Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Friday, March fourteen, twenty twenty five. Power bills will
Speaker 1: rise by up to nine percent for households in the
Speaker 1: coming year, well over one thousand dollars, despite the Albanese
Speaker 1: government's promises to bring bills down. That's kicked off a
Speaker 1: pre election wave of finger pointing, with Energy Minister Chris
Speaker 1: Bowen blaming old coal fired power stations for being unreliable
Speaker 1: and expensive, and Opposition leader Peter Dutton demanding Bowen be sacked.
Speaker 1: Australia could ramp up production of critical minerals and sell
Speaker 1: them to the United States in return for an exemption
Speaker 1: from crushing tariffs. That's a plan put to the Americans
Speaker 1: by Ambassador Kevin Rudd. It's an exclusive live now at
Speaker 1: The Australian dot com dot AU. Celebrity chef Matt Moran
Speaker 1: bought a pub in a tiny New South Wales country town,
Speaker 1: a purchase he says, kind of made him the town's mayor,
Speaker 1: but there were some seriously hostile locals who took a
Speaker 1: lot of convincing. Matt Moran will join me as well
Speaker 1: as all the power players in Australia's food industry at
Speaker 1: the Global Food Forum in Melbourne Today, we're looking at
Speaker 1: what will be growing and eating by twenty fifty as
Speaker 1: the agribusiness sector watches Donald Trump's every move with trepidation.
Speaker 1: That's today's episode. About a thirty minute drive south of
Speaker 1: Bathurst in the New South Wales Central Tablelands lies the
Speaker 1: tiny village of Rockley. It's like a time capsule. Ornate
Speaker 1: nineteenth century architecture dots the town and one store even
Speaker 1: provides a place to tie up your horse. On the
Speaker 1: main drag. There's a post office, a police station, a
Speaker 1: couple of churches and a pub. But this isn't just
Speaker 1: any country pub in Rockley. There's something special on the menu.
Speaker 2: Rockley Pub will reopen its doors under new management. Celebrity
Speaker 2: chef and restauranteur Matt Moran is the force behind some
Speaker 2: of Australia's most celebrated dining establishments, but his latest venture
Speaker 2: is close to home.
Speaker 1: Matt, tell me, how did you come to be opening
Speaker 1: a tiny pub in a tiny town in the middle
Speaker 1: of the New South Wales Central Tablelands.
Speaker 3: Look, once you become the public, and there you become
Speaker 3: mayor and everything else.
Speaker 4: That's quite funny.
Speaker 3: Actually, there's a lot of history with that town with
Speaker 3: my family which I didn't know. Basically, my great grandfather
Speaker 3: ended up there at a farm there for about ninety years,
Speaker 3: met my great grandmother in Rockley. Actually got married in
Speaker 3: the church behind the pub in eighteen eighty three. Strangely enough,
Speaker 3: we moved off the farm long story, ended up in the.
Speaker 4: Western suburbs, decided to be a cook.
Speaker 3: Dad ended up buying a small little farm when he
Speaker 3: got the chance in Traga. We ended up in Rockley again,
Speaker 3: a big place. I invested in it. My dad's little
Speaker 3: brother did. I ended up buying them out. Over the years,
Speaker 3: spending a bit more time in COVID thought to myself,
Speaker 3: if I'm going to spend more time at the farm,
Speaker 3: will I get bored? Just me kind of help myself.
Speaker 3: Wanted to buy the Rockley Pub. Wasn't really for sale,
Speaker 3: but I knew that it wasn't doing great, and it's
Speaker 3: the heart of the town, and the pub goes in
Speaker 3: small towns, the town goes. And it was just a
Speaker 3: little purchased in the beginning, I thought, and then ended
Speaker 3: up expanding to a couple of blocks around it, and
Speaker 3: big plans to transform it and make it a destination,
Speaker 3: to keep that pub feel, which I think is really
Speaker 3: important for the locals. Love the locals. A lot of
Speaker 3: them work there. We employ about sixteen people locally. They
Speaker 3: didn't like me when I first got there. Perception is
Speaker 3: very different to the real person. And I have a
Speaker 3: great relationship with the town and the people, and the
Speaker 3: farm's only seven minutes away, which is one of the
Speaker 3: things I love in life.
Speaker 4: It's my happy place. I think.
Speaker 1: Matt Moran isn't just a celebrity. He's one of our
Speaker 1: most powerful and influential figures in food. He owns Aria,
Speaker 1: Chiswick and chop House in Sydney, River Bar and Kitchen
Speaker 1: in Brisbane, Compa in Canberra, and plenty of other fine
Speaker 1: dining restaurants. He's also hugely influential throughout the food sector.
Speaker 1: He's a farmer himself and a passionate advocate for reducing
Speaker 1: waste and growing Australian's knowledge and confidence about food AND's
Speaker 1: it coming from. Although you came from there originally in
Speaker 1: the most immediate past, you've come from in their perception,
Speaker 1: I'm sure the Sydney fine dining scene What did they
Speaker 1: think about you? Why didn't they like you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they just thought that I was this celebrity,
Speaker 3: rich guy from Sydney is going to come in and
Speaker 3: change their town, and it was very far from it.
Speaker 3: I got heckled the first night. A lady turned it
Speaker 3: back on me the second night, and he that works
Speaker 3: for me. The guy that heckled me, he said to
Speaker 3: me six months down and pulled me aside, and I
Speaker 3: really love what you've done with the pub. Look, it's
Speaker 3: just about being part of that community and obviously having
Speaker 3: a lot of ties back there. I've had the farm
Speaker 3: there for twenty two years. Not that I'm a local.
Speaker 3: I've never said that. Someone in the media wrote that
Speaker 3: I was a local and the town didn't like that
Speaker 3: because you don't live here, but hey, I didn't write it.
Speaker 4: So it's about perception and connecting with them.
Speaker 3: And it's a business and it has to perform, but
Speaker 3: at the same time, there's a bit of love. As
Speaker 3: a business, it's not just about making money in it
Speaker 3: and taking advantage of the locals. I want it to
Speaker 3: be for the locals, and eventually I will do something
Speaker 3: a little bit more with accommodation and make it a
Speaker 3: destination and put a proper restaurant in there.
Speaker 1: One of the things you've already got on the menu
Speaker 1: is the Moran family farm sausage with garlic mash and peas.
Speaker 1: And the clientele for this pub food, some of them,
Speaker 1: the locals, They actually know how the sausage gets made,
Speaker 1: don't they.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they do.
Speaker 1: Does that make a difference to the way they perceive
Speaker 1: the food that's being put on the plate in front
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, you often get asked that question, why does it
Speaker 3: cost that much? And you try to explain the economics
Speaker 3: of running a business, But you are right. My farm
Speaker 3: manager he makes sausages all the time. There's the odd
Speaker 3: rue that they get or they might find a wild
Speaker 3: bore and grow up the little one, and that's where
Speaker 3: the fat comes from. Only recently he made me a
Speaker 3: heap of sausage. I love my farm farm manager. He's
Speaker 3: the best man in the world and what he does
Speaker 3: for me the farm is incredible.
Speaker 4: But he could have a couple of lessons in sausage making.
Speaker 4: It's a bit dry, Brandon, Hopefully you.
Speaker 3: Won't be listening to this, but here's a go which
Speaker 3: is fantastic, which is.
Speaker 1: That idea of paddock to plate. It's a very short
Speaker 1: journey from the paddock to the plate at a place
Speaker 1: like Rockley has that experience of cooking for an audience
Speaker 1: who are either living in the bush or they've come
Speaker 1: from the city to the bush to eat this food.
Speaker 1: Has that changed your perception of what the customers expect
Speaker 1: of you and expective their food.
Speaker 3: Oh, look, I don't necessarily think I think that I
Speaker 3: could say that about all my places because people come
Speaker 3: with whether they're farmers or producers or whatever. The producers
Speaker 3: to me are the most important people in my world.
Speaker 4: Basically. You know, I've always said that I would.
Speaker 3: Never be the chef for the restaurant if it wasn't
Speaker 3: for that incredible reducer that gives me the product to use.
Speaker 3: And I think that goes for every chef in Australia.
Speaker 3: We can only thank that the people that we get
Speaker 3: the produce off. As for the food at the Rocky
Speaker 3: Pub and the perception, you just want to make it
Speaker 3: really good, hearty food that is desirable and it's always.
Speaker 4: Got to be generous.
Speaker 3: You've got to be generous in a country pub, So
Speaker 3: the portions might be a little bit bigger, and you've
Speaker 3: got to set it up and explain why you do
Speaker 3: the things that you do, even when it comes to
Speaker 3: beer prices or one prices.
Speaker 4: It's very touchy.
Speaker 1: Spending the past couple of decades as a farmer yourself
Speaker 1: as a primary producer and a supplier, has that changed
Speaker 1: the way you've thought about your relationships with those producers
Speaker 1: and supplies.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent clear.
Speaker 3: That is something that it's been in my head since
Speaker 3: we moved off the farm when I was very little,
Speaker 3: and my family did it tough, they lost farms, and
Speaker 3: I remember when we got back into Rockley twenty two
Speaker 3: years ago and the buyers would come in and to say,
Speaker 3: all right, we'll give you fifty bucks of the lambs
Speaker 3: and never covered the cost. And I always said, when
Speaker 3: I get control of it, I'm dictating my terms rather
Speaker 3: than the other way around.
Speaker 4: And I know how hard farmers do it.
Speaker 3: And it's very easy to see the market fluctuates so much,
Speaker 3: and then you try to budget on you're going to
Speaker 3: get fifteen hundred dollars for your weener steers and then
Speaker 3: the next year getting seven hundred and fifty in and
Speaker 3: the drought comes and you have to sell half your
Speaker 3: mob and then all of a sudden it starts raining
Speaker 3: and you can't get back into the market. You've got
Speaker 3: to breed them back up again, so half your revenue
Speaker 3: is gone. The thing is that I'm a good farmer.
Speaker 3: Oh I think I'm a good farmer. I'm a good cook,
Speaker 3: but I'm very good with numbers and the economics of
Speaker 3: that obviously has helped me along the way with restaurants.
Speaker 3: But also I understand farmers and I see how tough
Speaker 3: that they do it, and I've always been a champion
Speaker 3: of them.
Speaker 4: Hence thankful farmers.
Speaker 3: But also back in the day when I made Paddic
Speaker 3: to plate and went around Australia showcasing all these don't
Speaker 3: get me wrong, out of bloody great time meeting.
Speaker 4: All these producers and then cooking their wares.
Speaker 3: But it really was to showcase the Australian farmer and
Speaker 3: producer and how hard they do it and how tough
Speaker 3: that they do it.
Speaker 1: Coming up what Matt Moran makes of fake meat, dairy
Speaker 1: swaps and food waste. You can see Matt and all
Speaker 1: the food industries movers and shakers online at the Australian
Speaker 1: dot com dot au all day Friday as we live
Speaker 1: stream the Global Food Forum. We'll be back with Matt
Speaker 1: after the break. Matt, A couple of years ago, everybody
Speaker 1: was talking about meat alternatives, fake meat, plant beest meat,
Speaker 1: or fake meat as some might call it. He is
Speaker 1: wildly popular, especially on Wall Street. Sausages, burgers, chicken nuggets
Speaker 1: and schnitzels. You may think you know what they're made of,
Speaker 1: but with the rise of fake meat, do you really
Speaker 1: know what you're eating? We put them to the test.
Speaker 6: Australian so tip to spend three billion dollars on plant
Speaker 6: based meat within a decade. The industry is booming, with
Speaker 6: a third of the population now making a conscious effort
Speaker 6: to reduce their consumption of animal products.
Speaker 1: What was your take on it then, and what's happened
Speaker 1: to fake meat?
Speaker 4: I did a little bit of research.
Speaker 3: Strangely enough, one of them actually came to me and
Speaker 3: asked me to be an ambassador.
Speaker 4: I'm like, do you really know my story?
Speaker 3: And when I investigated some of it, and I'm not
Speaker 3: saying all of it is this, but when you look
Speaker 3: at it and you look at the preservatives and the
Speaker 3: ingredients that are in it, wow, it's a list as
Speaker 3: long as my arm Look, I can understand why people
Speaker 3: want it, and people understand and I get it, and
Speaker 3: there's probably a spot in the market. As my father
Speaker 3: always said, we've got teeth with carnivores, we're chewers. And
Speaker 3: it's always stuck in my mind not to say that
Speaker 3: anything against anyone that doesn't eat meat is a vegetarian
Speaker 3: or a vegan. I think back in the day when
Speaker 3: I was a young chef for vegetarian you go and
Speaker 3: we played broccoli.
Speaker 4: That has changed and that's sort of the better, and that's.
Speaker 3: Made chefs be a lot more creative and a lot
Speaker 3: more adventurous when it comes to plant based and in
Speaker 3: all my restaurants there's plant based dishes, so it was
Speaker 3: a challenge to cross over and start being more creative.
Speaker 4: So that definitely is a market there.
Speaker 1: One of the other big changes in the way Australians
Speaker 1: eat over the past really few years is the huge
Speaker 1: rise in alternatives to dairy so massive armond crops now.
Speaker 1: At last year's Global Food Forum, we heard from a
Speaker 1: very experienced beekeeper talking about the pressure on beekeepers to
Speaker 1: actually pollinate those massive now nut crops that we're all
Speaker 1: eager to consume. How do you see that changing diet
Speaker 1: It's changing so fast, influencing the way we were able
Speaker 1: to actually keep up with demand and create the food
Speaker 1: that we're eating.
Speaker 3: Obviously that's been driven by dietaries, and dietares never used
Speaker 3: to be a thing for thirty years ago on restaurants.
Speaker 3: Now it's the biggest thing, and it is rapidly changing.
Speaker 3: And it obviously showcases how important the bloody bees are.
Speaker 3: We need bees otherwise when we're going to starve to death.
Speaker 3: And I got to be kind to the bee. I'm
Speaker 3: at aphlactic, actually, but I still want.
Speaker 4: To get bees at the farm.
Speaker 3: And every thick saying you're freaking mad, I'm no, I'll
Speaker 3: put them up in the trees.
Speaker 4: But I just want bees.
Speaker 3: And dietaries are changing, and but that's just the way
Speaker 3: of the world, and you can understand it. And you know,
Speaker 3: if someone's got a dietary issue with dairy, you've got
Speaker 3: a heat to it. Otherwise someone else will do it
Speaker 3: and you won't have the customer, you won't have the audience.
Speaker 1: As a producer, a primary producer, do you see it
Speaker 1: as a long game that those trends will come and go,
Speaker 1: But ultimately we'll still in fifty years be drinking milk,
Speaker 1: and we'll still have dairy herds and we'll still have
Speaker 1: beef cattle herds.
Speaker 3: Well, the rate that we're going with the dairy farms
Speaker 3: from twenty five thousand and forty years ago to I
Speaker 3: think it's a bit over five thousand dairy farms now.
Speaker 3: Obviously a lot on the coast and real estate's very expensive.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we'll still be producing a lot of dairy in
Speaker 3: the future and not buying it from someone else. There's
Speaker 3: always going to be a market food beef cut or sheep, pigs,
Speaker 3: chickens or whatever else. There always will be, and I
Speaker 3: think that probably the prices fluctuating don't help. It's something
Speaker 3: that is in my blood and always will be and
Speaker 3: I love that part of it, and I think there's
Speaker 3: always going to be a market. I think what we'll
Speaker 3: probably see not that I've got a crystal ball, but
Speaker 3: I think we'll probably be eating less meat, but we'll
Speaker 3: be eating better quality meat.
Speaker 1: One of the things I think most Australians know that
Speaker 1: you're very invested in helping Australians understand where their food
Speaker 1: comes from. That whole paddict played idea something that new
Speaker 1: that you're involved in is saveful about the amount of
Speaker 1: food that we waste? What's going on there? How much
Speaker 1: are we wasting and what should we be doing about it?
Speaker 4: The things that are extraordinary.
Speaker 5: Research says we think we waste about two kilos of
Speaker 5: food a week, but it's actually double that. That's two
Speaker 5: hundred and sixty five kilos a year for the average
Speaker 5: household nationwide. It's like throwing away seven point seven million
Speaker 5: meals every day eat.
Speaker 3: But it's just extraordinary how much food people just throw
Speaker 3: back in the fridge and they let it go off
Speaker 3: safe for as an app which you can put those
Speaker 3: ingredients into it and we can give you a recipe
Speaker 3: and tell you what to do with it. It's one
Speaker 3: of those things that I think we should be investing
Speaker 3: more money and stopping because it's just you talk about
Speaker 3: the cost of living at the moment. It would help
Speaker 3: so many families by actually looking at the app and
Speaker 3: investing in what they've got in their fridge rather than
Speaker 3: going out and buying more again.
Speaker 1: And is it about that knowledge about not knowing how
Speaker 1: to make a vegetable soup or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: I've fortunately have a lot more ideas of what to
Speaker 3: do with food and bits and pieces are left over
Speaker 3: than anyone else. And we're just using our expertise in
Speaker 3: the app to actually show people what they can do
Speaker 3: with it. And people don't think, they don't realize that
Speaker 3: there is a lot more in your fridge that will
Speaker 3: go to waste that you can actually do something with
Speaker 3: it and turn it into something amazing.
Speaker 1: What's one that really satisfies you when you find a
Speaker 1: wilting bunch of something and turn it into something else.
Speaker 3: Look, we're coming into auto now, We're going to see
Speaker 3: lots brassic as. People are gonna have colon nero and
Speaker 3: spinach and whatever else. It's simple vegetable soup or a
Speaker 3: bean soup. Beans that you got in the cupboard, which
Speaker 3: generally you always have a couple of onion saute with
Speaker 3: some aromatics. Throw on your beans and a good stock.
Speaker 3: Make sure you've got a good stock and stew it
Speaker 3: all up. Put some spuds in it if you want,
Speaker 3: and let them break down, thicking it up a little bit,
Speaker 3: and throw those wilted greens in at the top at
Speaker 3: the end, and you've got yourself a beautiful vegetable soup.
Speaker 3: You know, a bit of stale bread with a bit
Speaker 3: of cheese on top. Taste it, and you've got to
Speaker 3: tasty on top of it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm starving already. Matt Moran will be
Speaker 1: in conversation with me at the Global Food Forum and
Speaker 1: you can check it out at the Australian dot com
Speaker 1: dot au. Matt, thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Claire Pleasure