Kylie Javier Ashton – Momofuku Seiobo

Explicit content warning

09/09/18 • 74 min

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry

Kylie Javier Ashton has dealt with forged bookings and martini glass accidents; she's disguised Alex Atala with garbage bags, and endured countless people throwing up when she's been on the job (“you could see the frequency of the voms go up when the scampi dish was on” is one of the most memorable lines from this interview). Having survived all that, it's clear that she still loves her work and wants people to join the industry (as her involvement in Women In Hospitality, Appetite For Excellence and Grow shows).

Kylie Javier Ashton got her start at Tetsuya’s, when it was ranked in the Top 5 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. She's since become the award-winning restaurant manager at Momofuku Seiobo, which has been twice-named the best restaurant in Australia by Gourmet Traveller. Not a bad place for her to be, considering she didn't "even know how to carry plates" when she entered the industry.

Kylie has many amazing stories to tell, and covers it all, from what it's like to actually work with David Chang, the background to Paul Carmichael's food at Seiobo and why she asks her staff to give presentations on Caribbean culture, and the reality of your restaurant being in two pieces in The New York Times: one by Pete Wells, the other by Besha Rodell.

Plus: that memorable period running Duke Bistro with Mitch Orr, Thomas Lim and Mike Eggert (which followed her spell at Bentley Restaurant & Bar with Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt – the "hardest" place she worked). And let's not forget the time she also boxed in Cuba.

I LOVED talking to Kylie for this interview and she drops some of the best lines I've heard (it's worth listening to this episode so you can discover why “I’ve just been out on Oxford Street with an eyepatch” and “I didn’t realise I was Wolverine for so long" are two of the greatest things anyone has ever said on this podcast)!

Previous Episode

Travis Harvey – OzHarvest

Turning unwanted coconuts into 2000 curries, 10 tonnes of donated squash into soup, leftover egg yolks from 16,000 Black Star Pastry watermelon-strawberry cakes into banana curd and working out what to do with 800 kilograms of airplane food picked up from the domestic airport gate – these are just some of the things that Travis Harvey handles as executive chef of a food-rescue charity. Working at OzHarvest means he's had to be pretty creative: for instance, he takes the most wasted ingredient in Australia – bread – and transforms it into dishes like fried Lazarus bread or ramen noodles at OzHarvest's pop-up cafe at Gratia in Surry Hills. He's also encountered other inventive ways of saving waste, like Josh Niland's attempt to incorporate cobia fat and fish scales into a chocolate bar dessert. Harvey has also collaborated with high-profile talent, like Massimo Bottura and even Cookie Monster. Through initiatives like the CEO Cook-off and OzHarvest food truck, he's helped the charity send 90 million meals to people in need over its 14-year history.

Prior to his time at OzHarvest, he contributed to a stove-building project in Guatemala and endured Canberra restaurants that felt like episodes of Survivor. He even worked in kitchens that practise the very opposite of what he does today: extracting collagen from chicken wings, only to throw the wings out afterwards.

It was fascinating chatting to Travis – and make sure you check out his work at the OzHarvest Cafe pop-up, which is running at Gratia in Surry Hills until September.

Next Episode

Sunny and Ross Lusted – The Bridge Room

They’ve worked in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Croatia, Greece, Bali and the Carribean. At one point, Ross had a job in Singapore while Sunny was in Chicago – and somehow, they ended up commuting and making it work. The couple were drawn back to Australia, though, because Ross had his eye on a restaurant location in Sydney: it had been his dream venue for 10 years. And once the site became available, the pair turned it into The Bridge Room (despite a floor that literally exploded and some awkward $50,000 phone calls to ensure the interiors met heritage restrictions).

Previously, Ross worked for Neil Perry – and, after an injury that kept Ross out of the kitchen, the chef ended up overseeing Neil Perry's airplane meal range for Qantas; he even got to test the food in an airplane simulator. Ross and Sunny have many great tales about their travels abroad: from changing people's lives with Thai food in Croatia, visiting Noma in its early days and discovering surprising uses for popcorn in Bhutan. They also reveal the back story to launching The Bridge Room, which is currently one of the country's most well-regarded restaurants.