WHY WE NEED MORE LEGENDS.

Because they're the people who give the hospitality industry the inspiration, the imprimatur - and the occasional kick up the bum - that it needs.

If you can kick a ball without falling over, the sporting world declares you’re a legend.  If you bring me a double-shot caffe latte in an 8am meeting, I will call you the same. It’s a word thrown around easily these days. But in the food world, we’re not as good at acknowledging the people who build our industry.

I’ve been involved with the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival’s now-legendary Legends program since we started it in 1992. Thirty years later, the new inductees are as inspirational as ever.

This year, the Chef/Restaurateur award went to the indomitable Caterina Borsato, a front-of-house maestra who honours the essence of hospitality in how she has cared for her guests for the past 27 years at Caterina’s Cucina e Bar.

The food producer award was for second-generation fisherman Bruce Collis, who is changing the fishing industry from within, trojan (sea)horse style, by fishing seasonally, returning by-catch, using the more sustainable and humane seine-netting method - and by being very stubborn and uncompromising; two traits shared by every Legend ever.

The Beverage Producer/Wine-maker award went to Bruce Chalmers (although he was quick to credit his wife Jenni as well) for setting up the largest vineyard nursery in Australia, and grafting up to to 4 million vines a year. He was the first to bring in so many new varietals that we take for granted today, particularly those from southern Italy – and the wine set to be next summer’s coolest drink – Lambrusco. He is the rootstock of the Victorian wine industry, and if we could graft him, we should. 

The communicator/educator award this year went to the amazing Kirsten Tibballs of Savour Chocolate, who founded her chocolate and patisserie school twenty years ago. Before that, any aspiring professional pastry chefs had to travel to Europe to learn technique. She brought it home. She is a Pastry Olympics gold medallist, represented Australia at the World Pastry Championships in Las Vegas, serves as a pastry judge in the world’s biggest competitions, and is known as The Queen of Chocolate. Her acceptance speech was a powerful story of utter drive and determination to hold herself to the highest standards; utterly compelling. (A taste of her work below/here).

The Sustainability Champion for 2022 is Hayley Purbrick, who led the carbon, climate and environment initiatives and investments of her family winery, building it into Australia's first and only carbonZero accredited winery, Tahbilk Wines, which is now ‘naturally neutral’ – carbon neutral without offsets - something which lays out a blueprint for the entire wine-making industry for the future . (And she is the daughter of a Legend, so the grape didn’t fall far from the vine)

More strong women! This year’s Local Hero is Sonia Anthony of Mason’s of Bendigo for being such a righteous champion of produce, producers, and local talent across the region. And isn’t all that hard work paying off, Bendigo; you UNESCO City of Gastronomy, you.

And in a special recognition, the late Pamela Bakes was inducted as an Honorary Legend. She was a powerful force behind the Masterclass events and programming, wrangling winemakers and corralling chefs, and she had a great belief in our food and wine industry, and in how to live life. Her partner Peter spoke beautifully of her belief in our food and wine industry and how to live life, and has created a bursary for the two runners-up to the Hostplus Hospitality Scholarship to go out and ‘dine on Pammy’ for years to come. She would love that.

The Hostplus Trailblazer Award saw the unstoppable ( we hope) Shannon Martinez of Smith & Daughters on stage, telling her remarkable story of how a non-vegan became Australia’s most exciting vegan chef.

I don’t know about you, but I live for these stories, and the messy, human side of things; the failings, the thwarted ambitions, the ‘I had no idea what I was doing’ moments that inevitably build into a solid body of work that looks so easy to outsiders.

It was so good to see the next generation rising, especially Pt Leo Estate’s chef de partie Sarah Cremona, who swapped an executive position in human resources to jump headfirst into chef training, and who describes the role of her generation of hospitality professionals as being agents of change.

Agents of change. Yes, please, I’ll take a serve of that, thanks.

The combination of the wise guidance of Anthea Loucas-Bosha, the creative but respectful spirit of Pat Nourse, and the long-term commitment of Hostplus has set the Legends program up for the next thirty years. More here on Melbourne Food and Wine. And a quick pic here of the Judges for this year’s Awards: Pat Nourse, Daisy Slade, Karen Monssen, myself and Richard Cornish.

But we need more role models, heroes and mentors.

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald have built a formidable list of annual Vittoria Coffee Legends in their Good Food Guides; and delicious magazine does a magnificent job honouring our producers with its exemplary Produce Awards.

In France, the celebrated Meilleur Ouvrier de France for outstanding practitioners of traditional crafts (including that of chef and pastry chef) is taken so seriously that anyone found wearing the coveted tricolour collar fraudulently, can end up in jail. Recipients are expected not just to celebrate with a glass of Champagne on the night, but to honour and protect their craft, and guide and mentor the next generation.

So how good would it be for every Australian state to have its own Hospitality Legends awards, underwritten by state and territory governments, that would contribute to a national registrar? One that would honour our greats, open conversations, and create rewarding mentorships for the next generation?

In that sense, a Legend award wouldn’t just be a way of saying thank you to our creative visionaries, stubborn farmers and gifted communicators, it would be a pretty solid investment in how well we eat and drink in the future as well.

---

Thanks to photographer Ben Clement for the Legends pics, and to the team at Hero ACMI for hosting the Legends evening with such professionalism and style. And special thanks to my right-hand man, Terry Durack, who is, of course, a Legend. (No, really. Officially).  Also, I wrote a few parts of the above for Foodservice magazine but am a big fan of upcycling and zero waste, so used them again.

I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution. It’s about time, folks.