Matteo Zamboni: Great Food Isn’t Enough to Run a Restaurant

The Long Pour with Brendon Hill · Oct 22, 2026 · 38m

Matteo Zamboni started working in kitchens at thirteen in a small town outside Brescia. His career took him through Michelin star kitchens in Rome, Milan and Japan before he arrived in Sydney in 2009. But the lesson that stayed with him wasn’t a complicated recipe. It was consistency.In this episode, we get into why the same standards matter in a neighbourhood café as they do in fine dining. Why flavour should come before technique. And why Matteo believes Italian food in Australia can sometimes be better than what you find in Italy.This one goes beyond the kitchen. We talk about managing a…