Conversation with a chef

Jo Rittey

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SOCIETY & CULTURE

Ever wondered what goes on in the kitchens of Melbourne’s restaurants? Conversation with a chef gives the back story of our city’s favourite eating spots. This is not a slick podcast, in fact it's pretty rustic. I'm Jo Rittey. I'm a French teacher and food writer and not that great on the technology. What you'll hear is the conversation how it happened, with no bells and whistles. I'll work on that!

2 DAYS AGO

#344 Morris Danzen Catanghal | Buono | CMD Supper Club

I finally caught up with Chef Morris Danzen Catanghal at a Boodle Brunch during the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, after circling this conversation for months. A boodle brunch is based on a traditional Filipino way of eating: food laid out generously on banana leaves, eaten together, by hand. It’s casual, communal, and built around connection rather than ceremony, and for Morris, it’s a reflection of how he grew up eating. The brunch was also a collaboration with Filipino food content creator Abi Marquez, for whom the day marked a personal milestone; her first time cooking service in a professional restaurant kitchen. Morris was clearly proud to be part of that moment, guiding her through the intensity of cooking for a room full of people while watching her passion translate from screen to service. The food stayed true to its Filipino roots, with gentle nods to Australian produce, making the whole experience feel generous and thoughtful. Morris moves between kitchens and cultures with ease. He cooks modern Italian at Buono in Parkdale, while CMD Supper Club gives him the freedom to explore Filipino flavours, techniques and stories on his own terms. Talking to Morris at the end of the service, what came through most clearly was his gentleness and generosity as well as a genuine pleasure in cooking for and alongside others. Now, I do just need to say I chatted to Morris while the café was being packed up, so there’s tables being dragged across the floor, and excited post-event chatter and occasional shrieks. So it’s absolutely real and you are now very much a part of it!

23 min
23 MAR

#343 Abi Marquez | Lumpia Queen

#343 Abi Marquez | Lumpia Queen by Jo Rittey

21 min
21 MAR

#342 Jonathan Brincat | Noni

After a few years working across Australia, Asia and London, Maltese chef Jonathan Brincat went back home to Malta to cook his own food, his own way. He opened Noni in Valletta, a restaurant built on the flavours he grew up with and refined through years in other kitchens. Six years on, it holds a Michelin star. Noni is about Maltese food, but not as you might expect. Dishes that start with memory and familiarity are reworked with technique and precision. The flavour stays front and centre. The rest follows. Jonathan is in Melbourne for the Food and Wine Festival, bringing a version of Noni to Maha using Australian produce. It’s the first time a Maltese chef has been part of the global series, and a chance to put Malta, and his take on it, on the table here.

29 min
21 MAR

#341 Elias Salomonsson | Circl Wine House and Derek Kim | Garaku

Elias Salomonsson is firmly at the helm of Circl, continuing to shape a kitchen that leans Nordic in philosophy but grounded in Australian produce. I’ve spoken to Elias before here and this time, he’s joined by Derek Kim, former head chef of Tetsuya’s and now leading the kitchen at Garaku, part of Prefecture 48 in Sydney. Derek’s cooking carries the precision and discipline of Japanese technique, shaped by years in one of Australia’s most exacting kitchens. Together, for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, they’re not trying to meet in the middle. This is a side-by-side conversation. Scandinavian restraint alongside Japanese structure, both anchored in produce, both underpinned by a shared belief that kitchens work best when the people in them do too. It’s less about fusion and more about flow. Two distinct voices, one menu that moves between them.

23 min
14 MAR

#340 Sam Field | Molly Rose Brewing

Sam Field is head chef at Molly Rose Brewing in Collingwood, but his way into kitchens started much earlier as a 13-year-old kitchen porter in England, working after school and learning by watching. Since then he has cooked in pubs, fine dining venues, cafés and now one of Melbourne’s more interesting brewery kitchens, where the menu leans European by way of local produce and very drinkable beer. Sam is thoughtful about kitchens, about the culture inside them as much as the food that comes out. He still carries the discipline of fine dining, even if these days it shows up in something as deceptively simple as a very well considered schnitzel.

35 min
11 MAR

#339 George Calombaris | Auto Greek

George Calombaris is back in Melbourne with Auto Greek, a pop-up at Bar Yarra in the Ovolo Hotel in South Yarra. A week in, the room is full of familiar faces and new ones too. For George, the project feels a little like bringing the band back together. In this conversation he reflects on nearly three decades in hospitality and what he still believes Melbourne can be as a food city. He also talks about the food itself. Neo-classic Greek cooking that is simple, generous and deeply personal. Think watermelon with feta, lamb chops over wood fire and vegetables grown from heirloom seeds. George is thoughtful, philosophical and still completely animated by the power of a good plate of food to make people happy.

17 min
21 FEB

#338 Axel Archenti | Bottega

Axel Archenti arrived at Bottega in 2017 on a working holiday visa and never left. He broke down three goats at his trial, worked his way through the kitchen, and became head chef in 2023. It’s his first head chef role, and he has embraced it. Axel cooks Italian food with an Australian accent, celebrating local produce and native ingredients. The menu is seasonal, but ever evolving, practical, and grounded in the reality of a busy dining room that fills fast before curtain-up at the nearby theatres. Axel talks thoughtfully about simplicity, about knowing when not to experiment, and about building a kitchen culture where people actually like coming to work. This was a generous conversation, and I loved every minute of it.

32 min
16 FEB

#337 Jean-Baptiste Dumas | The Hospitality Cup

Hospitality is a team sport. You feel it most on a busy service, when everyone’s tired, slightly wired, and relying on each other to get through the shift. Jean Baptiste Dumas, JB to his friends knows that world well. He worked at France Soir for years, and noticed something familiar: the same people who thrive in service also light up around sport. In 2019, he turned that overlap into something practical. A five-a-side soccer tournament for hospitality venues. It began as a kick about in a Melbourne park. It’s now the Hospitality Cup, with tournaments across Australia and the US. The Hospitality Cup has united teams from some of Australia’s most iconic venues and groups, including Rae’s, Icebergs, Aria, Merivale, the Scott Pickett Group, Attica, DOC Pizza, Freddie’s Pizza and the Reymond Group.

14 min

Ever wondered what goes on in the kitchens of Melbourne’s restaurants? Conversation with a chef gives the back story of our city’s favourite eating spots. This is not a slick podcast, in fact it's pretty rustic. I'm Jo Rittey. I'm a French teacher and food writer and not that great on the technology. What you'll hear is the conversation how it happened, with no bells and whistles. I'll work on that!

Creator

Jo Rittey
Years Active

2019 - 2026
Episodes

342
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© All rights reserved
Show Website

Conversation with a chef