Welcome to the second version of a brand new collection known as The Issues We Do, the place I share tales of what my staff and I stand up to outdoors the kitchen! Workforce offsites, debut reside cooking present, a brand new starter at RecipeTin Meals, a particular reader dinner….and MOVING.
Life has been full!
We don’t simply prepare dinner anymore!
9 years in the past, I began this little web site with simply Dozer as my right-hand man, sharing recipes I created in my single-bench Ikea kitchen.
Right this moment, RecipeTin is a staff of 10, together with an precise skilled actual Chef who works alongside me day by day (JB!). I’ve a foodbank, RecipeTin Meals, the place we make over 100,000 home made meals yearly which we donate to the much less lucky. I made a cookbook. And it appears today, I’m a weekly columnist for a meals publication and we additionally do meals present occasions. 😳
So I believed it may be good to share some behind the scenes of what my staff and I stand up to outdoors the kitchen. Right here’s some issues we’ve performed since the final version of The Issues We Do!
We had a staff off-site
With the quick tempo of the enterprise and number of new issues we’ve been doing over the previous yr (ebook excursions! occasions! charity!), I felt it was vital to carry my entire staff collectively and do a presentation on targets and imaginative and prescient for RecipeTin, and the vital half they’d play in it.
It was a uncommon event to carry each the RTE and RTM facet of my enterprise collectively for greater than only a staff lunch. So to take advantage of it, I held the convention within the Hunter Valley, a wine area 2 hours drive from Sydney.
This was a convention, the RecipeTin Approach! We tried the official group photograph. Simply….awkward….
That is extra prefer it!
As a lot enjoyable because the staff bonding / play half was, the presentation half was critical. It took me many hours to place it collectively and it was price each minute. We left the convention a stronger staff than ever.
However on the subject of the enjoyable – right here’s slightly dwelling film of the RecipeTin Convention 2023!
We did a photoshoot at RTM
I employed a skilled photographer to do a photoshoot at RTM to seize “official” images for the RTM web site that we’re constructing. We acquired some nice pictures – even half respectable ones of me!
However then Barl, our Fijian care-bear, resigned to pursue one other profession, so we’ve got to do it another time. The boys are going to be thrilled after they learn that! 😂
There was one other photograph shoot
Oh sure, and in the course of the RTM shoot, I needed to duck out to get a photograph taken for a information article saying that I’m touring Australia with the Good Meals & Wine Present! It was a wierd day. Extra on the present under….
Then the Higher Properties & Gardens TV crew took over my home!
The Higher Properties & Gardens TV present got here to my home! They spent a day filming a “day within the lifetime of” in my dwelling then visited RTM the subsequent day to do filming there as effectively. It was surreal!! You may watch the episode right here. I’m originally, center and finish.
Additionally – everybody in my staff is now formally in love with Johanna Griggs, the host. She’s as good as she comes throughout on TV and ten occasions extra hilarious!!
There was extra TV…..
Then…2 days after that, we (Chef JB and I) had been again in a TV studio doing a reside phase to announce our new weekly recipe column in Good Meals Australia. Right here we’re on the Channel 9 Right this moment Present. I can’t even bear in mind what we made that day!!!
Simply on that weekly column….
So, on the subject of my weekly Good Meals column! It’s known as “SOS” and can function a recipe that may feed 4 individuals for lower than $20, or will be made in lower than half-hour with fewer than 12 elements.
These recipes are unique to Good Meals and within the Good Meals raise out in Tuesday’s Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s The Age newspapers. So that they received’t be on my web site – ever (sadly).
My hope is that it’ll encourage extra individuals to ditch overpriced heat-and-eat model dinners, get monetary savings, and eat extra scrumptious meals! Right here’s a preview of a number of the recipes I’ve shared:
Oh and look! They even put me on the quilt of the Sydney Morning Herald on the day they made the announcement. It was a BIG DEAL!!! (Please Dozer, might you present some assist).
Then there was that fancy dinner!
In the event you instructed me 12 months in the past {that a} hatted restaurant in Sydney would create a one-night-only menu impressed by recipes from my cookbook, I in all probability would’ve snorted then choked on my espresso (being the elegant lass that I’m).
But it surely did occur, and we even made slightly dwelling film about it so you may see that I really wore a frock. This was for an unique Good Meals subscriber dinner to have fun the launch of the new-look Good Meals!
And right here’s JB and I with the extremely gifted govt Chef at The Gantry, Rhys Connell – the posed shot and the collaborating shot!
Oh, there was additionally the little matter that I used to be sitting subsequent to a number of the strongest and influential media and meals journalists in Australia. Rattling, I want I knew the big-big boss was going to be there, I might’ve brushed up on my present affairs. 😭
Cookbook launch within the UK and US!
My cookbook was launched abroad within the US, UK, Canada and Eire!! By no means imagined in one million years that such a factor would occur. Someone pinch me!!
Launching the ebook within the US was enjoyable, with a 1 hour reside stream hosted by Premiere Collectibles who promote autographed books. It was speculated to be a reside stream for me to signal books – so individuals might see they had been genuine signatures – however I acquired moderately sidetracked answering questions and taking viewers on a tour of my home and forgot to signal them on digicam. Oops!
The reside stream was recorded so you may watch it right here.
Thanks once more to all of the readers abroad who despatched by images of my ebook abroad!! Liked seeing them in bookstores on the opposite facet of the world.
Oh, there was additionally that little matter of my cookbook making the New York Instances finest vendor checklist. Spoiler: there have been tears.
Debut reside prepare dinner present in Melbourne!
I arrived dwelling at midnight final night time after 5 days in Melbourne doing my debut reside cooking present on the Good Meals & Wine Present with RecipeTin’s very personal Chef JB Alexandre!! We did a forty five minute present cooking 3 dishes as an indication of how one can make a big-impact unfold with velocity!
WOW what an expertise. Greater than 25,000 individuals got here to the Good Meals & Wine Present over 3 days and we had been doing our present on the primary stage, adopted by a ebook signing / meet & greet.
I can actually say I’ve by no means been so nervous earlier than in my life! I actually couldn’t discuss within the minutes main as much as happening stage and I believe I went to the bathroom 5 occasions in 20 minutes. 😂
However the minute we went on stage the nerves fully disappeared. It was like chatting to associates whereas I cooked – I used to be simply lacking a glass of wine. (Or, was I….?? 😈).
JB – what a champ. Not one for public talking and having not performed something like this earlier than, but he completely nailed it. So proud to have performed my first reside cooking present with him by my facet!
And in reality, JB was doing ebook signings with me all through the entire present. By the tip of the third day, we needed to get him his personal desk as a result of his queue was banked up!!
And should you’re questioning about my OTHER sidekick – he was there in spirit. In 2D type!
Right here’s slightly dwelling film we made:
What we made for our present – “Cooking up a storm, the RecipeTin Approach”: Vietnamese Shaking Beef (cookbook unique), Singapore Chilli Prawns/Shrimp (created particularly for the present!), Coconut Rice and Smashed Cucumber Salad.
Click on right here for present dates in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth!
And at last…why I moved.
In amongst all the above, I bought my dream dwelling and moved!
Till 3 weeks in the past, I lived in Sydney’s stunning Northern Seashores and have now moved again to the Ryde space of Sydney the place I lived for 10 years. I’m now a lot nearer to the town (50 minutes vs quarter-hour), a lot nearer to considerable (good!) Asian meals, however a lot farther from the seaside.
My former dwelling was objective constructed for my enterprise. It had 3 kitchens: 2 for work and 1 in my personal residing quarters, my dream kitchen purpose-built to my bizarre specs I by no means imagined I’d ever have.
Promoting it and leaving the Northern Seashores space was a tragic and hard resolution. So why did I do it?
Right here’s why I left my dream dwelling
I bought my dream dwelling as a result of:
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I have to separate work from life.
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I would like and need to be nearer to my meals financial institution.
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I plan to maneuver my meals financial institution to a (a lot) bigger kitchen within the Ryde space.
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I have to launch capital to construct my meals financial institution and my workplace.
I can’t be trusted with my workplace beneath my lounge….
If I lower to the chase, the transfer is pushed by my need to maneuver RTM from the present small kitchen we’ve got on the perimeter of Sydney CBD to a bigger kitchen, and I would like that kitchen to be within the Ryde space. It’s a superb location to service the entire of Sydney and for actual property price causes.
It’s additionally a “rip the bandaid off” strategy to attempt to enhance my work-life steadiness. I’ve been very open about how I’ve been battling dealing with my workload as my enterprise has grown. And the way the cookbook, whereas I have fun in all its successes, was the toughest factor I’ve ever labored on in my life. It didn’t break me, however I rattling effectively labored myself into the bottom to the purpose of being unhealthy.
It’s only a plain indisputable fact that I’m not the type of one that will be trusted with my workplace beneath my lounge. Too straightforward to entry and work an excessive amount of!
However, I’ve been faffing round. I didn’t need to go away the northern seashores or my dwelling. I used to be half-heartedly searching for someplace to lease close to Ryde – however probably not.
It took an enormous kick up my bum by my enterprise coach to get cracking! So I took the “rip the bandaid-off” strategy and bought my home with out understanding the place I used to be transferring.
That definitely acquired me going to discover a new home!!!
So right here we’re on transfer day – feeding individuals proper as much as the final minute.
And right here had been are, unpacking within the new place. And – feeding individuals, earlier than we’ve unpacked!
Removalist suggestion (Sydney) – Double J Removals 1800 830 506. Quick. Skilled. Entertaining. Pleasant. Useful.
So what now?
I drastically downsized. I’m presently in a rental within the Ryde space with 1 moderately than 3 kitchens (#FirstWorldProblems!). There shall be an adjustment interval. I would like to determine my new workflow. I really feel greater than ever like I’m residing at work as a result of there isn’t a separation between my private area and work.
Issues will get slightly more durable earlier than they get higher, I do know that.
However I’m within the space I have to be. Boots on the bottom, as I say, to pound the pavement to discover a new kitchen for RTM. To discover a location for my work-kitchen which shall be solely for work, and just for work.
And to discover a dwelling that’s work-free. No pictures or video studio!
I’m so excited in regards to the yr to come back. Constructing a brand new kitchen for RTM – larger area! Higher gear! Donating extra meals!! 🙌🏻
Constructing a purpose-built “house-office” for this distinctive no-other-business-like-it factor we name RecipeTin! A artistic hub the place I can create and experiment with new recipes, the place I can {photograph}, write and movie recipe movies. A spot giant sufficient to host lunches and dinners, a spot I can invite readers to dine with us – hopefully!
And, discovering a house I can escape to on evenings and weekends. Work free.
2023 is THE yr! – Nagi x
Lifetime of Dozer
Last sundown stroll at Bayview canine park the night earlier than we moved out.
However actually, there was zero adjustment interval for Mr Dozer. So long as he will get treats and is with me, he’s as joyful as will be. Canines are the BEST! ❤️
