Conversation with a chef

Jo Rittey

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SOCIETY & CULTURE
UPDATED BIWEEKLY

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!

1D AGO

#336 Aidan Robinson | Chic de Partie

I love getting to check back in with someone I’ve spoken to a few years on. When I last spoke to Aidan Robinson from Chic de Partie Cake Couturier in 2022, he was figuring out life after Dinner by Heston. Now his cakes have found their way to Lady Gaga, Chappell Roan and Yungblud, yet the operation is still just him, a spreadsheet and beautiful buttercream. We talk about what the in-between years actually looked like: three-day bakes, clients who want childhood memories encapsulated in cake, and why fondant superheroes are a firm no. There’s also the unglamorous side: rising food costs, Valentine’s Day roulette, and literally doing everything on your own. It’s a relaxed catch up about craft, taste and the reality behind the polish.

28 min
JAN 24

#335 Aitor Jeronimo Orive | Basque Txoko at Nobody's Baby Bar

I sat down with Aitor Jeronimo Orive, who’s in Melbourne right now for a pop-up at Nobody’s Baby in South Yarra. He was born in Madrid, raised in Australia, trained in Valencia, and went on to work in Michelin-starred kitchens in Spain, the Basque Country, London including Nerua, Mugaritz, and The Fat Duck before running his own one-star restaurant in Singapore, Basque Kitchen by Aitor. His cooking is grounded in Basque home food: charcoal, seafood, stews, big cuts of meat, and that’s what he’s cooking here. We talked about growing up between countries, his family’s cooking, life in high-pressure kitchens, and what brought him back to Melbourne.

32 min
JAN 18

#334 Nick Deligiannis | Bar Sophia

Nick Deligiannis and I last spoke almost three years ago at Audrey’s in Sorrento, in the thick of summer service and seafood season. Now he’s at Bar Sophia in Glen Iris, a Greek wine bar built around one key limitation that’s also its best feature: a woodfire oven and no stoves. We talk about how that shapes everything, from menu thinking to prep discipline, plus his recent time in Greece, the Athens Riviera influence, and his focus on simple food finished with bold dressings, freshness and acidity, including house-made halloumi made from scratch each week.

22 min
12/30/2025

#333 Ben John | Bistro X at The StandardX

Ben John is the chef behind BistroX at The StandardX in Fitzroy. He trained in Aotearoa New Zealand, came up through some of Naarm’s most exacting kitchens, and has led teams at places where standards are high and pressure is constant. At BistroX, he’s building something deliberately more relaxed: a neighbourhood bistro inside a hotel that doesn’t really feel like a hotel at all. We talk about suppliers and seasons, teaching young chefs properly, breaking down whole animals, and what leadership looks like now compared with when he was coming up. We also talk about balance, longevity, and how to stay generous in a demanding industry. I really enjoyed this conversation. Ben is thoughtful, grounded and deeply committed to the craft.

28 min
12/22/2025

#332 Punit Ferrnandes | Bombay Meri Jaan

It’s been a few years since I last saw Punit, back when Elichi was still open in Black Rock and the world and hospitality felt very different. In the time since, he’s lived what feels like several careers’ worth of experience: closing a restaurant, cooking through lockdown with his family, stepping into senior hotel roles, winning AHA Chef of the Year last year, and quietly building the foundations for something deeply personal. That something is Bombay Meri Jaan, Punit’s Richmond restaurant and love letter to Mumbai. Not the shorthand version of Indian food most of us think we know, but a layered, regional, memory-driven expression of western Indian cooking shaped by coastal spices, street snacks, family recipes, and the rhythms of a city that never stops moving. In this conversation, Punit talks about slowing down, learning when to step back, and what it means to cook food that actually reflects who you are. We cover hotel kitchens and home cooking, leadership and letting go, butter chicken (of course), and why some of the most important dishes are the ones tied to trains, fishermen, and late-night streets.

34 min
12/19/2025

#331 Esca Khoo | Tyga

I first spoke to Esca Khoo a few years ago. Since then, he’s travelled, cooked and learned his way across Southeast Asia. What’s stayed constant is his generosity and the size of his heart, something that shows up as much in the way he runs a kitchen as in the food he cooks. Now he’s back in Melbourne, leading the kitchen at Tyga on Koornang Road in Carnegie. I came to the opening, and could not wait to go back, largely because I couldn’t stop thinking about the wood-fired bone marrow with crab sambal and roti. This conversation picks up where the last one left off and I loved it every bit as much as I loved the first.

28 min
12/19/2025

#330 Jacob Muoio | Moondrop

Moondrop has only just opened, but it already knows exactly who it is: a Shanghai-1920s fever dream on Gertrude Street, all low light, Mahjong tiles and jazz-era swagger, it’s the kind of bar that looks effortless. Of course, it isn’t. When a venue with a big past goes dark, it leaves behind more than a fitted-out bar. It leaves pressure. The easy move is to inherit the room and keep moving. Chef Jacob Muoio along with co-owners, Steve Chan and Jesse Kourmouzis chose the harder option with the space that was previously The Everleigh: strip it back, repaint the mood, and refuse to wear someone else’s suit. That’s where this conversation starts, before moving quickly into the good stuff: cocktails built on fabulous puns and excellent balance, food designed to keep you drinking happily past midnight, and a working philosophy that favours calm, curiosity and not being a dick. Jacob talks about learning Chinese ingredients in real time, juggling Sleepy’s and Moondrop, and raising a young family alongside opening a new bar.

31 min
11/27/2025

#329 George Peppou | Vow

What happens when a chef wanders off the line and into biotechnology? In George Peppou’s case, you get Vow, a company growing meat in a new way, not instead of animals, but with far fewer of them. Cultured meat starts with a tiny sample of animal cells, nurtured in a stainless-steel tank the way yeast is nurtured into bread or grapes into wine. Feed those cells well, let them multiply into muscle, fat and connective tissue, and in a matter of weeks you have meat without needing to raise whole flocks or herds. It opens questions most of us have never had to ask. What if meat could be produced with less land, less resource intensity, and a fraction of the animals? What if foie gras could be indulgent without the ethical weight? What if the future of meat is less about taking something away, and more about curiosity, flavour and abundance? George is chasing a future where meat is abundant, sustainable, and joy-giving. I wanted to know how he got here, what it all means, and what it looks like on the plate.

20 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

334
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© All rights reserved
Show Website

Conversation with a chef