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What I've Learnt - Maurice Terzini · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maurizio Tosini is a true self-made man.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Starting at 16 years old packing shells, today, three decades later, along with a slew of high and low moments, he's become an institution in Bondi and an icon in the fashion industry.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: From his experience in hospitality, currently at the famous icebergs, Durazio Pizza, the Dolphin, and just to mention a few, to entering the fashion sphere with 10 pieces and collaborating with international DJs, he's also known for his New Year's Day event when icebergs flipped to become the most anticipated party in town.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: The most in hospitality roots, but embracing his inner fashionista.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maurizio is evolutionary, always creating, always evolving.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So a creator, a collaborator, he connects the networks, trusting and celebrating with his inner sanctum to feed his passion to give, to serve and to nurture his clientele.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So perched high on the bond of that cliffface with spectacular views that would match some of his Italian homeland's ocean vistas, he works hard and is opening a plethora of new restaurants in Melbourne, Sydney, and Bowen Bay.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when I first met Morris uh when I was interviewing him for my What I've Learnt column in the Melbourne Age quite a while ago, in the early days, it was just icebergs opening then, and he'd just launched, but he gracefully featured in my compilation interview book, and a lot has changed since then.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or has it?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we can have a chat.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the What I've Learnt podcast, Maurizio, Morris, Mr.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Tizzini.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Very honored to be here.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the wonderful introduction.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm overwhelmed.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think last time actually you were overwhelmed too.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: We had a very intimate chat, if you recall, and we talked about family.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the one thing that has changed for you is that you've actually given birth, inverted commas, to many new projects and a few children too.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: A few new children, a few new projects, absolutely.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a while now.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was what, about 15 years ago?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think last time I spoke to you, I was just done a couple of days ago.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I just said that I actually just found the book because I'm putting together a um just a collection of my archives for the um I've been fortunate enough to be invited by the Powerhouse Museum to feature in um F and B, the food and beverage archives of Australia.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's exciting.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's great.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: A number of other people, including friends of mine, um wonderful friend of mine, Pav from X Modular People, is um putting together a retrospective on his musical influence in Australia and the bands and things that he did.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So there's yeah, there's a bit of a community of us that are participating in that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, anyhow, I came across a book.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, that's really I love hearing that.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And also I did love that interview with you.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was very emotional, it was very, very special, and I'm I remember very distinctly.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, since then it's interesting because one of the things that I note about you is, and you've just referred to it again, is your your art of collaboration and you're somebody that has collaborated throughout your career.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that come from?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that comes from how you grew up?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're really good at it.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think um, you know, Italians, I grew up in Italy, I was very fortunate, as you know, to have grown up in Italy for during the 70s.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I suppose when it was a very collaborative spirit in Italy, you know, it was all about you know working with other people, really.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that was just sort of like embodied into me.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I I sort of like just enjoy being spied by others.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really get threatened by others.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose that um I also know what I'm very good at and what others and what I'm not good at.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I tend to, I'm very good at bringing people in that are much better than me in certain areas when they're required.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do notice that about you, whether it's your fashion label, which we'll come to, or whether it's I mean, really, if you think about it, when you started those early days in Ecuchina, you really do learn from that community was so pivotal.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you learn early.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hospitality is giving and sharing, isn't it?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And collaborating.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Every time I got a wonderful letter just recently, when I say recently, probably about a year ago, I would say, by a client that was one of my founding clients at Cape Cochina, an incredible artist as well, and and he and architect, interior designer, photographer.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, participated in a lot of the documentation at Capekacina back then.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And he sent me a wonderful letter on how much Cape Cochina meant to him and his life and where he is today.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: He must be in his 80s now.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Kuchina was very much a very free time when it came to my take on hospitality and doing business.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Kuchina was never driven by budgets or by pen hours, it was just always driven by a feeling of just wanting to get better and better at what we did.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was a very organic and and you know, growth, and it was a very um honest, authentic product um that really embraced everyone around it.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and it just became just one of those, it was one of those gigs.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: When I say gigs, it was one of the gigs that I've done that just everything aligned, you know, position, timing, design, product, people.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And boy, did we love coming there.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, honestly, part of so many Melbourne's and international, I guess, sort of journey and history.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's all in our show reel that echoes those times in Channel Street.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And young Italian punks listening to cold training setting.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you have gone from strength to strength, and I know you've had your bumps, and so have we all.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly, you are very open to, well, you've obviously given birth to some new, very exciting projects.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you talk to me a little bit about what you've got on your slate?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you have a lot, so I'd be really interested to hear.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose we've when COVID kicked in, I really I was really sort of stood back and realized very quickly that regardless of you know coming back, I think we're going to come back as busy as ever, but regardless of that, that a lot of us were going to accumulate a lot of debt during COVID, right?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I realized that that debt really had to be paid off at some time or at some stage or another.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So um I sort of knew very quickly that the current businesses that I'm involved in, even though they would come back very strong, as I've just suggested, but they would, you know, they would carry a debt that who knows how long it would take to pay back.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And during that time, instead of just sort of sitting around and really not being active, I decided that I wanted to spend a lot of time on building new assets and having assets that by the time they would open would be COVID-free.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, so I worked really hard the last two years, this COVID period.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I've had many days off.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Sort of literally, I live upst I live above my office.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I literally travel from this apartment to downstairs and literally in there every day.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been very, I was very fortunate to sort of um knock on a few developers' doors and a lot of um other restaurateurs and operators that pulled out because of COVID, but I sort of stuck my head out.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've managed to sort of pull quite a few new new gigs together, which is really exciting.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: With that came a couple projects up in Byron Bay, which is really, really good on Belancho Beach in food, um, which will be hopefully open December the first.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: What's and it's what's your just from just say the name again?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was Belanch Belanchal Beach Italian food.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Italian food, that's right, exactly.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because I saw it when I was up there.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a bit of a take on what I did at Norway.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I've I've during during this COVID period, I also went back into a lot of archives and I pulled out things that I thought were really, really strong.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I was I was I was just you know, let's listen to a lot of podcasts, and one of the podcasts was um, I can't remember who was by, but the importance of not having to reinvent everything all the time, you know.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so I looked at a lot of archives and a lot of projects that I'd done in the past, and and North Bonno Italian food was an incredible success and an incredible cultural and community restaurant, almost in the same vein as Cafe Gucci.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we sort of pulled some extracts from that particular gig and we've adducted them to, you know, Byron Bay and hence Bologna Beach Italian food.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you what, it's going to be booked out, I have no doubt.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: We feel pretty good about it.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's the icebergs on holiday, we say.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I love it.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and I know exactly where it is too.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's right, it's in a great spot right opposite the beach.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, when we refer to the icebergs on holiday, we sort of refer to the fact that it's you know has all the same values and mission statements and and and attention to detail and attention to product and commitment towards product, a sustainable product, organic product, biodynamic product, you know, but um with very simple techniques.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I suppose you're tapping into a hub and obviously there's some wonderful restaurants up by up in Byron.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, it's an interesting time because obviously everybody's been smashed and affected, as you mentioned, by the pandemic, especially hospitality.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: You have clearly, just going back to the icebergs reference, you've been there a long time, almost like it's hard to imagine that that's 20 years next year.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I have an interesting question for you.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: How have you, through all of the many challenges that, you know, come everybody who's in hospitality has them, you've managed to be a real stalwart and you've managed to stay true and solid.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: What do you put that down to?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: How have you managed to sustain such a massive?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's monolithic that restaurant.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, the ice is probably the hardest restaurant in Australia to run.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's no doubt about it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's like a ship, really.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have to like the maintenance and repairs required are really a labor of love, you know.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you start at one end, and by the time you get to the end, to the other end, you've got to start again, you know, and salt corrosion is incredible.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the it just yeah, just infrastructure, the infrastructure, crown land, you know, just dealing in an ever-changing community as well, that's really like, you know, just changes almost overnight.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose I just put it down to the fact that, you know, I'm on top of the ocean, really.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very simple thing, you know.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: I get to look out into the horizon every day.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: So things tend to be quite positive.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very beautiful place to work at, as hard as it is.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I consider myself to be very fortunate.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that um, and I've also always seen myself as just being a custodian to the icebergs, you know, not really owning it.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: So there might be a time.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think that what motivates me is to sort of get it to a point that I can hand it over maybe one day to someone and allow someone else to take on that custodianship.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe really it's just hard work.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: And plus, it's one of those restaurants where I've um, in terms of product, it's allowed me to develop my product and and my skills and and experiment a little bit with what we were doing.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: The mission statement is always this, always it's always remained the same.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, through through the different chefs that I've worked with at the icebergs, we've been able to create, you know, different different stories.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's almost like I've run four or five restaurants over the last 20 years within one restaurant, you know.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love that image.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: As somebody who writes memoirs, that that is a really beautiful image because really what you're saying is it is different chapters.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're in an exciting chapter now.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's a young, you know, with Alex Picchard, he's the youngest chef that's ever had the responsibility of running such an important, you know, Sydney institution.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: And Alex was with me for five years as a Sioux chef and then was promoted to head chef.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: And now he's there, and you know, he's really embraced the philosophy of um slaves my parents would recognise, but food they would never cook, you know.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And he's he's a big ambassador for native products and um obviously all Australian products, as Monty was.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: His youth is also quite beautiful in this approach to food, you know, it's very simple, very clean.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: What you describe also is very much your talent, which is to invest in others.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you take, you know, someone like that who's a young chef, you can see that he has talent and that he has something to give.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is very much part of your story, as you refer to.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why you can have these different chapters.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think the taste buds of your clientele have changed or their expectations of food?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, my clientele has changed.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a few, there's a few clients that have remained.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was taught very young, focus on the new client as much as your current.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's why the icebergs are still there after 20 years.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: We spend a lot of time and a lot of energy on focusing on the next generation of clients, you know.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: We focus on youth a lot, you know, we focus on that by opening other brands that then can lead to the icebergs.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: And hence the Darrazio or the Chichabellas.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we sort of tap into a younger market.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: And as we tap into them, they respect our brands and our products and they believe in our products, and then, you know, they eventually become, hopefully they'll become icebergs clients.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that that's been one of the successes of the icebergs is even through our parties and through our um, you know, not necessarily just F and B approach, but through the lifestyle approach, we've been able to tap into new clients and you know, with the new clients, some of the old ones leave, and with that comes different taste buds as well.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, just as much as my taste buds have changed over the years, and and things that I want to drink and things that I want to eat have changed definitely in the last 20 years, you know.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would I think that's that's similar for me as well.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're more informed.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: I keep on going back to the past, and you know, one of the new gigs that I'm doing is a place in Melbourne called Cucina Povera Vino Vero with um Joe Vadgato for Mr.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Bianco, and the inspiration just comes from the suburban garages of you know, Italian migrants in Melbourne and Sydney, you know, during the 50s, 60s, and 7070s and the zero-waste cooking attitude that they had and the simplicity that they had in their food.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think as you get older, sort of you have less time for things that you don't want to eat and drink, and more time for the things that you actually do enjoy.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: I have less time to experiment and I just want to, I just want every meal to be about what I enjoy.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And to be with the people that you want to be with, and that sense of community is something you also bring, it's a big part of your story.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, as at Melbourne, I'm quite excited to see this new development.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: When do you think that'll be up?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're hoping from mid-November.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: It really depends on you know what happens with our um government policy, obviously.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: But that's that's pretty exciting.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very lo-fi project, you know, it's a bit of a rebellion towards everything else that I've done over the last 10 years and to what's happening a lot in the industry at the moment.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's definitely not a$10 million project, it's you know, a$50,000 project.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not about 200,000 wines, it's about eight wines on the list.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um love it, love it, love the sound of that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Very melancholy.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's really, really about you know, embracing sustainability to its fullest.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: As I was saying, you know, the Italian migrants that just cooked with zero waste because they were peasants and they wouldn't throw anything away.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't something that they really thought about, it's just something that they did and became that was very authentic.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we sort of embraced a lot of that and we've sort of gone back and we're sort of in a way bringing those traditions into the future and into the modern and reinterpreting them and making sure that they become our traditions.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I we're really inspired by Massam Abutara's like, you know, quote where he says that um traditions are important, but it's time that we create our own.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I love that quote.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think, and I think that that's what we're trying to do with Cucina Povera.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: We're taking all the things that we love about our parents and our grandparents and the migrants and peasants of the South in Italy, but we're reinterpreting them into a modern context, you know.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's very much an Italo techno punk vibe, front of house, you know.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I cannot wait.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I love it.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's the other thing, Maurizio.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: You and I talk about this, but really the honoring of tradition and legacy and history is very intrinsic to what you do.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So there's this sort of layering and depth that you carry with you.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and even just this new invention you're referring to, that is very reflective of that.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like you've actually stripped it all back to the simplicity to the core, reinventing it.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: People that I surround myself with, and in this particular project in particular, we're very, we're very Italian.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're just as Italian as anyone else out there, is like you know, second generation Italian.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yet we um we pay homage more to probably the arts and culture of, you know, at least I do, to the Italy that I grew up with and the architecture that I grew up with, and you know, the architectural movements, such as Super Studio that we're you know, that we formed during the 60s and went on to be one of the greatest, you know, architectural movements of the world, you know.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we sort of we we tap into a lot of um a lot of Italy that a lot of people tend not to tap into.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, we're really fascinated by that side.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that also what we're trying to achieve is we're trying to achieve the establishment and us accepting that we're now perhaps developing more of a um tello oz style of food rather than just Italian food.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's that's that's where we're going, at least with Cuccina Povera.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: When I look back, the pizza, the Italian, the gelato, the coffee machine, all of that, Pellegrinis, where I'm talking Melbourne, all of that history is so intrinsic to the way that we grew up.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: But the generation before, it just didn't exist.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: So what the Italian cultural essence brought to our cities is so now threaded through in so many ways in all of our states, particularly Melbourne City.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: We really respect that and we and we admire that we are influenced by that.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: But what we're trying to do now is also acknowledge the fact that we're not living in Italy, we are living in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, or wherever, you know, and we are really representing a new breed of Italian food, which comes under that umbrella of you know, Italo Os food.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I no longer really feel that I'm cooking Italian food or you know, serving Italian food, I'm serving Italian-Australian food.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and we're we're really proud of that and we're developing that and we're trying to understand where that fits into our lives and you know, where it fits into our work.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the Cuccino Povera will be one of those experiments that will probably hopefully by the end of the will will have made a great influence on you know Italian food in this country in the future.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's wonderful because I love that notion, because it is actually your heritage.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is Italian-Australian.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think the other thing that I find interesting also is that the communities that you create, you're both.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the fact that you can combine the two and turn it into a hybrid, to be honest, that's a logical extension, isn't it?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you know, it's probably where I fit in my life at the moment.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like I suppose when I started my career, I was all about the Italian flag and it was only about the Italian flag.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're all a bit sort of like stuck up in it's like our way or no way.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you don't know what you're talking about.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the Italians we put this way.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as I was exposed to greater talent, and you know, I came across people like Karen Martini that were life-changing for me in food.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: How did she change like what's you know, Karen Karen had all the flavors that I recognized, but she had all this food that we would never cook or serve, you know?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where that brief started from.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just um, it's just you know, then I started to get exposed to other people and started to take more interest of what was happening outside of my world and not just being so suffocated in my own world.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that was probably one of the reasons why I had to leave Capucachina.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, unforgiven, my father's never forgiven me for that.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: But that one of the reasons I left is I had to go out and explore what was out there, you know.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank God you did, because you certainly have been on an adventure that we've all benefited from, to be honest.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: But on that note, I think the bliss of youth and the wisdom of getting older, part of that notion that you refer to of the different chapters and the fact you're bringing in youth that can teach you as well, like your new chef at icebergs.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's just great.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm you know, a lot of people get threatened by youth, but you know.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I find it pretty fascinating, and I'm fascinated from everything from art to music to fashion to what's happening out there and how people, how the younger generation are expressing themselves and how we fit into that new expression as well.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of the times as you get older, a lot of people tend to feel outcasted from youth.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very fortunate, I think, that I've got an ability to associate and relate back to culturally what's happening with the younger generation.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I feel very similar.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you've got a 28-year-old, I've got a 28-year-old, we've got similar age, our oldest children.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what you've learned from your kids.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you've got two younger ones as well.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned a lot from my children, and I continue to learn.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think my kids just like feed my soul constantly.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: What have you learned?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think I don't know, like, you know, obviously being patient is probably the thing that I've learned the most.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: But um, you know, I suppose, like, you know, this might sound a little bit kooky, but like, you know, when I had Sylvester, unfortunately, I was still a young boy, not knowing how to probably manage my time and just so preoccupied about working.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And not that that's really changed much, you know.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: I do work seven days a week.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really, I don't, I don't have a working schedule.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's not like I have a working life, it's my life is my work, and my work is my life, you know.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sort of caught up in that world.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I suppose that um with Sylvester, I missed out a lot on fatherhood because of my maybe time dedicated to being in the restaurants.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I suppose with the with the two kids now with Leo and Caesar, Leo's three and Caesar's seven.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Although I'm still working just as hard, but my work is maybe not as physical, so I'm not in the restaurants as much.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I tend to get to spend a lot more time with them, even if I'm in the office at night or whatever.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: But um, so I'm sort of going through a learning stage, sort of rediscovering.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sort of learning what fatherhood is all about this time around, which is great.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what are those lessons that you've learned now in terms of clearly it's a big gap between the two?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, patience is probably the biggest one, you know.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Especially with little ones.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: How old are the little ones?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: They're under one's three and one's seven.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's good to see.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: But they keep you young.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're great.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to have them together.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're really like, you know, they're very just like Sylvester's, I suppose.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: But Caesar in particular is incredibly invested, interested in the business aspect of the restaurants, you know.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: How old is Caesar?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Seven.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: So he he comes up with.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting questions, analogies, and so on.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, they participate in my world every day and you know, they're in the restaurants all the time, and you know, they're thrown behind bars and kitchens and so on.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I suppose, you know, it's great to share those experiences with them.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully that they will have a positive effect on their lives, you know.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully that will make them very strong as social people, which is very important, I believe, um, in the future.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, social skills are going to be you know, one of those things that gets you through life, you know, everyone's gonna have a good education, really, or everyone already has a good education.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: So social skills are incredibly important.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they teach me also to stop, you know.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Learning to stop is a good thing as well.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned now that sometimes I need to stop and have time to think.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't allow myself enough time to do that.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I suppose that when I'm with my children, sometimes I have to, and that's a blessing in disguise.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: I would agree with that.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I mean, their enculturation is extraordinary being around such a multi-faceted environment.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it's also for you, as you say, you know, your children teach you, they force you to stop.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: You really don't have a choice.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And also you must stop because your creative, your creative energy and your capacity to create must come from being able to stop because you can't do that if you're just constantly going.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I've learned that the last four or five years.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: I've been working with some people that have been teaching me some really um, you know, some sort of business developers and and not so much life coaches, but people that have um really helped me develop my businesses and allowed me to sort of develop my mission statements and my values and really focus on what I want to do.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that they always teach me is to and and remind me is to actually spend time to stop.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: I need to spend time stopping and having time to think.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: In the context of that, obviously with the pandemic and with everything that's impacted all of us, there are a lot of people that are using this time of reflection.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Have you found that is something that you've been able to, as you said, you've done a lot of creating, but have you been reflecting?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, this COVID's like a like just opened up so many doors for me in terms of what I want to do and things that I want to do and concepts that I've coming up with.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it's actually quite exciting.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm trying to, you know, in a way, as horrific as it is, I'm trying to use it as a positive step as well.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and it sort of makes you realize that at the end of the day, we're alive and we're healthy, so life's not that bad.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: And in terms of your um the mental health of your staff in hospitality, because you obviously have an entire community of pretty young people who have had not been able to be on deck, what what's the have you have you mentored them?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, we've you know, we try to um we try to keep in contact with them on on at least my my my core managers have really taken that under their belt, you know.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I I tend to spend a lot of time with you know the managers under me that are on my core team, and um, I try to spend a lot of time keeping them pumped up and motivated and making sure that they're okay so then they can go on and pass on that energy to the um to the team below them.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's worked really well for us because they're also sort of like I tried to just keep in contact with everyone and it just got to the point that I was really I I was sort of not really been talking to anyone, you know.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: So um yeah, too much.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: You mean it was too many layers, you couldn't too many layers.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: So really focusing on the layer below me has been very beneficial to me.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that I've been very influential to some of the crew, and they've all started to just come back in.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: I've been sort of a solo operator for 14 weeks, and it's only just recently that some of the crew have started to come back into the office, and you know, it's um it's exciting to sort of see them around and hear their energy, you know, hear their voices, feel their energy, and and they're all excited to be back.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, there's some staff that haven't coped that well, and you know, obviously we've tried to provide as much support system as we can.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Alex, God bless his heart, our chef, Alex Picchard, he's probably the best at this.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: And here's some, you know, he's done everything from cooking competitions to engaging the staff and making cocktails once a week that then are judged online, and he's done a lot of um online training with some of the core crew, and he's he's been absolutely incredible.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: So he's actually been quite a driver of keeping people motivated.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Look, in Melbourne, it's been pretty bleak a lot of the hospitality discussion.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've interviewed a lot of people and I've interviewed a lot of chefs and people involved in the industry.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think it's a tale of two cities, or do you think, I mean, Sydney's been locked down much less than we have?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're the most locked down city in the world.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: But in saying that, what I'm hearing from you, and I'm hearing from some of the other Sydney people that I'm speaking to, is there's a there's a more positive lens.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas in Nobel, everyone's trashed, you know.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, this might sound a bit sort of like cliche, but I think that the fact that we have the ocean in front of us, you know, we have the Pacific Ocean, which is an open ocean, not a bay, in front of us, and the power that the ocean presents to everyone and our climate is perhaps starting to affect us.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: It has affected us in a bit more of a positive way.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: People have really embraced getting outdoors, and as depressed as you can be, and as down as you can be, when you do stare out into the ocean, in particular in Bonday, you know, it life changes really.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's true.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's a really good point.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think No, I I'm not quite sure if that's a valid conversational point, but like, you know, it I I sort of feel that from my colleagues and people that I speak to, that there's just something bleak about Melbourne at the moment, and there's something quite, you know, even this depressing as Sydney can be when you look out into the ocean, and you know, September in Sydney is pretty beautiful, to be quite honest.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's full springtime.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's it's you know, and you see those in Bonday, you see half the community running down the street with surfboards during COVID.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's um it hasn't been that bad in compared to Melbourne.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: I agree, and and I think that's a really good point because at the end of the day, as we're coming into summer, definitely people are lifting their spirits a little bit.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: The picnic parties that happen in Melbourne now are fantastic.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that's sort of the energy that Sydney's had for the last 12 weeks during the lockouts, anyhow.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's again due to the weather that we have.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're a lot more tropical, and you know, it's we have less seasons than Melbourne, so people tend to be outdoors a lot more.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And look, it's going to change the way that look, a lot of people obviously there's quite an attrition here.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of people are moving to Sydney or to Queensland.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: But in saying that, hopefully, I think it's November, we'll all start both well, Sydney earlier than Melbourne.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: But you see, because you're opening restaurants in both cities, it's uh it's quite interesting to see the different responses that you'll get.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think people will be just busting, obviously, in Melbourne.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, we we all we all feel incredibly confident that the community is ready to dine out again.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that everyone's realized that you can eat well at home, and everyone's realized that you can pick up a phone or jump on the internet and order a beautiful bottle of chilled red or sustainable wine or a bottle of Radicon or Joshua Cooper or whatever it is.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone knows that you can, you know, people have realized that you can drink well at home and you can eat well at home.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: You don't even have to cook, you know, you just have to pick up the phone really or put in an online order.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think that what's happened is that, you know, hopefully, you know, I'm I'm a big fan of this and I'm a big ambassador of this, that the rest restaurants, bars, clubs, and so on provide more than just product.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: They also provide a social network, you know, and the social role that they have is something that you just can't have it, you can't get out of a box.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that that's what people are starving for.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, on that note, I fully agree with you, and we can't wait to come and eat at your new restaurants.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be at all of them.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to thank you so much for your time, and I'm very excited to see what's up ahead.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I really, really am.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I always love chatting to you, Laura's always.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Great, and thank you, thank you for your support.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: Personally, really appreciate it.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: The What I've Learned podcast will now be coming to you weekly with new episodes released every Tuesday.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed to have so many wonderful guests coming on the show.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: So check out my What I've Learned Instagram for updates.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, stay tuned, kind, and curious.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Love Dev.