Dirty Linen - A Food Podcast with Dani Valent

Denise Hung is an international student, hospitality worker, yoga teacher and all-round amazing person. Dani met her through the Attica Soup Project - and if there's one thing we can say about the bastard COVID times, it's that it's let Dani meet a whole bunch of brilliant, inspiring people. Anyway, Denise reckons this time is a gift and she shares a meditative surprise with us in this episode. We hope you enjoy!

Ascot Food & Wine's Dave Stewart has been so anxious about steering his business through the pandemic that he called an ambulance one night thinking he was having a heart attack. We spoke on the day he was shutting his beloved neighbourhood business for a second time.

Hannah Green owns Etta Dining in Brunswick East, which borders locked-down Brunswick West. She believes in a warm welcome and the value of true hospitality. Etta reopened on June 18 in expectation of dining restrictions easing on June 22. Restrictions didn't ease, cases increased and her neighbours - many of them her beloved customers - are now locked down again. We talk about change, stress, safety, community, hope - and chickpeas.

This week on Dirty Linen, we're focusing on Melbourne's new partial lockdown and how it's affecting restaurants and workers within and around the hotspot postcodes. With a spike in COVID cases, the shutdown didn't exactly come as a surprise but it's destabilising, disappointing and draining nevertheless. How are people coping? What strategies and plans can help?

https://ettadining.com.au

https://www.instagram.com/etta_melbourne/?hl=en

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/deepintheweedspodcast

Follow Dani

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Deep In The Weeds on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/deepintheweedspodcast/

Eric Rivera owns Addo in Seattle, USA. He's a Puerto Rican in a white city, an ex-finance guy who lost everything and ended up training as a chef. He went on to cook at progressive restaurants including game-changing Alinea and applied his sharp analytical brain to the business and the creative possibilities of restaurants. Through the pandemic, the US mess and Black Lives Matter he's created new dining concepts weekly - and they're kind of crazy. He's the perfect person to round off our week of 'rethinking restaurants'.

Tim Mann is the man who killed brunch. His all-day cafe, bar and restaurant Grub in Melbourne's Fitzroy reopened after the shutdown without an egg or an avocado on the premises. He's used the pandemic as an opportunity to reconsider every single part of his business and to see if he can't make it work for him, not just as an enterprise, but as part of a fulfilling life that's not all eggs, avo and alt-milk.

Ken Burgin is a hospitality consultant who reckons he's stopped hundreds of hospo wannabes from sacrificing their own homes and futures for a starry-eyed food dream. He's a realist and a numbers guy who loves helping people see the beauty - and the necessity - of a nice set of numbers. He sees the pandemic as an opportunity to reset and refocus.

Rebecca Yazbek is owner of Nomad, a fire-focused Sydney restaurant that caught fire itself last year. Bec has an interesting take on the hospitality industry, coming into it sideways, driven by passion and ideas. She's a creative thinker, a supply chain obsessive, and she loves using technology to work smarter not harder.

This week on Dirty Linen we're talking about hospitality business models. What works, what doesn't, what's harder than it used to be and how can COVID be an opportunity to do things differently - for the better?

This week on Dirty Linen we're rethinking restaurants. We're talking about hospitality business models, what works, what doesn't, what's harder than it used to be and how can COVID be an opportunity to do things differently - for the better?

We're starting the week with a veteran chef from Tasmania. Steve Cumper has been cooking since the 1980s - he's done fine dining in Australia and Europe and he was part of the rise of produce-focused destination dining while working with Maggie Beer. He's been an owner, employee and adviser. He's always got an interesting take and he's the perfect person to kick off this week of conversations.

During Dirty Linen's first week, Melbourne's COVID cases have risen and Victoria has turned into a pariah state. Unsurprisingly, diner confidence has plummeted, cancellations have increased, and the recovery timeline has been pushed out.

We wrap up the week by talking to two very different restaurateurs - Ganeev Bains, owner of ISH Indian restaurant in Fitzroy, and Toby Kingsley, manager at Cherry Tree, a backstreet pub.

Caterina Borsato is a legend of Melbourne hospitality. Her city basement lunch lair Caterina's is a favourite of lawyers and business folk. It's a true 'if these wall could talk' kind of place. She's stared down recessions, curveballs and crises aplenty in the 20 years she's been here but COVID19 has pushed her to her limits - and beyond.