened back to this episode after I heard about Kerby being gone and it made me re-remember all these great things from that day, so I thought I should share these stories again, in tribute to Kerby and his enthusiasm for cooking, Japanese food culture and hospitality …

As a 15 year old, Kerby Craig was fascinated by the world of restaurants – seeing a chef breakdancing in the middle of service (!) confirmed for him that this was the industry that he wanted to work in. By accident, he ended up at the original Tetsuya's as a teenage apprentice chef and, after stints in Sydney and overseas, later helped Koi earn a hat in The Good Food Guide. To mark this achievement, he actually got a chef's hat tattooed on his neck – an act that was memorably referred to in Terry Durack's review of Ume, the restaurant that Kerby opened after his time at Koi. ("That's a hat you can't take off him," Kerby's manager told Durack at an event. "That's a hat I would never take off you, Kerby!" replied the Herald food critic.)

Despite earning acclaim, Kerby's experience with the industry has endured some rough lows – including the business failure of Koi – and opening Ume was "very very stressful", he says. "I don't know how we got a loan!"

Also in this podcast, Kerby chats about his own adventures dining from Kyoto to Fukuoka – and enjoying the next-level hospitality of Japanese establishments.

If you'd like to support me on Patreon, head to patreon.com/leetranlam. From $1.50 a week, you'll get access to my weekly podcast and newsletter, where I cover all the good things I'm consuming: the best food stories I've read, food podcasts I've listened to, what I've been eating and I also dive into what I've been working on. Plus a lot of enthusiasm about Japanese food culture, too – from Tokyo favourites to the birthplace of soy sauce and my favourite Kyoto food shop.

The best dish in the world, according to chef David Chang, could be found at Golden Century – the Sydney institution that Billy Wong's family ran in Chinatown for more than three decades.

There was more to Golden Century than the XO pipis, though (despite Chang's major endorsement of the dish). The restaurant's fan base included shift workers taking advantage of the restaurant's famous 4am closing time, as well as massive stars like Rihanna and Lady Gaga, royalty from Tonga and Morocco, and even Chinese presidents who made special requests: Xi Jinping had his order sent straight to his Sydney hotel, while Hu Jintao had the signature XO pipis delivered to the Chinese Embassy in Canberra – 300km away from the restaurant itself.

Chefs such as Morgan McGlone and Dan Hong have been regular diners and Analiese Gregory called it a "dream" to drop by the kitchen on Munchies Chef's Night Out.

Billy recalls how hard his parents worked to make the restaurant a success (his dad used to sleep in the car in between shifts) and also shares many amazing memories of growing up with Golden Century.

Golden Century's family of restaurants also includes The Century at The Star and its newer spin-off, XOPP at Darling Square, which we briefly cover as well. 

I recorded this episode in late 2020 and sadly, Golden Century has since closed its Chinatown location, but its spirit lives on at sister restaurant XOPP: some of the staff, menu items, and even its trademark seafood tanks can be found there. You can also get Golden Century finish-at-home meals via Providoor and you know what, it wouldn't surprise me if one day Golden Century did open in a new location. I'm sure everyone – shift workers, world leaders and chefs alike – hopes that might happen.

If you'd like to support me on Patreon, head to patreon.com/leetranlam. From $1.50 a week, you'll get access to my weekly podcast and newsletter, where I cover all the good things I'm consuming: the best food stories I've read, food podcasts I've listened to, what I've been eating and I also dive into what I've been working on.

Josh Niland can make fish scales taste like sugary cereal and fish eyeballs resemble prawn crackers. In his hands, seafood can become Christmas ham, mortadella and caramel slice. He can even turn calamari sperm into something you'd want to eat (no really)! His creative, waste-free approach to using every fin and scale is a response to the typical method of ditching 60 per cent of everything caught from the sea ("How is that 40 per cent of a fish is getting all the credit?") and his innovative thinking is showcased at his acclaimed Saint Peter restaurant, Fish Butchery shop, and within the pages of his new publication, The Whole Fish Cookbook.

Niland's interest in food started not long after he was diagnosed with cancer at age eight. His mum's chicken pie and the excitement of food media offered comfort after intense chemotherapy treatment – he even pinned pictures of chefs he admired on his bedroom wall. These well-known figures later ended up applauding him when he won Best New Restaurant for Saint Peter at the first national Good Food awards.

Before opening Saint Peter with his wife Julie Niland ("Julie and I thought about this restaurant for so long – in every single meal that we ate together"), Josh worked at Est., Glass and Fish Face and shares the many "hectic stories" of his culinary education. A crab-eating competition, funnily enough, led him to being mentored by Fish Face's Steve Hodges, and ultimately inspired him to open Saint Peter (which landed Niland multiple Best Chef honours and a World Restaurant Award nomination alongside Massimo Bottura and Dan Barber).

It's fascinating to talk to Josh about everything from the Starlight Foundation wish he was granted as a kid to all the unending possibilities he sees in every scrap of seafood (from cultivating single-origin bottarga to using fish fat like butter in desserts). Many of these ideas are featured in his book, which René Redzepi calls, "an inspiring read, something to return to again and again", and are compelling even if you don't eat fish. (That said, I'm hoping Josh can be convinced to bring back his self-saucing potato scallop one day.)

When Ferran Adria – one of the world's greatest chefs – was recently in Sydney for a day, I was lucky enough to get a chance to interview him.

In the car ride from the airport to his hotel, I got to ask him about whether he actually eats plane food; we went into detail about elBulli 2005-2011, his spectacular seven-book set about the ground-breaking restaurant's last chapter; whether he still considers himself a punk (he used to blow up tomatoes and claim it was a "punky" phase he was going through); what he cooks at home and what's next for elBulli.

Thanks to Phaidon and Kate & Co PR for making this interview possible.

Not many people look into a wine glass and see a career. When Richard Hargreave was at Quay in his first-ever serious sommelier role, he was juggling a business degree – with plans to graduate and land a "grown-up job". He never ended up going down that road and ignoring the "grown-up" path has definitely paid off. In fact, Richard was named Sommelier of The Year at the latest Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Awards for his work at Momofuku Seiobo – a restaurant so great that people have forged confirmation bookings to try to get a much-coveted spot there. It's no surprise that Richard is gaining much-deserved attention and applause for his inventive drinks program; not only does it cover note-worthy wines and sake, but it also includes house-made sodas, custom-crafted brews and juice pairings (think konbu tea, pumpkin and mandarin juice and other next-level beverages). He chats about his upcoming Sunday Wine Sessions events at Momofuku Seiobo, momofuku.com/sydney/seiobo/sunday-sessions, which he's running with the equally booze-savvy Mike Bennie; the series is an attempt to take the "reverence and stiffness" out of enjoying wine ("it's just another beverage," says Richard; no one gets that stuffy about beer, after all) and will cover everything from fermentation, festive drinks and the curious phenomenon of suitcase wines. Richard also talks about his many other drinking adventures (such as sweet-talking Customs into smuggling bottles home and visiting a spectacular vineyard in Aveyron, France), what he thought about Premier Barry O'Farrell losing his job over a '59 Grange and the restaurants he's most excited about trying next (namely, the latest projects by chefs Luke Powell and Nic Wong). 

Renee Creer is doing something unusual in Australia – she's selling locally grown green tea under her label Perfect South. She's taken an unusual route to get to this point – a journey that involves a visit to an 800-year-old tea shop in Kyoto, becoming a tea master, and enduring the occasional "tea high" from too many tastings in one go. Renee's teas are now served at Rockpool and Cornersmith and she's also one of the organisers of the Sydney Tea Festival, which takes place at Carriageworks on August 17, sydneyteafestival.com.au. During this podcast, she talks about "man tea" and "lady tea", how to serve a killer brew, where she gets her loose-leaf fix in Sydney and whether or not she'd drink panda-poop tea.

O Tama Carey grew up "eating nothing, refusing all food", so it may be surprising that she ended up as a chef. In fact, she jokes that she was "tricked" into this career. She's made a name for herself in Sydney, through working at Billy Kwong, running pop-up dinners with Billy Kwong co-conspirator Hamish Ingham (who now heads Bar H) and for the last three years, she's been adding a contemporary twist to Italian food at Berta in Surry Hills (her Sri Lankan background leads her to sneaking some curry leaves into the dishes, occasionally). O Tama's hands-on approach means that she's reared pigs for the restaurant (an incident that resulted in her first experience with shotguns) and she's had to deal with mega beestings and chasing queen bees in the post (yes, they do get sent in the mail!) in order to cultivate honey for Berta. She also talks about coverage of women's chefs, what she refuses to eat and her upcoming appearance at Stories from the Cellar on February 23 at Elizabeth Bay House, as presented by Wildwon Projects and Sydney Living Museums. O Tama name-checks her favourite places to eat in Sydney, too – in particular, she salutes the brilliance of Brent Savage (Monopole, Yellow, Bentley).

Mike Bennie was studying law and looking for a no-brainer job that wouldn't interfere with his late nights out. He found one stacking shelves and driving a van for a local bottle shop – and it ended up being the gateway into his interest in wine. After run-ins with E Annie Proulx, the world of radio, and ditching law, he ended up as an award-winning wine writer. He's travelled the world via his wine glass – literally and figuratively: he's physically climbed a Swiss mountain - conquering 600-metre cliff drops – just to visit a vineyard and he's also endured 10-star hangovers after testing up to 40 wines a day. Mike's accessible, insightful and witty approach to the topic means that he can easily talk about the 8000-year-old wine-making traditions of Georgia – as well as whether you should get wine advice from rap music. He also covers what to look for in a wine label and why orange wine is a big deal. As an organiser of Rootstock Sydney (Feb 8-9, Carriageworks, Sydney), he talks about the impressive line-up of winemakers and chefs involved; Mike also runs through the "Bermuda Triangle" of his favourite places to eat in his neighbourhood, and the restaurant opening he's most excited about this year – the new place that Luke Powell (Mary's, Tetsuya's) will be running in Chippendale.

Andrew Levins once got offered a cookbook deal during a DJ set. This happened after he opened The Dip, the popular American-inspired eatery that he runs in Sydney with his wife, Bianca. It was namechecked for its hot dogs by Gourmet Traveller when it first launched and Levins' "hot dog expertise" has also been flexed on his TV show, Levins Eating Food, where he highlighted the most interesting dogs in Sydney (including a deep-fried Korean creation that could very well protect you from a killer hangover). Levins also has many fascinating tales about dining around America and shares his trick for making a toasted cheese sandwich with an iron. Plus, you need to hear his rundown of where to eat in Sydney and the places he wants to check out next (Pinbone and Moon Park are on the list).

Elizabeth Hewson gets her inspiration from everywhere: one of the recipes in her new cookbook, "Moving Out … Eating In", comes from an incident involving a hangover. And while her cookbook tackles the reality of creating meals when you've just left home and you're nervously counting down until your next pay packet, her day job can seem like the flipside of producing inventive budget-watching cuisine. Working in PR for Black Communications, she looks after luxury food brands such as Simon Johnson provedores and Riedel glassware and hatted restaurants like Otto and Quay – which means she's had the famous Snow Egg dessert more than anyone you know. She's also experienced a lunch out in the fields, as served by Quay's Peter Gilmore and Noma's Rene Redzepi and can tell you about Austrian decanters that have been influenced by Chinese zodiac signs. She talks about what it was like creating a cookbook from scratch while in her twenties with no money, how to make brains actually tasty and she shares some of her favourite places to eat and drink in Sydney (Billy Kwong and 121BC are some of her beloved haunts).

"You should be dead." That's what Adam Humphrey's doctor once told him. Despite the physically exhausting nature of his work, the co-head-chef and co-owner of Sydney's Arras has survived life in the kitchen with some pretty amazing tales to tell. Early on, his achievements include scoring against a famous UK goalkeeper, being a pastry chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant at 18 and denying Antonio Banderas some requested carbs. He currently runs the hatted restaurant Arras with his wife Lovaine, and his inspired creations include sushi bread, "Tomato Soup & Friends", a dessert that resembles a spilled-over Negroni – not to mention the most Willy-Wonka-style petits fours plate in Sydney. Adam shares his many stories, as well as his favourite places to eat and drink (The Bentley, The Wedge and Sixpenny are just a few of the establishments where he likes to spend his time).

There's no doubt that Jaime Wirth has rebooted the idea of Sydney pubs. Via his Drink N Dine empire, he's transformed many old-man drinking holes into places where you can find a deep-fried Golden Gaytime, Kingston Kreme donuts and someone under the age of 55. It hasn't been an obvious – or easy – career path for this former DJ. He's weathered drive-by shootings, firebombs and some seriously unappealing encounters with greasetraps to ensure that places like The Norfolk, The Abercrombie and The Forresters run pretty smoothly. It's no surprise, then, that he has some pretty amazing stories to share.  

Here's an interview I did last year with Joanna Savill, editor of the Good Food Guide and director of Good Food Month (previously known as Crave International Food Festival).

Jordan Toft has been a chef for Saudi royalty and he's run a chalet in the Haute-Savoie in the French Alps. In Sydney, he's known for his work at Bert's (which was nominated for New Restaurant of the Year in the last Gourmet Traveller restaurant awards), The Collaroy, Bar Topa and Coogee Pavilion. His next venture – a restaurant on the middle floor at Coogee Pavilion – has been more than four years in the making.

Jordan started his career as a teenager and has since worked with many great chefs (he was mentored by Peter Doyle during an influential stint at Est). His career has sent him to Italy and France – and we spend a lot of this conversation talking about Europe because a) Jordan had one of the best meals of his life at Michel Bras's restaurant in Laguiole, France (the lunch he ate preceding it is pretty hilarious, BTW) and b) because Jordan and I recently went on a Eurail trip that zipped through Spain, France and Switzerland.

We talk about the highlights of travelling via train carriages through this part of the world while flexing a Eurail pass. Some of the memorable experiences we had included eating at Llet Crua, in Barcelona (a cheese shop that specialises in revived Catalan cheeses); foraging for wild Spanish flowers and herbs on the Costa Brava coastline with Evarist March (a "gastrobotanist" who works with the acclaimed El Celler de can Roca); eating desserts inspired by old books and Game of Thrones at Rocambolesc (the gelato parlour run by Jordi Roca, the world-renowned pastry chef); Jordan running into a strangely familiar face at a traditional Lyon restaurant; and taking ultra-scenic trains around Lake Geneva, including the GoldenPass Classic "Belle Epoque" trip up a Swiss mountain to eat mushroom fondue and see Gruyère cheese being made from two-hour-old milk at Le Chalet. Oh and there's the time Jordan bought 150 euros of jamón and schlepped it through two entire countries, too!

This was a fun country-hopping conversation. Thanks to Eurail and Example's Rebecca Gibbs for making the aforementioned trip possible! You can see my Instagram Story highlights of the trip here (featured are some of the places that Jordan and I chat about during the podcast).

What's it like to stage a dinner in the back lot of Opera Australia? Or throw a random soup party in a park and hope you don't get busted? Kristen Allan would know, as these are some of the guerilla culinary events she's organised with Full Circle (the team also behind The Eat-in pop-up restaurant in Chippendale earlier this year). She also runs excellent cheesemaking workshops at Cornersmith, so she's also an expert on ricotta, labne, and all things curds and whey – and in fact, can personally tell you what's more unappealing than eating maggot-riddled cheese (you'll be surprised by her answer!) or the lovely story behind the most expensive cheese she's ever bought. Kristen also chats about her unusual career path into the world of food, her time at much-loved Italian restaurants Vini and Berta, and her involvement with Cornersmith's newest establishment – opening in August.    

Christina Tosi is a James Beard Rising Star Chef and the creative force behind the popular Momofuku Milk Bar bakeries in New York. But she's taken an unusual path to get to this point. She studied electrical engineering and, even when she ended up in the kitchen of the award-winning WD-50 (as a pastry chef, not an engineer!), she chose to take an unexpected next step: working as a cashier and resolving unsexy problems – such as unclogging toilets – at the newly started Momofuku. In fact, it was a boring paperwork problem that sparked her creative collaboration with Momofuku's David Chang. She went on to challenge his belief that "dessert is for wusses" and continues to prove to be the exception "to any assumption you make". We talk about her career; her famous creations, such as "crack pie" (it's "the dare of all dares to just have one slice and just walk away") and Australia's connection to it; the local flavours she fell in love with during her trip here, and much more.

Thanks to Bloomsbury (publisher of Christina's book, "Momofuku Milk Bar") and Crave Sydney International Food Festival for making this interview possible. It was recorded (in a crowded props room during my lunch hour – very glamorous!) while Christina was in Sydney as a festival guest last year.

Naomi Hart ended up in hospitality by accident. But her unintentional career path has taken her to some interesting places – such as a New York restaurant where she almost dropped a table on Tom Hanks (he was very nice about it) and the stylish coat-check woman was straight from a Bill Cunningham photograph (in fact, she was often the subject of his lens). After working in LA, she came back to Australia with her husband Gregory to start Hartsyard, a Newtown eatery that quickly became known for its big flavours, its popularity with locals (the Porteno crew are regulars) and its famous mascot – George, the eyepatch-wearing duck. She's had many adventures working as a waitress and restaurant manager, and she reveals quite a few entertaining examples in this podcast.

Elvis The Fat Years, Tiramisu, Hansel He’s So Hot Right Now, Sage and Burnt
Butter, Risotto Milanese, Breakfast of Champions: The Sequel, Pavlova and
Raspberry & Rose Gelato with Pomegranate Brownie – these are just some of the
attention-seeking flavours that have made Gelato Messina famous over the
years. Nick Palumbo, who opened the original gelato parlour in Darlinghurst
more than a decade ago, chats about the very first scoops that launched
Messina, how he and his team come up with such original, unexpected flavours
(one flavour was inspired by his nephew's twisted love for 'The Mighty Boosh'
TV show) and if there's any downside to being surrounded by ice cream all
day. He also chats about Gelato Messina's expanding universe, which now
includes stores in Pyrmont and Surry Hills and, soon, Bondi and, yes, China!
We wonder how Elvis The Fat Years will translate.

Thanks to Alex Watts for his ace production work on this podcast and to FBi
studio for lending us use of its sweet studio. You can follow Gelato Messina
on Facebook (Gelatomessina) or Twitter (@Gelato_Messina)

Jack Hanna knows his coffee. He has been awarded national roasting competition and won the world latte art competition. He's also one of the people behind The Grounds, the many-things-in-one cafe that opened in Alexandria earlier this year. He talks about the coffee-related adventures he gets up to in the “research facility” at The Grounds, his feelings about coffee snobs, and what latte art he's gotten away with "drawing" (you'd be surprised). Oh and there was the time he fitted out a vintage coffee machine like a hot rod, too. He also covers his favourite places to drink in Sydney (and guess what, they're not cafes).

Thanks to Alex Watts for producing this podcast and making it sound slick and also FBi radio for lending us sweet use of its studio.

You can follow The Grounds on Twitter at @groundsroasters.

Myffy Rigby's pathway towards being Chief Food and Drink Critic at Time Out
Sydney magazine was  not so obvious: she grew up as a vegetarian, dropped out
of school early and soon found herself producing kilos of batter a day for
Pancake At The Rocks. It took her a long while (and a few career detours) to
figure out that she wanted to be writing about food.

As someone who covers the most noteworthy places to drink and dine in this
city, Myffy talks about the upsides and downsides of being a food critic
(yes, there are downsides) and the most memorable meals she's had – the ones
at the greatest restaurants in the world and also one experience so violently
stomach-churning that it gives her a little post-traumatic stress disorder
just thinking about it. Myffy also discusses the Time Out Food Awards, the
Bar Awards, the secret identities she assumes when out reviewing and also her
favourite places to eat and enjoy a glass in Sydney (the ones she can talk
about, anyway).

Thanks to the excellent (and superhumanly patient) Alex Watts for producing
this podcast and FBi radio for lending us the studio space.

You can follow Myffy Rigby on Twitter <@myffyrigby> or pick up Time Out
Sydney every month from newstands.

Japanese cuisine and Australian bush tucker don't usually go together, but chef Josh Nicholls made this culinary mash-up his signature at Cafe Ish, the popular Surry Hills eatery he opened with his wife, Ai, in 2007. It later morphed into an izakaya and, recently, has transformed into The Milk Bar by Cafe Ish in Redfern, with its menu of $5 burgers, Malteser pies and killer shakes (think Miso Caramel or Rosewater, Berry and Rosella).

Josh chats about his accidental career as a chef (mainly inspired by chasing 'the girl'), how he once got headbutted by an apprentice in the kitchen, the renewal of Redfern, the keys to a good burger, the cheat's guide to native ingredients and his favourite dining spots around Sydney. Oh, and whale bacon gets a mention, too.

Thanks to the wonderful Alex Watts for producing this episode and the just-as-ace FBi radio for lending us its studios.

Josh on Twitter: @Milkbar_CafeIsh
Ai on Twitter: @torandkinpira

In the first episode of the Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry, Lee Tran Lam catches up with David Ralph, a chef who has worked at diner-impressing restaurants in Sydney (Quay, Flying Fish and Sails at Lavendar Bay) and London (Michelin-starred La Noisette and Kensington Place).

David's an expert at placating anyone with a sweet tooth as he currently runs Kakawa, the best chocolatier in Sydney with his partner Jin. He chats about his kitchen war stories (he once had to break up a fight between two chefs), what the staff meals at flash restaurants are like (the better the restaurant, the worse they are!), dealing with the day-to-day temptation of working with chocolate and shares his favourite places to dine in Sydney.

As always, thanks to FBi for letting us record in its wonderful studios. And thanks to Alex Watts for his excellent production work.

Sweet and sour cane-toad legs. Multiple cat recipes. A deadly cocktail you're not meant to serve. These are some of the fascinating (and deliberately provocative) things you'll find in Eat The Problem, the 544-page book by American artist and curator Kirsha Kaechele. It's part cookbook and art project, with an impressive list of collaborators (including chefs Dominique Crenn, Peter Gilmore, Christine Manfield and Enrique Olvera) and pages that are filled with creative ways of dealing with invasive species (pig's eyeball margaritas or starfish-on-a-stick, anyone?).

Eat The Problem is also the inspiration behind an exhibition of the same name at MONA, Hobart (running until September 2) and a guest dinner series happening on August 6 at Melbourne's Vue de Monde, Byron Bay's Harvest on August 7 and Brisbane's Urbane on August 8.

Kirsha is the perfect candidate for imaginatively addressing pests, given that she grew up on Guam, which was overrun with brown snakes – the "rock star of invasive species". They even landed coverage in The New York Times and inspired WTF solutions (paracetamol-laced mice were dropped from parachutes to deal with the snake problem).

Also, her wedding dress was made out of invasive deer, she carries a cane toad purse and thinks we should make candles using fat from culled animals. Thinking sustainably comes naturally to her and it was her plan to hold a zero-waste food market at MONA in 2013 that helped kickstart the Eat The Problem project.

Kirsha is fascinating to talk to and she approaches the issue of sustainability like no one else – instead of being overly serious and dour, she addresses environmental issues with plenty of invention and an unmissably bright palette (the feasts that launched the Eat The Problem exhibition, after all, took place on the world's biggest rainbow-coloured glockenspiel). Even her cutlery designs, which force people to share their food or feed someone across the table, are meant to provoke conversation and social interactions.

She also talks about her 24 Carrot Gardens Project and her favourite places to eat and drink in Hobart (and Sydney, too).

Eating near a nuclear submarine base on a Chinese island and dining with Tamil tea pickers in Sri Lanka – these are some of the memorable meals that Ardyn Bernoth and Roslyn Grundy have experienced over the years. Given their many years covering food (Ardyn is currently the national editor of Good Food, Ros is the deputy print editor of Good Food – and both have senior roles on the Good Food Guide), it's not surprising that they've eaten far and wide. What is surprising is how restaurant life is something they both experienced very early on – when their families entered the hospitality world.

Ardyn and Ros also talk about their reviewing disasters, the lengths you have to go to ensure your restaurant coverage is accurate ("stealing copies of menus is something I've done many times, I'm ashamed to admit") and some of their career highlights – like interviewing your heroes (Yotam Ottolenghi, "number one cookbook writer in the world"), your story landing on the front page of the newspaper and covering fascinating people like Icebergs Dining Room and Bar restaurateur Maurice Terzini ("his energy is 10 people rolled up into one frenetic bundle").

And of course, given their role as national restaurant reviewers, they share some of their favourite places to eat around Australia (Ester, Africola and Lee Ho Fook are some of their picks).

Tokyo isn't the most obvious place to seek out pizza, but the wood-fired slices here are better than anything you'd find in Italy. That's what chef Luke Burgess believes – and it's a case he makes in Only In Tokyo, the new book he's co-authored with fellow chef (and Japan-o-phile) Michael Ryan. In the podcast, we really nerd out about Tokyo's best pizza spots (from the life-changing Savoy to new favourite Pizza Studio Tamaki, both photographed by Luke for the book).

We also talk about the book's other Tokyo highlights (from the city's best egg sandwich to a truly next-level kaiseki restaurant), as well as discoveries that aren't documented within its pages – from a four-seater noodle joint hidden behind a pastry shop to a Norwegian-inspired bakery in a traditional part of Tokyo. (The Japan talk begins at the 16:29 mark.)

We retrace Luke's fascinating career path, too: from his start at Tetsuya's, his time at Noma (where he bumped into Ben Greeno) and the launch of his memorable restaurant, Garagistes – along with the opening of MONA, it helped usher in a new wave of interest in Hobart. He talks about how he ended up buying $17,000 worth of lamb for the restaurant and why he closed Garagistes (despite being awarded Best New Talent by Gourmet Traveller). Outside of his guest chef appearances (he recently turned The Dolphin into a falafel joint), he's currently working on a Tasmanian farm – so he has good recommendations for dining in Hobart and beyond (to add to his extensive Tokyo-visiting suggestions)!

PS Shout-out to Trisha Greentree and the crew at 10 William St for letting us record this podcast upstairs at their ace wine bar.
PPS If you're keen for a signed, personalised copy of Only In Tokyo, check out Luke's online shop.

You don't need a roof or floor to run a great restaurant – that's what Hugh Allen learnt while working at Noma's Mexico pop-up.

And yes, there were issues. "If it rained, the guests had to come sit in the kitchen," he says. Simple things, like boiling water, became a mission that could take hours. And yet, this ended up being one of the best working experiences of his life.

The chef's three years with Noma also spanned its Sydney residency and its recent relocation in Copenhagen. I met Hugh last year, after saving up to eat at Noma, and I witnessed him parading the  famous celeriac shawarma. It turns out there's a secret back-story to this Instagram-winning dish (#shawarmagate) and we find out about the status of the "show shawarma".

After his time at Noma, he's returned to Australia to become Vue de Monde's current executive chef. For the menu, he's experimented with wattleseed Tim Tams, billy-tea traditions and classic memories of the Aussie milk bar. He's not allowed, though, to mess with the soufflé – it's been a Vue de Monde staple for 19 years. (He does sing to it, though.)

Hugh has come a long way since working at Rockpool Bar & Grill at age 15 (and later winning the Gault Millau's Potentialist of the Year award, which led to him spending quality time in France's Champagne region).

We also talk about his highlights from working at Noma and Vue de Monde and he also shares his favourite places to eat in Copenhagen and Melbourne.

Imagine being a 16-year-old working in a Western Australian gold mine. This was Mark Best's life, straight after high school. It was a tough way to earn money as an electrician, so he eventually left. "I arrived in Sydney and found myself unqualified for above-ground work."

He ended up even deeper underground, claustrophobic and covered in fibreglass and varnish, trying to install battery packs on submarines at Cockatoo Island. "I literally will die if I don't do something with my life," he told himself.

So he decided to cook professionally.

Not long after this career path detour, he won the Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year award. In 1999, he opened Marque, where he maintained three chef's hats for 10 consecutive years and was honoured with a Breakthrough Award by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. By the time of Marque's final dinner in 2016, many impressive people had worked in Mark's kitchen: Isaac McHale (now running The Clove Club in London) and Mette Søberg (current research chef at Copenhagen's Noma) spent formative periods there. Of the talented locals (Victor Liong, Daniel Pepperell, Brent Savage, Adam Wolfers, Pasi Petanen, Hanz Gueco, to name a few), three would win the Young Chef of the Year award: Dan Hong, Daniel Puskas and Lauren Eldridge.

We talk about "The Pesto Years" of the 1990s, how travelling throughout France inspired Marque's beginning, the history of his calamari risotto dish, trying times in the kitchen ("I may have held a sausage to someone's head"), the memorable last dinner at Marque and why he chose to close the restaurant.

We also cover: his current role as a World Restaurant Awards judge, what it's like developing menus for cruiseships (which he does for his Bistro by Mark Best business) and his appearance on The Final Table, Netflix's cooking contest. After getting hate mail from doctors while on Masterchef, he decided to take a different onscreen approach on The Final Table (SPOILER WARNING: we talk about that show's ending, from 53:15 to 58:12 on the podcast). It was also surreal to discover his fellow competitors owned his cookbooks. (Turns out he's quite qualified for above-ground work after all.)

Tim Watkins' parents needed a cooking course to learn how to use a microwave (which led to one Christmas turkey disaster) and he didn't eat broccoli or cauliflower until he was an adult.

So life in the restaurant world might not have been the most obvious career path. After a few detours (including a stint as a shoe salesman), he ended up serving diners at acclaimed restaurants such as Pilu at Freshwater. He got a reputation for singing "Happy Birthday" in Italian to guests and he would go on to win Sommelier of the Year in the Good Food Guide for his work at Automata.

We recorded this interview just before he started his new role at Black Market Sake (although we did use this as a good excuse to talk about breweries in Japan) and we also chat about the time he impersonated a Canadian Olympic athlete, went on a TV game show and witnessed quite a few forgeries. Oh and of course, we had to talk about that anti-organic-wines hashtag and his impressive collection of shorts.

Would you line up at two AM in zero-degree weather, just for a croissant? People would regularly do that all the time, purely for the chance to try Kate Reid's pastries. The New York Times, after all, said her croissants are "the finest you will find anywhere in the world, and alone worth a trip across the dateline". Other fans include René Redzepi, Nigella Lawson and Helen Goh.

Originally, Kate spent over a decade pursuing her dream job of being an aerospace engineer for Formula One car racing. She was the only woman in her role (and in fact, there wasn't even a female toilet where she worked). But when her career aspirations crumbled, and her life in London proved hugely isolating, Kate took solace in obsessive weight loss. Her eating disorder left her dangerously ill – she was six weeks away from dying – but her recovery was a key part of her starting Lune Croissanterie in Melbourne. It was inspired by a pivotal (and entirely impromptu) visit she made to Du Pain et des Idées in Paris. After a stint at the boulangerie, Kate started selling her own croissants from a tiny space in Elwood. The blockbuster reaction was incredible (people would arrive hours before opening, with movies on their iPad to pass the time), and has since led to Lune Croissanterie opening in Fitzroy and the CBD.

Even the French newspaper Le Monde has given Kate's croissants an endorsement. But she is as upfront about the lows of her career as well as the big-time highlights. I really loved talking to Kate: she's so engaging, friendly and very honest. Catch Kate being interviewed by The New York Times food editor Sam Sifton, about The Power of Obsession for Melbourne Food and Wine Festival on March 9.

Daniel Puskas started his career slicing tomatoes, but eventually ended up in the kitchen of Alinea, the acclaimed Chicago restaurant known for turning mozzarella curds into balloons filled with tomato foam. His experience there was part of his Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year prize.

It's one of many honours he's earned throughout his career: he was also named the Citi Chef of the Year in 2018's Good Food Guide, and Sixpenny is one of only three Sydney restaurants that's achieved three chef hats in the latest guide. You currently have to book two months ahead to get a table at Sixpenny. And it's worth the wait (Bar Ume's Kerby Craig cried when he last ate there).

Dan worked at some all-star kitchens early in his career (at Tetsuya's, alongside Shannon Debreceny, Darren Robertson and Phil Wood; at Marque with Mark Best, Pasi Petanen, Karl Firla and Daniel Pepperell), before becoming head chef of Oscillate Wildly at age 23: he'd arrive to work on his skateboard and play Mario Kart with chef Mike Eggert before service started.

At Oscillate Wildly, he met James Parry (another Young Chef of the Year winner), and they took Bob, their sourdough starter from the restaurant, and opened Sixpenny together in 2012. The menu is truly inspired, even down to its bread (including the 'recycled' loaf transformed with spent coffee grounds and golden syrup), and features fascinating ingredients (from emu eggs to anise hyssop). Sixpenny's current sommelier Bridget Raffal is aiming for gender equality on her wine list.


Dan is really open about the restaurant's ups and downs (from the time he sat on a champagne glass, because he was shocked Sixpenny hadn't scored two hats – to its recent ascension to three-hat status). He also shares some very funny stories from the many acclaimed restaurants he's worked in – he was truly great to talk to.

"I literally got here and the first two weeks, everybody quit." Despite this challenging start to becoming Momofuku Seiobo's executive chef, Paul Carmichael has since scored many awards (both Gourmet Traveller and Time Out named him Chef of the Year) and he's been called one of the world's greatest chefs by his boss, David Chang. The restaurant has received two glowing reviews in The New York Times and been ranked as one of the best places to eat in the world by Besha Rodell in Food & Wine.

Paul isn't about basking in the acclaim, though. "You've got to become comfortable with failing," Paul says. "We'd make something, it'd be shit." Then, after a lot of work, it becomes great.

At Momofuku Seiobo, he's created a one-of-a-kind menu that reflects his upbringing in Barbados. The food is also a way to represent the Caribbean, which people often reduce to holiday-spot stereotypes. "I feel like the way they talk about it, they talk about it like a club," he says. For Paul, it's his life – not a gimmicky theme – so throughout the podcast, we talk about dishes from the region: like coucou, which his mother makes with a special stick that's older than Paul; and roti that originated in India and ended up in Trinidad – which he grew up eating as a kid. A lot of these dishes have travelled.

"It had an origin somewhere, but this is where it ended up being," he says, "The Caribbean is 500 years of fusion. Maybe that should be the name of my book." Migration and colonisation also shaped the cuisine – as did slavery, which isn't as far into the past as we'd like to think.

The chef doesn't want to "elevate" dishes that have generations of history, but also show that you can present a dish that's rice and vegetables and prove how it can belong in one of the city's top restaurants. "It looks like a pile of goop - but there's so much that goes into it," he says.

Paul also talks about how people still turn up to Seiobo thinking it's a Japanese restaurant (five years after Paul introduced his Caribbean menu), how he lived off supermarket specials while Seiobo was closed during the lockdown, using "mum tricks" to stretch Seiobo's budget in its current COVID-adapted incarnation (where staff also wear face masks in the colours of the Barbados flag). We also talk about his favourite budget meal, what to order at his favourite Chinese restaurant – as well as tougher topics: like having to deal with blatant racism and the cops pulling a gun on him just for asking for directions. We also cover the media pressure of taking over a highly acclaimed restaurant, too.

This podcast was recorded last year, but is especially relevant now with Momofuku Seiobo announcing its last service for late June. I loved talking to Paul on this episode, I hope you enjoy this podcast, too.

Support me on Patreon (from $1.50 a week) and you'll get a bonus member-only Crunch Time podcast - where I round up the latest food news and also talk about what I'm eating, reading and writing (with bonus details on projects I've worked on – from podcast interviews to food stories): https://www.patreon.com/leetranlam.

How to make cider from 300-year-old pear trees, what it's like to work alongside Dan Barber at one of the world's best restaurants and how it feels scoring Gourmet Traveller's Sommelier of the Year award – Caitlyn Rees can give you a first-hand account of all of these standout experiences.

When she was at Fred's in Sydney (where she served fascinating wines from the Adelaide Hills to Armenia), she was singled out by Gourmet Traveller as Australia's best sommelier in the magazine's 2018 restaurant guide.

And because she won Melbourne Food and Wine Festival's Hostplus Hospitality Scholarship, she ended up doing time at three places on her worldwide wish list: Relae in Copenhagen (a Michelin-starred restaurant that upended her expectations about how chefs and wait staff should work together), Dan Barber's Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York (her behind-the-scenes stories about this acclaimed restaurant are truly amazing) and helping Eric Bordelet in Normandy, the ex-Arpège sommelier who collects fruit from centuries-old trees to make his famously great cider.

She also talks about the "rough red" that her grandfather made (and how it was her first encounter with booze), her time at Momofuku Seiobo (another wish-list job of hers), why she left Fred's (even though she loved working there) and what she's currently doing at Cirrus. Plus, a tragic story about suitcase wines and we hear her list of favourite places to eat and drink in Sydney (including the restaurant where she's spent practically all of her birthdays).

A near-death experience in Australia plays a surprising role in the launch of Roberta's, the much-loved New York pizzeria. When Carlo Mirarchi almost drowned on the NSW coastline, it inspired him to rethink his career path – and galvanised him to help start Roberta's in Bushwick. In 2007, it opened with such a minimal set-up (there was no gas and staff had to boil water in the wood-fired oven), so the chef often prepped food at home before getting to the restaurant. Despite its lo-fi beginnings, Roberta's would end up ranked #6 on list of 20 Most Important Restaurants by Bon Appétit and Mirarchi himself was named Best New Chef by Food + Wine.

Roberta's would also inspire a frozen pizza range, an LA location and, when it was targeted by Pizzagate conspiracy theorists, its team responded in the best way possible: by launching a beer named Pizzagate.

Mirarchi also runs Blanca, an ambitious Michelin-starred restaurant that has been reviewed by Pete Wells twice. The chef talks about what it's like to be on the other side of a New York Times review, plus: where he's had the best pizza in the world ("it changed my life"), whether pineapple is a legit ingredient on pizza, and we cover the origin story behind his collaboration with Lennox Hastie for Firedoor's fantastic Fireside series last month. For this occasion, Mirarchi brought Roberta's to Sydney via the Fire & Slice pop-up event, which took place at Firedoor and involved the Gelato Messina crew helping out on tiramisu-making and other duties.

Also: shout-out to Lauren and Claire for listening to this podcast!

"You can't f--k with the matzo ball soup." That's what Adam Wolfers learnt from his grandmother. Etelek, his pop-up restaurant, is inspired by the chef's Eastern European background. It's a history that draws on memories of his grandmother tending to six pots on the stove at a time, as well as his grandfather Julius' time as a concentration camp survivor (an extraordinary tale that's been documented by Steven Spielberg).

Carrot schnitzel, scallop pretzel puffs and honey cake with wattleseed honeycomb are just a few of things you'll find at Etelek, which is running at Potts Point until New Year's Eve. It's named after the Hungarian word for food and the pop-up has previously travelled to Melbourne and Canberra, and featured locally at Ester, Casoni and The Dolphin, gaining a following for its parsnip schnitzel and amazing langos bread. Even the most anti-carb person will be converted by Adam's dishes, which has basically served as an atlas of bread from Yemen, Hungary, New York over the years. In fact, he uses a sourdough starter from his time at Monopole and made his name working in other Brent Savage restaurants, such as Bentley and Yellow (Adam helped turn Yellow into a vegetarian hatted restaurant, known for its eggplant steak and pickled kohlrabi and enoki).

Adam also talks about his previous life as a jetsetting European handball player (in fact, he had to get his hip replaced after a career-ending injury) and, given the brilliant "everything bagel" that was on his menu, he weighs in on the neverending New York vs Montreal bagel debate, too.

Plus, we chat about coming up through the ranks while mentored by Peter Doyle, Mark Best, Pasi Petanen and Brent Savage; his history with Bar Rochford's Louis Couttoupes, and whether Adam's langos bread is like Hungarian pizza.

Make sure to check out Etelek before it winds up its Potts Point pop-up on New Year's Eve and keep an eye out on Instagram to see what Adam and Marc Dempsey have planned for Etelek in 2019.

People actively smuggle Smith & Deli's food onto planes – that's how addictive the dishes are. Interstate regulars even bring their own Tupperware containers and cooler bags, so they can enjoy the food at home. That's the power of what Shannon Martinez, Mo Wyse and El Rosa are doing at the popular Melbourne vegan deli – which is the subject of their new book, Smith & Deli-cious: Food From Our Deli (That Happens to be Vegan).

They've reconnected people to dishes they thought they never could eat again, with clever and convincing replicas of meaty and dairy-heavy recipes. Shannon's plant-based take on smoked salmon  made Mo cry, in fact, while El's inspired a hugely emotional response to her vegan pastries, too.

We chat about the romantic-comedy-like origins of Mo and Shannon's first meeting, what led to them opening their first vegan business (Smith & Daughters, which also attracts long queues and dedicated fans), Shannon's surprising appearance at a cheese festival ("I was definitely the token weirdo there") and her successful experiments with vegan Roquefort, the legal action that followed her popular vegan tribute to Sizzler and why it's important to make vegan food legitimately stinky.

PS You need to try the vegan cacio e pepe at Smith & Daughters, which is truly amazing. And don't forget to pick up their new publication (or the previous Smith & Daughters cookbook, too).

Jowett Yu was working at Tetsuya's – then in the Top 5 of the World's 50 Best Restaurants – but couldn't even afford a bed. It was a wild time (just listen to the memorable "pep talk" that head chef Martin Benn gave when the restaurant reached #4 on the list) and the kitchen was full of upcoming stars: Daniel Puskas (Sixpenny), Clayton Wells (Automata), Phil Wood (Laura), Luke Powell (LP's Quality Meats) and Dan Hong – who Jowett bonded with, because they basically had the same haircut and similar cultural backgrounds.

Together, Dan and Jowett would go on to open Lotus, Ms.G's and Mr Wong together. At Lotus, there was the momentous night they launched David Chang's Momofuku book (and cooked for both Chang and Alex Atala), Ms.G's involved a memorable American research trip (where Jowett ate something that resulted in the "best 30 seconds of my life") and Mr Wong, which was an "intense" experience where he'd finish work at 3am and clock in again at 9am. 

Jowett then opened Ho Lee Fook in Hong Kong (an experience that earnt him a "lecture" from his mum and a major grilling when he put her dumplings on the menu – but even she ended up a fan of the restaurant). Here, the chef has experimented with fascinating vegetarian dishes, like typhoon shelter corn and celeriac char siu. More recently, he's launched Canton Disco in Shanghai.

Jowett also talks about growing up in Taiwan (and his visits to his totally boss grandmother's farm: she could look at an egg and tell when it would hatch – and be totally right) and his love of Hong Kong's Belon (he compares chef Daniel Calvert's cooking to the rise of Beatlemania).

When you consider that Jowett ended up in the kitchen as a 14-year-old because he essentially didn't want to be a dishwasher (and he made the smart move avoiding a career in journalism, too!), there's no doubt that he's had a fascinating career.

$10,099 – that's how much someone is asking for their copy of Christine Manfield's Tasting India cookbook on Amazon. Sure, India Today called it the book to give native newlywed couples once they head overseas, so it's a prized publication – but luckily, the new updated version of the award-winning book is much more budget-friendly (and includes new chapters on Hyderabad, Punjab and Gujarat, too).

While Christine Manfield is known as the acclaimed chef behind restaurants such as Paramount, East@West and Universal, we spend a lot of this podcast talking about her travels to India – a country that she's constantly visited for more than two decades. She has vivid stories of spice markets (and mountains that are literally fragrant with cardamom being grown) and the home cooks she's met, whose  dishes she documents in her cookbook. Plus, we cover the regional (and religious) differences that shape the food on the plate. And what you have for an Indian breakfast (it is way better than toast and cereal).

It was also great to talk to Christine about gender representation in the industry (particularly after she was a judge in the S.Pellegrino Young Chef competition last year and was quoted in the Herald as saying: "Where the f--- are the women?"). And I loved hearing about how Christine is still recognised on the streets of India because her Gaytime Goes Nuts dessert appeared in the finale of Masterchef Australia in 2012. (The dish is not only delicious, it's also a statement in support of the gay community, too.)

You have a rare chance to eat Christine's food again because she's running Tasting India dinners across Australia in November, at much-loved restaurants such as The Agrarian Kitchen outside Hobart, Anchovy in Melbourne and Lankan Filling Station in Sydney. For details, visit Christine Manfield's website.

"The most interesting place in Europe to eat" – that's how Noma's René Redzepi described Bo Bech's first restaurant, Paustian. The Copenhagen venue was located in the last building Jørn Utzon ever designed – and the Sydney Opera House architect was one of Bech's regular diners. (You need to hear the story behind the dish that Bech created for Utzon, which the chef talks about near the end of the podcast.)

"When I stepped into the kitchen at the age of 24, my world flipped." Bech became a chef at a relatively late age – enduring terrible food during a peacekeeping mission inspired him to improve on what was available. To convince a bank manager to loan him the money to launch Paustian, he had to revert to some pretty unusual means (it did involve food, though).

Paustian is the focus of Bech's first self-published book, What Does Memory Taste Like (which features a signature avocado dish that gets 80-something pages of coverage). His second restaurant, Geist, is more accessible in style – the type of place that Bech would want to be a frequent customer. It's covered in In My Blood, his new book, which is like an autobiography of the restaurant. It features architect's drawings and furniture sketches among the 100 recipes. It also covers rage and other inspirations behind his food (like his lifelong battles against endives and salmon).

We also chat about his recent dinner collaboration with Lennox Hastie and his favourite places to eat in Copenhagen.

You can find In My Blood at chefbobech.com.

"It was probably the singular worst experience of my life, because Noodle Bar will kick your ass." Sure, Su Wong Ruiz's first go at working for David Chang's Momofuku restaurant empire wasn't exactly a success. ("My ass was completely flattened by that experience," she says.) But over time, she became part of the acclaimed, three-hat-earning launch team for his Momofuku Seiobo restaurant in Sydney (Chang claimed this was his first venue "where the front of house is equal to, if not better than, the kitchen team"). Then Su went on to work for Momofuku's Ma Peche (where she met future Seiobo chef, Paul Carmichael) and Momofuku Ko, which has been called Chang's most ambitious restaurant.

"Dave is a very particular type of coach and tormentor – he's really good at it," jokes Su. So it was fascinating to hear her talk about the unexpected challenges and standards set by the influential chef, as well as her strong working relationships with Ben Greeno (Seiobo's first head chef) and Sean Gray, who rules the kitchen at Momofuku Ko. I also enjoyed hearing how ultra-creative Sean's dishes are – like the cold fried chicken, for instance, and how things went down at their recent collaboration at Melbourne's Marion bar. Plus, Su's insights on delivering good restaurant service – and dealing with trolls – are really fascinating. It's especially interesting because her career started on the other side of the pass: when she "conned" her way into a job as a cook while visiting New Mexico.

She also shares her favourite places to eat and drink in Sydney and New York.

They've worked in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Croatia, Greece, Bali and the Carribean. At one point, Ross had a job in Singapore while Sunny was in Chicago – and somehow, they ended up commuting and making it work. The couple were drawn back to Australia, though, because Ross had his eye on a restaurant location in Sydney: it had been his dream venue for 10 years. And once the site became available, the pair turned it into The Bridge Room (despite a floor that literally exploded and some awkward $50,000 phone calls to ensure the interiors met heritage restrictions).

Previously, Ross worked for Neil Perry – and, after an injury that kept Ross out of the kitchen, the chef ended up overseeing Neil Perry's airplane meal range for Qantas; he even got to test the food in an airplane simulator.

Ross and Sunny have many great tales about their travels abroad: from changing people's lives with Thai food in Croatia, visiting Noma in its early days and discovering surprising uses for popcorn in Bhutan. They also reveal the back story to launching The Bridge Room, which is currently one of the country's most well-regarded restaurants.

Kylie Javier Ashton has dealt with forged bookings and martini glass accidents; she's disguised Alex Atala with garbage bags, and endured countless people throwing up when she's been on the job ("you could see the frequency of the voms go up when the scampi dish was on" is one of the most memorable lines from this interview). Having survived all that, it's clear that she still loves her work and wants people to join the industry (as her involvement in Women In Hospitality, Appetite For Excellence and Grow shows).

Kylie Javier Ashton got her start at Tetsuya's, when it was ranked in the Top 5 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list. She's since become the award-winning restaurant manager at Momofuku Seiobo, which has been twice-named the best restaurant in Australia by Gourmet Traveller. Not a bad place for her to be, considering she didn't "even know how to carry plates" when she entered the industry.

Kylie has many amazing stories to tell, and covers it all, from what it's like to actually work with David Chang, the background to Paul Carmichael's food at Seiobo and why she asks her staff to give presentations on Caribbean culture, and the reality of your restaurant being in two pieces in The New York Times: one by Pete Wells, the other by Besha Rodell.

Plus: that memorable period running Duke Bistro with Mitch Orr, Thomas Lim and Mike Eggert (which followed her spell at Bentley Restaurant & Bar with Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt – the "hardest" place she worked). And let's not forget the time she also boxed in Cuba.

I LOVED talking to Kylie for this interview and she drops some of the best lines I've heard (it's worth listening to this episode so you can discover why "I've just been out on Oxford Street with an eyepatch" and "I didn't realise I was Wolverine for so long" are two of the greatest things anyone has ever said on this podcast)!

Reporting from murder scenes and interviewing Lorde live at the Grammys – that's what Joanna Hunkin did before she became editor at Gourmet Traveller. Enduring these high-pressure situations meant she wasn't too shaken by her first year at the magazine – which has been incredibly eventful and challenging, and involved her relocating from Auckland to take up the role.

On her very first day on the job, at the Restaurant Awards at Bennelong last year, she was handing out honours to chefs Ben Shewry and Kylie Kwong. Then, as the pandemic hit, she found herself having to produce a magazine under lockdown – a tricky feat, given that photo shoots, recipe testing and other group activities are key to  Gourmet Traveller's coverage. Her team used some leftfield ideas to complete cover shoots and other editorial work while socially distancing!

We talk about some of the most memorable stories that have run in the magazine in the past year as well as relevant topics such as "authenticity" in food and how chefs feel about dealing with dietary requirements (from diners who claim they can't consume anything "shiny" or beginning with the letter 'A' to legit allergies to gluten and wheat – I wrote about this for the October issue of Gourmet Traveller).

We also cover her early days in Hong Kong (where her mother fed her microwave bacon!) as well as Joanna's return to the city later in life, where she dined at secret restaurants hidden inside Hong Kong's high-density apartments.

Joanna also chats about her top three Australian restaurant experiences of the past year, as well as her favourite dining spots in Auckland.

If you'd like to support me on Patreon, head to patreon.com/leetranlam. From $1.50 a week, you'll get access to my weekly podcast and newsletter, where I cover all the good things I'm consuming: the best food stories I've read, food podcasts I've listened to, what I've been eating and I also dive into what I've been working on.

Turning unwanted coconuts into 2000 curries, 10 tonnes of donated squash into soup, leftover egg yolks from 16,000 Black Star Pastry watermelon-strawberry cakes into banana curd and working out what to do with 800 kilograms of airplane food picked up from the domestic airport gate – these are just some of the things that Travis Harvey handles as executive chef of a food-rescue charity.

Working at OzHarvest means he's had to be pretty creative: for instance, he takes the most wasted ingredient in Australia – bread – and transforms it into dishes like fried Lazarus bread or ramen noodles at OzHarvest's pop-up cafe at Gratia in Surry Hills. He's also encountered other inventive ways of saving waste, like Josh Niland's attempt to incorporate cobia fat and fish scales into a chocolate bar dessert. Harvey has also collaborated with high-profile talent, like Massimo Bottura and even Cookie Monster. Through initiatives like the CEO Cook-off and OzHarvest food truck, he's helped the charity send 90 million meals to people in need over its 14-year history.

Prior to his time at OzHarvest, he contributed to a stove-building project in Guatemala and endured Canberra restaurants that felt like episodes of Survivor. He even worked in kitchens that practise the very opposite of what he does today: extracting collagen from chicken wings, only to throw the wings out afterwards.

It was fascinating chatting to Travis – and make sure you check out his work at the OzHarvest Cafe pop-up, which is running at Gratia in Surry Hills until September.
 

Joe Beddia makes "America's best pizza", according to Bon Appétit magazine. The chef/owner of Philadelphia's Pizzeria Beddia has also been referred to as Pizza Jesus and the Jiro of Pizza. He shrugs off what he does as "just pizza", but people would line up many hours (sometimes even arriving before Joe got to work!) just to try his pies. He only made 40 pizzas a night – and he produced each one from scratch over the restaurant's five-year run.

Joe is currently on a world tour that he hopes doesn't make people hate him – he's been to France, Italy, eaten at Noma, and he's currently in Sydney to do a week-long pop-up at Bondi Beach Public Bar. So locals can find out whether his work can be downgraded to "just pizza". Given that sommelier James Hird (who helped tee up the pop-up) describes eating at Pizzeria Beddia as one of his favourite ever food memories, you won't want to miss Joe's Australian-inspired versions of his pies while he's here.

Joe also talks about life-changing pizza experiences in Tokyo, how he ended up spending his 40th birthday with comedian Eric Wareheim and how he essentially produced his Pizza Camp cookbook using his home oven. Oh and he also memorably recaps the time he attempted a stunt with a blindfold, razor, shaving cream and no pants in the hopes of winning a trip to the Playboy Mansion and $10,000.

You can check out Joe's Sydney pop-up (from July 22 to July 28, 6pm until late at the Bondi Beach Public Bar) before he opens Pizzeria Beddia 2.0 in Philadelphia at the end of the year.

It's not surprising that Sharon Salloum would pursue a career in food – her dad has a thing for DIY cooking devices and even pioneered a shopping trolley/fridge shelf/lawnmower barbecue. Her mother and grandmother taught her the power of food around the family table, and their recipes inspired her Almond Bar cookbook – which landed her two international Gourmand Cookbook awards. Just hearing Sharon talk about Syrian dishes is the very opposite of a hunger suppressant; it will make you want to order her food immediately.

But Sharon actually decided to work in healthcare before teaming up with her sister Carol to open Almond Bar in Darlinghurst and their newish cafe 3 Tomatoes in Ashbury. Her ingredients are grounded in local postcodes – vine leaves cut from her parents' yard, fresh za'atar from an uncle's home, or visits to a Western Sydney grocer who sells home-made shanklish from neighbours or excess produce from their suburban gardens. 

And given that Sharon has has strong memories of riding donkeys in her father's Syrian homeland (and eating some extraordinary breakfasts in the country), it's obvious why she has gone out of her way to find hospitality work and opportunities for refugees from the region. She's also taking part in the big Cook For Syria fundraising dinner happening on June 18 at Three Blue Ducks in Rosebery, in aid of UNICEF Australia's Syria Crisis Appeal for Children, and you can find her sfouf recipe in the upcoming Bake For Syria cookbook. To more about Cook For Syria and how you can participate, visit cookforsyria.com.

Samin Nosrat has written one of the most-talked-about and celebrated cookbooks of the last year, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Her trophy shelf includes a James Beard Award for General Cooking and the Julia Child First Book Award. It's an amazing effort for an "uncookbook" that she's spent 15 years working on.

While in college, she saved for seven months to eat at Chez Panisse, the Californian farm-to-table restaurant run by Alice Waters – this life-changing meal convinced Nosrat that she needed to work there. And although she started with entry-level duties, such as cleaning the restaurant, she was very excited just to be on staff: "I can't believe they're letting me vacuum the floors at Chez Panisse!"

Nosrat has brilliant stories about cooking at the restaurant (the numbers on the dials had worn off the ovens, so you had to wave your arms in front of them to work out the temperature), as well as visiting the oldest pickle shop in China and meeting an eighth-generation butcher in Chianti, Italy. She's also taught Michael Pollan how to cook (and dumpster-dived baguettes with him) and writes The New York Times "Eat" column, where Nosrat has confessed to being a bread hoarder and shared a recipe for a breakfast soufflé (aka soufflazy).

Nosrat is delightful to talk to and it's worth listening just to hear her description of the feasts you enjoy at Iranian New Year and the green unripe plums that her mum snacked on while they were growing up.

The first restaurant Eve Yeung ever worked at was Noma - yes, the Copenhagen establishment named the World's Best Restaurant four times. So how did she end up in René Redzepi's renowned kitchen at the age of 18?

The young pastry chef actually considered becoming a competitive hockey player (a path she pursued while working at Noma) and before she was preparing desserts in the high-profile restaurant, she worked at Long Island's best bakery – making extravagant cakes to celebrate people's milestones: one staggering creation, to commemorate someone's law degree, featured a legal book of torts and judge's gavel; she's also produced cakes featuring a shark jumping out of the water as well as an '80s tribute that showed a Rubik's cube on top of a 3D Pacman game.

And yes, she's even fielded weird requests for wedding cakes (luckily, her family-friendly bakery had a policy about not making "crazy nudity cakes"), so she didn't have to bake anything that was too out there.

It was a contrast to her time at Noma, where she would go foraging for ants in the Danish landscape or end up painstakingly cleaning reindeer moss for the restaurant's menu. She also got to push her desserts in imaginative directions (listen to the description of the dazzling ice cream sandwich she presented to Noma staff) and got to travel to Sydney for the Noma Australia pop-up. She also end up with many standout experiences while working at Noma Mexico, too, (from learning to cook regional specialties with locals to the time she was stuck in a cool room with a torchlight on her head to finish a granita dish for the menu).

Eve has some pretty exciting news she'll announce later this year – keep updated via her Instagram account. In the meantime, enjoy hearing about her experiences working in memorable kitchens across the world.

They're two of the dining capitals of the world and they're explored (and beautifully photographed) by Alexandra Carroll in her books, New York: An Inspired Wander Through Manhattan and the Brooklyn Boroughs and Paris: An Inspired Wander Through the City of Lights.

So it's no surprise that we talk about memorable bagels and croissants, the fact that Alex had to eat a lot of cheese to get the job done, as well as remarkable venues that are not Michelin-starred institutions – from Clown Bar, with its surprising history, to Dans Le Noir, a restaurant staffed by blind people that serves people completely in the dark. Then there's the New York trend for drinking broth like coffee!

Alex also shares some of the easy-to-overlook gems in both cities (including a museum located in an elevator shaft in Tribeca) and how she went about producing both books.

We also talk about how she was my first editor (as Alex Craig) and how she effectively bankrolled my first trip to Paris, as I bought an airfare to the French capital as her employee.

And we touch on her incredible record as a book publisher – she was involved in the launch of Hannah Kent's bestselling book, Burial Rites, which is going to be turned into a movie featuring Jennifer Lawrence.

At age 11, Jock Zonfrillo started working in restaurants - initially, as a dishwasher.

Good Food Guide editor Myffy Rigby, Chat Thai and Boon Cafe co-director Palisa Anderson and an actual legit winemaker, Trisha Nelson who runs Ajola in Lazio, Italy, joined me for a chat recorded live at the most recent Rootstock food and wine festival at Sydney's Carriageworks.

So, we talk about memorable experiences with booze, totally nerd out about agriculture (given that Trisha produces organic wine via a vineyard in Italy and Palisa runs the Boon Luck Farm in Byron Bay), how to deal with people who freak out when they encounter "natural wine", the best places to drink in Sydney (and beyond) and also the incredible stories that Myffy's written about for the Good Food print section in the Sydney Morning Herald (she recounts some of Lennox Hastie's near-death experiences in Europe, which are as flat-out dramatic as something out of a movie).

We also cover Trisha's surprising career path to becoming a winemaker, and how working alongside Rootstock co-founder Giorgio de Maria at Berta played a part in her making wine in Lazio.

You can read Myffy's writing at goodfood.com.au and the Good Food Guide, check out some of the wines we talked about at Chat Thai (in particular the Circular Quay branch) and find Trisha's wine at 10 William Street and via Giorgio de Maria's online wine store, http://www.giorgiodemaria.com.

PS The wine we try during the podcast is Ajola's lovely Bianco Trilli 2016: it is a direct pressing of moscato left on the skins of procanico. Procanico is the local strain of trebbiano in that part of Lazio and it turns a lovely pink colour when it ripens.

PPS Thanks to the Rootstock crew for inviting us and to Emma Hutton at The Cru Media for her help with making this podcast possible.