ExtraVirgin Food & Travel

We all know how good fermented foods are for our gut health, but many people don't realise how easy foods like sauerkraut and kombucha are to make at home. And, says The Fermentary's Sharon Flynn, wild fermented foods have a far greater number of health-giving microbes compared to most supermarket products.

In this episode Sharon, who became a professional fermenter after healing her young daughter's health issues by introducing wild fermented foods to her diet, talks us through various ferments, from kefir to kimchi, allays fears about safety, and answers questions submitted by our listeners.

Come on an adventure and fuel your wanderlust as we travel the globe, talking to ordinary people about why they love where they live. We explore beyond the guide books and tourist traps and discover local secrets.

In this episode, we meet Fanny Gabas who calls Paris home. Fanny loves all of Paris but the 11th arrondissement is her "hood" and holds her heart. Fanny tells us what it's really like to be a Parisian, how she spends her weekends, and where and what she loves to eat. If you've never been to Paris or it's been a while since you last visited, prepare to be inspired to plan your next trip. Visit extravirginfoodandtravel.com for details of the places Fanny mentions.

Looking for life-changing travel? Guest Jonathan de Potter of Behold Retreats says high-end guided plant medicine journeys can safely accelerate personal growth and help you live life to your full potential, using such plants as Ayahuasca and Psilocybin (magic mushrooms). Jonathan, whose retreats are found in beautiful locations including Costa Rica, The Netherlands and Peru, explains the neuroscience and says it's an ancient practice, now finding a place in the modern wellness and transformational travel era.

In this episode of ExtraVirgin Food and Travel, Quentin shares his best ever travel experiences (and a couple that are memorable for the wrong reasons) and gives us some fresh all-Australian additions for our bucket lists.

On a more serious note, we discuss the devastation Covid has had on the travel industry and what he thinks travel may look like when we can all travel again.

It was a visit to her husband's native Tasmania that inspired an unexpected change of career and country for Alice Laing. In 2013, she exchanged London for the east coast of Tasmania, swapping corporate sponsorship for salt making.

Today, her 'office' has an enviable view of the sea and the pretty inlets around the Freycinet Peninsula. It's in this pristine part of Tasmania that this self-taught salt maker harnesses nature to produce some of the world's best salt, from what may well be the purest water on the planet.

We chat to Alice about the steep earning curve in becoming a salt maker; the importance of salt in history, their unique, environmentally friendly production process and hear a gruesome story about the last salt producer in Tasmania.

The Emotional Art of Cake Making Gillian Bell is a master baker whose extraordinary work is so renowned, people, including Hollywood Stars, fly her all over the world to bake their wedding cakes. Gillian Bell uses her trusty whisk to lovingly create unique cakes that are a reflection of the place she is cooking in as well as the personal story of the people and the occasion she is baking for. We hear how she has baked in some challenging locations, and learn the secrets to her baking success.

In this episode of ExtraVirgin Food and Travel Podcast, we talk with Durkhanai Ayubi, whose family owns Parwana restaurant in Adelaide, Australia.

Durkhanai is also the author of "Parwana," a book that delves into the ancient and contemporary history of Afghanistan, its location as an important destination on the ancient Silk Route, and how these factors have influenced the cuisine.  We also discuss how Afghans eat, seasonal and celebratory rituals around food and some of the delicious ingredients that make up its cuisine. 

We hear the stories of persecution and displacement and how her family healed the scars of their past by opening Parwana and sharing with people Afghanistan's deliciously aromatic food and hospitable culture. 

In this episode of ExtraVirgin Food and Travel Podcast, we talk to  Hannah Miller, the "Lady Butcher" about her ethos of 'purposeful' meat eating, how her job has taken her from the Antarctic to Australia, why she's moved to New Zealand, and, most pressing of all, why her farmer's pigs have their own beach.

Kicking off her career as a chef, after training at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York, it was meeting famous nose-to-tail advocate, chef Fergus Henderson of London's St John that was to change her focus and ultimately see her moving to a new country thousands of kilometres from her Portland, Oregon home.

Hannah's story is about finding her passion, discovering a place where the niche for it was unfilled and helping inspire others to make better choices when they buy and eat meat.

If you've ever wanted to go on safari, this episode takes you to the heart of one of the world's most renowned and luxurious game reserves. Jacques Smit, of Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, explains how they work with authorities and local communities to give visitors extraordinary up-close animal encounters while respecting and conserving the wildlife and ecology of the area. Leave your pre-conceptions at home - there's a lot more to safari than lions and elephants.

We chat with scientist Alison Dean all the way from an Australian research station in Antarctica. We hear what it’s like to spend winter in the Antarctic, what they eat and what they do for fun in the long cold months. We also hear about the fascinating research being done and its link to our understanding of our mysterious planet, and why Alison says everyone should visit Antarctica once.