Hello! This is Dish, a cooking podcast set in Sydney, Australia - I’m Kate Gibbs your host. Today the writer and MasterChef Australia judge Melissa Leong joins me on the show.

I should preface this episode with an explanation that we refer a lot to Melissa’s Instagram profile, simply because it’s so inspiring from a food angle and such a clear perspective of what Melissa eats and how she cooks. So when we talk about her homemade hash, her “fridge dive dinners” or her “put on egg on everything” ideas, just take a peek at her Instagram grid and you’ll get what we mean. 

Melissa Leong co-hosted The Chefs' Line with chefs Dan Hong and Mark Olive for two seasons in 2017, and 2018. As of 2020, Leong is one of the new judges for MasterChef Australia, alongside Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen. And I’m so happy to finally get her on the podcast.

She’s the epitome of style and class and what looks like the good life, but in this episode Melissa goes into up-cycling leftovers, a recurring theme of her own cooking (and her Instagram feed). If she can inspire people to give it a go via her Instagram page then that’s a good thing, she says. 

Her top tip for the fridge dive dinners: “when in doubt, throw an egg on it”. Melissa talks about her hash - a melange of flavours that’s always great to eat and at the least a very indulgent breakfast. Her breakfasts are usually savoury, but she admits she loves a porridge with lots of bits in it. 

Melissa, who tells me she has autoimmune issues, talks about how she balances indulgence with doing good things for her insides. The way we feel is directly impacted by what we put in our body, she says. She shares the way she reboots, what she eats and just as importantly what she doesn’t eat. She eats intuitively and eats as many whole foods as she can, and she tried to find harmony with her body and what she puts in it. 

Melissa is often asked what she would cook the other MasterChef judges, she says, and she goes into how she navigates being around other amazing cooks. She cooks simply and focuses on flavour and texture. There are top chefs out there, but Melissa’s cooking is proud, packed with flavour, and always presented with pride. 

A discerning and intrepid traveller, Melissa is a regular contributor to various food and travel magazines - and we met for the first time years ago while both contributing to Australia’s delicious. magazine. We talk about where we want to travel next, covering Singapore and Europe, deep diving on what we would eat for breakfast when we finally get there. 

Heritage and the handing of recipes through the generations has long been a passion for me, and Melissa is also passionate about it. We talk about the layers each generation adds to a recipe, the power of cooking with family, and making recipes our own. 

It’s refreshing and enlightening speaking with Melissa. She’s intelligent, graceful, and I loved this episode. I hope you do as well. Enjoy.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Manu Feildel has become one of the most popular food personalities on Australian television as co-host of the My Kitchen Rules series. And today he joins me on episode 16 of Dish, a cooking podcast set in Sydney, Australia. I’m your host Kate Gibbs. 

Manu, a cookbook author and chef, has appeared in so many television shows - from Around the World with Manu to Manu’s American Road Trip, My France with Manu, Ready Steady Cook, Boys Weekend and even Dancing with the Stars.  But today we talk food very much at home. We’re still in lockdown in Sydney, though the restrictions are slowly lifting in ways, and Manu has been impacted by this time as most of us have. He talks about how this time has impacted his home cooking, but also how he has navigated cooking and kitchen to cater to his teen son as well as his young daughter during lockdown.

Manu divulges on the quick dinners he has up his sleeve, the tricks and ideas he has gathered from his many years cooking from professional kitchens, as well as the impressive quick staples he turns to again and again. He covers meals for freezing and the basics he has up his sleeve to turn into meals when a meal is needed urgently (especially for his suddenly ravenous teen).   

This episode is about bringing your family together to eat as well as cook together, but taking into account the truth that sometimes we need a quick fix. What does Manu cook in those moments - there’s loads of inspiration for us all from a chef who is warm, knowledgeable, and brimming with ideas.  Here’s Manu Feildel. 

Episode links:

Manu on Instagram

Kate Gibbs on Instagram

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Silvia Colloca is a supremely inspiring, wonderful cook who makes me want to cook more often, and better. This cookbook author and television host describes having a soup as being “a hug from an angel”, I just love it - this episode brought immense joy into my day, my week. This is episode 15 of Dish, a cooking podcast set in Sydney, Australia. I’m your host Kate Gibbs. 

Recorded as Sydney entered yet another lockdown this Australian winter, Silvia Colloca talks about protecting her own space and finding time for herself, particularly with kids doing home schooling and little ones around the house. 

Silvia is an opera singer, brilliantly, and she talks about that side of her career.  She goes into how she moved into food as well, and talks about the idea of ‘talent’. She is not talented, she says, she is skilled. Like a doctor or a chef, she has trained to gain the skills she has - both in opera and in food. I love how Silvia talks so openly about determination and hard work, especially during a time when many dismiss celebrities as being lucky. Hard work is a huge part of her success and skill, says Silva, and of course she is right. It’s a refreshing reminder.  

She shares her favourite podcasts and espouses the importance of listening to other people’s point of view. 

We laugh about our genuine heartbreak over badly poached eggs, she teaches us how to cook pasta properly, and offers some insider “nonna” tips. She shows us how she cooks at home, simply but always well, and this episode is packed with ideas on cooking  Italian. 

To celebrate Silvia Colloca appearing as a guest on Dish, we are giving away three copies of her latest cookbook - Simple Italian: The Essentials of Italian Home Cooking. To go in the draw to win a copy, check out my Instagram on how to enter. Valid for Australian addresses only. 

I loved this intelligent, beautiful chat with Silvia Colloca, and I hope you do as well. Here she is. 

Episode links: 

Kate Gibbs Instagram - how to win a copy of Silvia Colloca’s cookbook 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello! I cannot wait for you to hear this episode. This is episode 14 of Dish with Kate Gibbs, a cooking podcast set in increasingly sunny Sydney, Australia.  

Today the fun, smart and switched on chef Darren Robertson joins me on the show to talk about being more conscious, more deliberate and ethical with our food choices and the way we live. 

Darren talks about worm farming, composting, growing your own food in even the smallest space, as well as his expansive Three Blue Duck in Byron Bay. He tells how he gets his young children into the family bee hives, as well as involving them in the family meal. This episode is about mindfulness, but in a fun, practical way. Darren offers his tips for turning around a quick meal, and deep dives on the basics he makes and keeps at home so he always has something ready to go for dinner. 

Darren is a Byron Bay local, a father of two, and is married to Magdalena Roze who joined me as a guest on an earlier episode. He is the head chef and co-owner of the Three Blue Ducks almost-empire - there’s a restaurant in Sydney’s Bronte and one in Alexandria, as well as Rocker in Bondi. 

I could talk about food and cooking with Darren for hours - he’s such an engaging person and his warmth and passion for food comes through in his beautiful cooking - so get to Three Blue Ducks when you can - but also in this episode. I hope you love it as much as I do. 

You can me, my recipes and more of these episodes on my website kategibbs.com. Meanwhile, here’s Darren Robertson.

Episode links: 

Darren Robertson's Instagram 

Kate Gibbs' Instagram

Three Blue Ducks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello and welcome back to Dish, I’m your host Kate Gibbs. You can find me, my recipes and more of these episodes on my website kategibbs.com

Australia has a difficult relationship with fire - it has ravaged our landscape in recent years, destroying homes and lives, and yet it is a principal means by which we connect with each other food. The humble barbecue is one of our favourite pastimes, and while we’ve mastered the techniques in recent years, no longer blackening steaks into dried inedibles as we once did, it’s rare to find an Australian home without a barbecue in the backyard or balcony. 

My guest today is the master of barbecue, and fire. Lennox Hastie starred in an entire episode of the celebrated Netflix documentary Chef’s Table earlier this year and his restaurant Firedoor in Sydney’s Surry Hills has (outside lockdown) a waiting list of up to eight months for a table. 

Fire has taken centre stage throughout Lennox’s career - he moved from his English hometown in West Sussex to Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, pintxos bars in Spain and an apprenticeship of sorts at the fire-powered restaurant, Asador Etxebarri.

But he’s here to talk to us about how we can use fire, and why we should. He tells us his tips for cooking over fire, why the quality of ingredients matter, and even explains how to do a no-frills, DIY outdoor barbecue at home. He talks about the important and practicalities of involving children in cooking, and how he helps his own son connect with the food he eats. 

We talk using smoke and wood and flames, and why now is the best time to cook outside, at least in Australia, before the real heat of summer arrives. He gives us some of his favourite recipes for home, and how he does dinner at home. This is a practical but also insightful conversation about how we can eat now, how to reconnect with the food and create a community despite lockdowns and physical separation. 

I hope you enjoy this episode with Lennox Hastie. Here he is. 

Episode links: 

Firedoor, Sydney 

Firedoor Instagram

Kate Gibbs Instagram

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello and welcome back to Dish, I’m your host Kate Gibbs. This is episode eleven. This is a kind of prepping-you-for-the-next-season episode as it was recorded as borders were closing in Queensland amid Covid and what is strange listening to it is how very little things have changed - even with vaccinations on the way now. This is Benjamin Law - author, writer, host of Radio National’s Stop Everything - on the show today. He talks about racing through the border to get to his family and trying to have family meals while actually physically separated. 

You probably know Benjamin as that really bright commentator on pop culture, race, sexuality, and now I have him talking about food. He espouses instant ramen - especially pimped - tray bakes as well as eating out, and details his tips to failsafe hosting. He covers congee as well as corn flakes, and his “zero fuck meals”. 

We talk hunger. Benjamin appeared on the SBS show Filthy Rich and Homeless and he reveals what that was really like and how it has changed the way he eats. This son of a restaurateur talks about physical hunger but also our innate hunger for warmth and security, what it’s like to live precariously, hand to mouth, and the shock and trauma of that.

I hope you enjoy this episode with Benjamin Law. Here he is. 

Episode links: 

NY Times recipe for spaghetti with breadcrumbs and anchovies

Every week Benjamin is on Radio National hosting the pop culture show Stop Everything. 

He writes the back page of Good Weekend every week.

Edited the anthology Growing up Queer (2019)

Website - benjamin-law.com 

Instagram - @mrbenjaminlaw

Twitter - @mrbenjaminlaw

Benjamin Law is also the author of The Family Law (2010), Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East (2012), the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 (2017) and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019). Benjamin created and co-wrote three seasons of the award-winning SBS TV series The Family Law, based on his memoir, and wrote the sold-out mainstage play Torch the Place for Melbourne Theatre Company (2020)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello and welcome back to Dish, I’m your host Kate Gibbs. This is episode ten and today I have the remarkable Magdalena Roze - cookbook author, entrepreneur, meteorologist and Byron Bay local - on the show. 

We talk “going wild” - from camping (and the best crumpets ever), the best food markets - in Adelaide, Sydney, Byron Bay and elsewhere - making fermented foods with kids and long into our old age, and cooking food from scratch - as well as creating communities around us. 

In this episode we look at the remarkable recent changes in the way many of us now eat, turning to real food and searching for community amidst this pandemic. Magdalena talks about her food philosophy, and the passion for home cooking that she shares with her husband - Three Blue Ducks chef Darren Robertson.

Magdalena offers shortcuts to feeding kids while maintaining that connection with your food providers. We talk emergency food for when the kids are at your feet and it’s impossible to cook from scratch.  There are tips for planning weeknight meals while being more thoughtful about the seasons and our farmers, as well as using leftovers and reducing waste. 

I hope you enjoy this episode with Magdalena Roze. Here she is. 

Episode links: 

Magdalena Roze https://www.magdalenaroze.com.au/

Oomite spread https://www.oomite.com/

THOSE campfire crumpets https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LaSquFflx/?hl=en

Kate Gibbs www.kategibbs.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello and welcome back to Dish, a cooking podcast. I’m your host Kate Gibbs. This is episode nine and today I have Carol Ferrone, the time travelling mum on the extraordinary social and historical show everyone loves on the ABC right now, Further Back in Time for Dinner. 

I appeared on the show this season, in the 1930s, as Carol and her family navigated the 1930s, including The Great Depression, which hit most Australians very hard. We cook and I muster all the insights I have (many passed down to me from my grandmother Margaret Fulton) on thrifty cooking, no waste, and the clever ways Australians found to eat in the 1930s. Want to know what to do with a calf’s tail? This is the episode for you.

Guided by Annabel Crabb and now in its second season, the real-life Ferrone family goes on a time-travelling adventure - back 120 years -to discover how the food we eat has transformed the way we live, the fabric of the nation and defined family roles. This season, they immerse themselves in the time between Federation and the 1940s. 

I hope you enjoy this episode with Carol Ferrone. Here she is. 

Episode links: 

Back in Time for Dinner 

Carol Ferrone on Instagram

Kate Gibbs on Instagram 

Kate Gibbs www.kategibbs.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello! I cannot wait for you to hear this episode. This is episode eight of Dish with Kate Gibbs, a cooking podcast set in increasingly sunny Sydney, Australia. Today the extraordinary Colin Fassnidge joins me on the show to talk charity through food. The Banksia executive chef and My Kitchen Rules judge makes us laugh, we learn so much, and basically I want to eat and cook everything he talks about. Our conversation takes place in a small -  but still legal under current restrictions - room. 

Since Covid-19 hit and his restaurant was forced to close, Colin has become a posterboy of giving food to people whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the pandemic. In this ep he talks about charity through food, as well as respect and the power of feeding people. “Look out for each other,” he says. He espouses the beauty of whisky and purpose, especially now. 

I could talk about food and cooking with Colin for hours. We talk about batch cooking and how delicious it can be. Colin has easy no-waste hacks and advice on keeping it easy at home. He goes into detail on his delicious fish soup (it’s not your average soup) and tells you what to do with those prawn heads. This is about no waste or as he calls it - “everything has two uses”. 

He talks about kids who eat fast food - not holding back - and tells us to make a meatloaf instead. It’s easy to make, it’s filling and is amazing, even better, after a few days. 

Colin is one of Australia’s greatest advocates for cooking - he does videos with his two young daughters and he does online classes on Fridays called Cooking by Fassnidge. Check them out. 

This is one of my favourite episodes yet. He’s smart, generous, and one of the best cooks around. Enjoy.

Episode links: 

Colin Fassnidge Instagram

Kate Gibbs Instagram

Pre-order Colin Fassnidge's new book The Commonsense Cook HERE

Cooking by Fassnidge 

Colin Fassnidge's no-waste fish soup 

What chefs feed their kids, by Kate Gibbs 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode seven of Dish, Kate Gibbs talks to Australian Tim Ross. He may be best known for his work on TV and radio - you’ve heard of Merrick and Rosso - he’s Rosso - and at different times he’s hosted both the number one breakfast and drive shows in Sydney. 

But comedian Tim Ross has always had a passion for architecture and design. Over the last six years, he has performed his live Man About the House show in architecturally-significant buildings and homes all over the world.

Today Tim Ross talks about the echo chamber of open plan in our homes, offers some advice to renovators, and considers the rise of kitchen technology - like screens on our fridges -  versus hiding away mum as kitchens used to be designed. So what’s the perfect kitchen? 

We talk about the demise of entertaining, especially now, and why it’s important. We think people entertain, but do they - there’s the pressure of our houses not being worthy, things needing to be Instagrammable. But the truth is we’re just happy to be invited. We forget that the most important thing is to be a good guest, a good friend. What does that even mean?

Tim Ross tells us stories about architecture, design, and coming together around the table - including the time he entertained Rick Stein - who’s an excellent guest. Finally, we  divert to hilarious confessions about things we will eat off the floor. 

Tim Ross on Instagram

Kate Gibbs on Instagram

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.