If there’s a type of restaurant that I appreciate most intensely, it’s small independent family places where the creativity has to be as much about business structure as food on a plate. Greasy Zoe’s is one of those businesses.

Run by couple Zoe Birch and Lachlan Gardner, the eight seat restaurant is in a leafy suburb an hour from Melbourne. It’s a special place.

As the business clocks up nine years of operation, we check in with Zoe to see what is consistent and what needs to change.

https://www.instagram.com/greasyzoes/

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.

We return to a favourite series on Dirty Linen: Illuminating Lumen. In this occasional catch-up, we enter the world of Lumen People, a cafe and wine bar that launched in North Melbourne in 2023, closed in 2025 and reopened in Fitzroy.

Six months after landing in the second site, owner Emma Sheahan tells us how it’s going.

https://www.instagram.com/lumenpeople/

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.

We’re back with Jenna Abbruzzese from Addington Downs in the second episode of our ongoing series about lamb farming. Jenna and her partner Alex farm with purpose and in alignment with strong values around nurturing land, animals and the humans who eventually eat the meat they produce. We talk about the problems with purity and strict labels, and the emotions around sending animals to the abattoir.

We mentioned:

How Now Dairy

https://deepintheweeds.com.au/podcast/cathy-palmer-how-now-dairy-from-music-to-milk/

Felice Jacka

https://deepintheweeds.com.au/podcast/felice-jacka-food-mood-centre-at-deakin-university-connecting-food-and-mood/

Matthew Evans and Grounded

https://deepintheweeds.com.au/podcast/matthew-evans-chef-author-and-farmer-well-grounded/

Addington Downs

https://www.addingtondowns.com.au/ (sign up to Jenna’s newsletter)

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.

Daniel Saade and Redmond Stevenson have collected thousands of order dockets from 33 Melbourne restaurants and made them part of a fond, resonant, immersive exhibition called Order Up: A City Fed by Many Cultures. It’s on at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne until May. What can we learn about restaurant culture by looking at crumpled, food-stained scraps of paper?

See Order Up:

https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/whats-on/order-up/

They spoke about:

Supper Inn

Kababi

Akwaaba

Abla’s

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.

‘Recovering chef’ Lucy Ridge is the author of Fed Up: A Chef’s Adventures in Food, Farming & Feminism. Burnt out by hospitality, Lucy embarked on something of a chef’s gap year, seeking out female farmers and producers to intern with, all around Australia. There was cheesemaking, distilling, pig farming, salad nurturing, harvesting bush foods on Country and grape stomping.

https://lucyridge.com

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.

Connecting food and mood - whether good or bad - is probably not a radical proposal for anyone listening to this podcast. But what’s the science behind it?

Today’s guest is Felice Jacka, Professor of Nutritional Psychiatry and founder of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University. Felice’s work links the food we eat with our mental wellbeing - can foods of different types make us feel better…or worse. She’s also the author of a popular children’s book about gut health called There’s a Zoo in My Poo.

My gardening story:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-10-minute-backyard-habit-i-used-as-a-stress-buster-20260126-p5nx0w.html

My wheat story:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/in-100-years-one-wheat-farming-family-had-never-tasted-their-own-flour-until-now-20250428-p5luos.html

Grounded Festival:

https://groundedaustralia.com.au/

Rachel Ward episode

https://pod.link/1518946986/episode/NDBmZDEyYWUtMjkxZi0xMWVlLWFkNzEtZTMxZTFkZGM0OWI2

Matthew Evans Episode

https://pod.link/1518946986/episode/MGQ2MWZhNzgtMTc2NC0xMWYxLWI4ZWQtZmIzOWZmNGVhODFj

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.

Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is on March 20-29 with local and international chefs and creators heading to Victoria to cook, share and inspire. There’s a big Filipino thread to the program and we’re chatting to one of its stars, cookbook author and dessert remixer Abi Balingit, author of the James Beard Award-winning book Mayumu.

See Abi’s events:

https://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/search/?search=balingit

https://www.instagram.com/theduskykitchen/

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.

Carbon neutral climate positive agriculture is not the first thing many people think of when it comes to cattle farming but in Queensland Carly Baker-Burnham and her family from Bonnie Doone Organic Beef have an incredible story of evolution, generational change and now Australia’s first and largest soil carbon sequestration.

⁠⁠https://www.bonniedoone.com.au⁠⁠

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

⁠⁠https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5⁠⁠

Follow The Producers on Instagram

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/producerspodcast/⁠⁠

Host Dani Valent 

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/danivalent⁠⁠

Host Anthony Huckstep

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/⁠⁠

Executive Producer Rob Locke

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/⁠⁠

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork⁠⁠

The Producers is a food podcast telling the stories of producers, farmers, growers and makers.. A Deep in the Weeds Production An Australian Food Podcast from the Deep in the Weeds Network.

Greg Sanderson has played a pivotal role in establishing some of Australia’s most beloved bars as managing director of Speakeasy Group, which has eight venues in Melbourne and Sydney.

What’s it like running a bar group in a time of renewed and necessary focus on workplace culture, and when so many people are reducing their consumption of alcohol or not drinking at all?

https://speakeasygroup.com.au

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.

Shanteh Wale and Dani Valent team up for Dirty Glass, the occasional crossover pod featuring Over A Glass and Dirty Linen.

We talk about fine dining: as Quay closes and Yiaga begins, what can and should high-end dining be? Plus bushfire recovery, the life of a wine taster, the joys of Coravin, and whether buying local and seasonal is a bunch of BS.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Dani Valent Food Tours

https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1537887

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Over a Glass

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/overtheglasspod⁠⁠

 Host Shanteh Wale

⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/shantehwale/?hl=en⁠⁠

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

I said in my first episode of the year that I want to cover big juicy topics that draw some of the many strands of the food world together, things like farming, education, cooking, pricing, environment, health.

We do that today with chef, author and farmer Matthew Evans. Matthew runs Grounded, a roaming farming conference that’s also a food festival. I’ll be one of the MCs at this year’s festival on April 22 & 23 in Victoria.

groundedaustralia.com.au

Listen to Matthew’s conversation on Dirty Linen with takeover host Jo Barrett

deepintheweeds.com.au/podcast/matthew-evans-fat-pig-farm-an-articulate-advocate/

Book Dani Valent's Food Tours

⁠https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1537887⁠

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER FOR EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES, NEWS, GIVEAWAYS AND BEHIND THE SCENES

https://deepintheweeds.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d33e307cf7100cf947e2e6973&id=d17d8213f5

Follow Dirty Linen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/dirtylinenpodcast

Follow Dani Valent

https://www.instagram.com/danivalent

Follow Rob Locke (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/

Follow Huck (Executive Producer)

https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/

LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS

https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork

Dirty Linen is a food podcast hosted by Australian journalist Dani Valent. A respected restaurant critic and food industry reporter in her home town of Melbourne, Dani is a keen, compassionate observer of restaurants and the people who bring them into being. Whether it’s owners, waiters, dishwashers, chefs or members of ancillary trades from tech to pottery, Dani interviews with compassion, humour and courage. Dirty Linen goes deep, both in conversations with individuals and in investigating pressing issues. 

Dirty Linen is an Australian food podcast produced by the Deep in the Weeds Podcast Network.