Dirty Linen - A Food Podcast with Dani Valent

Israeli chef Ehud Malka owns Left-Handed Chef in South Melbourne. He's faced huge tests in his life - army service, 100-hour weeks, financial stress, immigration anguish - but this second shutdown may just be the hardest thing he's ever faced. At least there's hummus...

Sam Pinzone is a hospitality consultant who's worked for everyone from Neil Perry to Jacques Reymond. Now he helps restaurants and cafes survive and thrive, even during a pandemic. He talks strategies for business owners and chefs, candidly shares his own struggles with mental health, and tells us why he's totally against putting nasturtiums on a menu.

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.

Jason Chang owns Melbourne's Calia in the city and Chadstone shopping centre, as well as Yu Kitchen, a Chinese restaurant which the pandemic has permanently shuttered. He shares his experiences of racism, both overt and systemic - why are tortellini prized and dumplings pedestrian? Chang is a smart operator with big plans and strong vision - oh and he's getting a robot!

Lino Scidone is the straight-talking, passionate owner of La Camera, a Southgate institution that's built up loyalty over two decades among staff and regular diners. As Lino says in our chat, hospo folk are resilient but the recent rule changes - on top of three months of pain - almost broke him.

We start the podcast by talking to hugely respected and influential regional restaurateur Alla Wolf-Tasker from the Lake House in Daylesford..It's a deep chat that covers the recent headspin but also dives into the art of hospitality and why you'd do it anyway, when compliance is so challenging and profits are slim. Dirty Linen covers the issues the hospitality industry finds hard to share in public - industrial relations, business models, mental health, dirty words like profit - it’s all up for grabs and everything is on the table. We're launching with 'when the rules change', bouncing off the announcement by Victorian Premier Dan Andrews on Saturday June 20 that restaurants in his state were not going to be able to increase numbers from 20 to 50 diners per enclosed space. There were just too many new coronavirus cases to risk it. Restaurants were devastated. Staff had been rostered, produce purchased, bookings taken, prep commenced. Is this the curveball that sends some restaurants to the wall? And is Victoria's curveball likely to be thrown about in other states, as restrictions ease and case numbers rise? Your host is food journalist Dani Valent. Dirty Linen sticks to one topic for a week, exploring via interviews with key players who have different perspectives. We also invite those with compelling additions to put themselves forward for supplementary episodes. It’s a unique structure for a unique industry. Dirty Linen is a Deep in the Weeds Production.

Dirty Linen explores the behind the scenes of the food industry, covering the issues the hospitality industry finds hard to share in public.