COOKING THE BOOKS - From Inside the Food Industry

For the first episode of season 4 Robbie spoke with Matt Donnelly who has made the journey from chef to restaurant owner, to professional mushroom forager, organic tomato grower and producer of black garlic.

Matt travels 1000s of kms every season across Victoria and NSW, collecting some of the best mushrooms available to supply Melbourne’s restaurants.

Instagram: @mushroomsanon

This week Robbie sat down with one of this generation's great chef minds; Ben Shewry. With 3 Hats in the Good Food Guide and named 20th Best Restaurant in the world by San Pellegrino, there is no doubt that Attica is one of, if not the best restaurants in Australia right now.

But just as impressive as the accolades is his view on current social issues and his unwavering dedication to sustainability throughout his restaurant. From fish to chocolate, staff to suppliers, he is playing the long game. A true crusader.

Ben was featured on the first season of Chef's Table on Netflix - if you haven't seen it, it's a must-watch.

www.attica.com.au

Instagram: @benshewry, @atticamelbourne

This week Robbie spoke to another friend of his, Rob Chasteauneuf, the Executive Chef of Great Fosters; a beautiful hotel and this year’s winner of AA Hotel of the Year.

Great Fosters is a boutique-style hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant as well as a 2 AA Rosette Grill and a Conference and Banqueting Department for weddings and big groups.

Rob shares his views on the difference between the city-style restaurant and the more country-style retreat as well as discussing systems and strategies for managing a big operation.

Instagram:

@robc8619

@greatfosters

This week Robbie spoke to his good friend Chris and his personal trainer Ted. Chris has managed to lose over 35kg to date with hard work, focus and dedication. He got some bad news about a friend's mother, and Chris said to himself that it was time to make a change. From that time, he's been working to shift the weight. The results have been fantastic; not just in his appearance but in the mental aspect as well. Chris is feeling a lot clearer in his mind and a lot more positive in his outlook of the future.

Instagram:

@chris_eagle1

@tedwinterpt  

This week's a little different - this is some of the audio taken from a 'Charcuterie Master Class and Small Business' talk that Robbie was asked to do earlier this year. We hope that there are some people out there that will get some benefit from it and maybe it will help someone improve their business. 

www.instagram.com/robbiebell8/

www.city-larder.com

This week Robbie spoke to a good friend and mentor, Terry Laybourne. Terry has been in the hospitality industry for 40 years, owning many restaurants, a pub, hotel and now two restaurants with a retail offering.

Terry's restaurant 21 Queen Street was the first restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star in Newcastle, which he held for many years before handing it back to turn the space into a modern-style bistro under the name Cafe 21.

Terry has also been awarded MBE for his contribution to the industry.

This is hopefully the first of a couple of podcasts Robbie intends to do with Terry.

This week Robbie spoke to James, the owner of Flinders + Co. 

They talked all things meat, food industry and green energy. James was in his early 20s when he took over the family business. He talks about the wins, the losses and the lessons on the way.

Flinders + Co's focus is to cultivate a better food world; they're not sure how they're going to achieve it, but they're having a good crack at doing it.

This week Robbie spoke to Tom Milligan, President of the Australian Bocuse D'Or Team and Technical Director of Le Cordon Bleu school in melbourne.

Tom has been cooking all raound the world from restaurants to hotels, then on to function centres cooking for 1000s. 

Robbie spoke to Tom a few days after Tom had just got back from competing in France at the Bocuse D'Or.

This week Robbie spoke to Alice Zaslavsky about her new program 'Phenomenom'; a program for teachers to introduce vegetables to kids in the classroom through a series of short videos using fun kids and pro-athletes.

Being a former school teacher, Alice believes that introducing kids to vegetables at an early age hopefully will help them consumed more.

They also discuss her book, Alice's Food A-Z, her segment on ABC News Breakfast and her appearance as a contestant on Masterchef Australia.

You can find Alice on across social media @aliceinframes 

https://aliceinframes.com

http://phenomenom.com.au

Tom is really starting to get some momentum, being recognised as "One to Watch" in 2019. Tom has worked all round the world in places like London, New York and Sydney for chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Thomas Keller and Neil Perry. Tom and Robbie have been best mates for nearly 20 years and this podcast is two mates having some crack reminiscing about old times and going through Tom's career.