Mary Vaughan is the Senior Station Manager of Anthony Lagoon, part of the Westholme Wagyu supply chain for cattle company AACo. Known to all as Brumby, she spent her early years on the land and was always drawn to horses and station life. Brumby’s workplace is about 400km north east of Tennant Creek on a historic stock route in the Northern Territory’s Barkly Tablelands. Their role is to breed the heifers - female cows - who will be crossed with wagyu sires to produce the F1 cattle that end...

After losing her business during Covid, Genevieve Muir spent more time in the kitchen cooking the food of her West African heritage. Keen to master a prized condiment, she spent months tweaking the recipe until her extended family approved. And now, Coast of Gold Shitto is on shelves across the country. https://coastofgold.com.au/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE...

Dirty Linen hops on a plane to Hong Kong, on a mission to find the best food and drink. We meet local food journalist Janice Leung Hayes at old-school cha chaan teng For Kee. After pork chop on rice and milk tea, we take a walk around Sheung Wan's dried seafood stalls. https://www.instagram.com/e_ting/?hl=en Dirty Linen travelled to Hong Kong courtesy of Lee Kum Kee. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE...

It must be a difficult time to own a bar group, with conversations about toxic workplace culture swirling around and tough questions being asked about gendered violence. We chat to Jeremy Blackmore, co-owner of Mucho Group in Sydney. Mucho’s Cantina OK has just been listed at #96 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list - we chat success, growth, creativity, change and agave. https://www.muchogroup.com.au/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE...

Dirty Linen is 700! For our milestone episode we’re launching Journey to Barragunda, a special series that follows the progress of chef Simone Watts' 40-seat farm-to-table restaurant on the Mornington Peninsula. Four months from opening, we learn the story to date and dive into the long list of things still to do. A few Episode 700 thank yous. Firstly, to Deep in the Weeds’ Anthony Huckstep and Rob Locke for asking me to do a podcast in the first place, and to Rob for producing every...

We’re heading to the rangelands of northern Australia today. Joel Murray is the station manager at Wylarah, a key cattle station for Westholme Wagyu. Wylarah is about 500 km west of Brisbane, in river country with rolling hills, and runs up to 10,000 cattle at a time. The rhythm of the year is set by the seasons but life on Wylarah is as bound up in technology as it is in nature: it’s a modern approach to an old-timer craft of nurturing cattle. This episode is one of three sponsored episodes...

The Australian hospitality industry creates over 1.2 million tonnes of food waste every year or 16% of Australia’s food waste. Reducing that is of direct economic benefit to businesses: for every dollar spent to reduce food waste, $9.50 is returned to the bottom line. Sarah Hughes is a Sydney pastry chef and baker who is now part of End Food Waste Australia, a non-profit body working towards an Australia without food waste. Listen in for practical tips for home cooks, diners and hospitality...

Generation Next! We love supporting the next generation of talent in the food world. Today’s guest is butcher Matt Tyquin from Ashburton Meats in Melbourne. An alumni of William Angliss Institute, Matt was Victoria’s Apprentice of the Year and won the World Champion Butcher Apprentice in the USA. We talk choice cuts and career satisfaction. Keep an eye out for his nacho sausage! https://www.ashburtonmeats.com.au/meet-our-team/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS,...

There are so many ways to build a career in hospitality. Sven Ullrich is executive chef at Hyatt Regency Sydney and is overseeing a sustainable seafood concept at the hotel’s Sailmaker restaurant, which he hopes will straddle the divide between city destination and hotel guest hangout. We talk about the different pathways between hotel dining and restaurant cheffing: are some people particularly suited to one or the other and can you jump...

How much do you know about Sudanese food? Are you ready for the African version of Guzman y Gomez? Musa Algeed runs The Pharoah BBQ, a Sydney food truck with a mission to introduce Australia - and the world - to the flavours of Khartoum. This is an inspiring conversation full of energy and a belief in the journey. https://www.instagram.com/thepharaohbbq/?hl=en SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE...

As we round the bend towards 700 episodes, we check in with Dirty Linen’s most frequent return guest Martin Boetz, owner and chef of Shortgrain. We followed the creation story of his Brisbane restaurant, which has just celebrated a year of trading, enduring ups, downs and staffing challenges. It’s a good time to reflect on the journey, but Marty is a long way from Queensland today… https://www.shortgrain.com.au/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND...

International workers and students are often presented as statistics but they are, of course, real people having real lives, and often their uncertain status and lack of local knowledge means they work in conditions that Australians wouldn’t put up with. Today’s guest is Dee Yürür, a Turkish chef on a graduate visa that is fast running out. As Dee grapples with the notion of having to leave Australia, she talks about the life she has built here, why she wants to stay, and what she believes...

Who loves shouting at their dining companions in noisy restaurants? South Australian audiologist and occupational noise assessor Laura Drexler has created the Ambient Menu, a guide to quiet restaurants. With one in six Australians having an issue with their hearing, knowing which restaurants are relatively quiet can be the difference between feeling part of the gang or being socially isolated. Having a ‘hearing friendly’ restaurant can also be good for business, with thousands of Google...

Welcome to the final episode in our miniseries collaboration between Producers podcast and AgriCULTURED, a festival which showcases and connects the produce and people of northern Tasmania, or Lutruwita as it’s called in Aboriginal culture. So far, we’ve heard from duck farmer Bec Rumble, vegetable grower Wouter Sels, winemaker Linda Morice and finally we’re chatting to Annette Reed from Tasmanian Natural Garlic and Tomatoes. With her husband Nevil, she farms tomatoes and garlic half an hour...

I first remember listening to Virginia Trioli on ABC Radio Melbourne when it was still called 774 and she was doing afternoons. It’s one of the earliest times I remember really listening to radio that wasn’t a football broadcast, engaging with that idea of live storytelling, carrying a city through its celebrations and its sadnesses, and asking questions that were sometimes cosy and sometimes very pointed of the guests.  Virginia Trioli is a two-time Walkley-winning journalist. She is the...

Over a cup of tea, with an audience of elderly dogs, we sit down at chef and author Annie Smithers’ kitchen table for a chat. We talk about her raw, tender, loving new book Kitchen Sentimental. Annie’s memoir is a journey to self-discovery, one recipe at a time. We touch on restaurant culture, the reasons she continues to cook, and life at her rural property of Babbington Park, a place that feeds curiosity, brings joy and also bumps up against frustrating and archaic regulations. Why can...

Welcome to the third collaboration between Deep in the Weeds’ Producers podcast and AgriCULTURED, a festival which showcases and connects the produce and people of northern Tasmania, or Lutruwita as it’s called in Aboriginal culture. This is a special part of the world, with beautiful, fertile lands, true seasons, and rich traditions. So far, we’ve heard from duck farmer Bec Rumble, vegetable grower Wouter Sels and today we’re talking to winemaker Linda Morice, of Sinapius. Sinapius is in...

We love to celebrate food as an agent for change, community and connection. Today’s guest is Raman Richards, who grew up surrounded by his restaurateur mum’s Indian food and has always found cooking a powerful way to deal with depression. His home town of Daylesford is struggling with the aftermath of a car crashing into a beer garden, killing five people. Raman is responding with a Big Blue Table free lunch that is also a forum for conversations about mental health. Big Blue Table on...

Angelica Iuliano is the Group Pastry Chef at Melbourne’s three MoVida restaurants. We talk about pushing yourself via competitions, how to find your way in new kitchens, and the fallout when restaurants don’t have a dedicated pastry chef. I also share my honey cake shame and swoon over quince tarte tatin. https://www.movida.com.au/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE...

How do small business owners think about time? It’s something Kirstyn Tate, owner of Small Axe Kitchen has considered a lot. We chat to her as the business celebrates 8 years in Melbourne’s cafe-clogged suburb of Brunswick. How much time do you spend looking at competitors? How do you decide what to say no to? And why should you start the day with her breakfast pasta? http://www.smallaxekitchen.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE...

Welcome to the third collaboration between Deep in the Weeds’ Producers podcast and AgriCultured, a festival which showcases and connects the produce and people of northern Tasmania, or Lutruwita as it’s called in Aboriginal culture. This is a special part of the world, with beautiful, fertile lands, true seasons, and rich traditions.  Today, we meet Wouter Sels from Seven Springs Farm. Wouter farms pretty, hilly country nestled in forest almost two hours west of Launceston. Born into a...

From culinary school in Mexico, to a New York vegan fine diner, to a permaculture farm in Australia and then to Sydney’s Three Blue Ducks, Juan Carlos Negrete has had quite a journey. We chat to the owner of Maiz restaurant about cooking Mexican food in Sydney, the joy in restrictions and limits (and dietaries!) and why it costs more to create a great workplace culture. https://maizmexicanfood.com/ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE...

As we head closer to competition time for the San Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition, we check in with one of the ten contestants, Kogwoussougo Ouedraogo. Born in Burkina Faso, Kogwoussougo hated cooking until she stumbled upon an episode of Top Chef and realised she wanted to be a chef. She’s travelled the world learning, growing and developing her ambitions, and is now a chef for Melbourne River Cruises. We talk about taro, sharing culture, and the courage to pursue your...

Welcome to the third collaboration between Deep in the Weeds’ Producers podcast and AgriCultured, a festival which showcases and connects the produce and people of northern Tasmania, or Lutruwita as it’s called in Aboriginal culture. This is a special part of the world, with beautiful, fertile lands, true seasons, and rich traditions. Many farmers are on generational properties but others - like today’s guest - are producer newbies.  Our first podcast in this series is with duck farmer Bec...