Insider chat with … Victor Pisapia, chef and founder of VictorsFood

I’ve known Victor for about 20 years. He was the co-owner and chef at Rattlesnake Grill in Neutral Bay in Sydney and not only was his food fabulous, they used to have these amazing Gospel Brunches where we got to sing! I used to take my parents there and even had my son’s 18th birthday there. It was one fun place!

Victor’s mother was Italian so he grew up with a love of sharing food around a table. Prior to arriving in Australia in 1994, Victor ran restaurants and nightclubs in his native America. His first, Back Porch in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is still open today. Victor became known for his ‘New American Cuisine’, a trend that he brought to Australia when he opened the hugely popular Rattlesnake Grill. Now Victor combines his love of teaching, food and cooking at VictorsFood.

VictorsFood is a food experience company that offers group cooking events for team building, food tours, cooking classes and culinary journeys to South America. Having owned seven restaurants in the past has made Victor’s food journey quite varied and brought a depth of knowledge and experience to VictorsFood.

Over to Victor

Briefly describe a typical day: A typical day is working with clients to produce a great team building event, buying fresh local ingredients to cook with and making sure the event space is set up for an interactive cooking activity.

Tell me something that is not generally known about your industry: Most people love cooking for an event and men seem to love it the most.

The best and worst things about your job are: The worst thing is packing and unpacking equipment for jobs that are off premise. The best thing is to be kissed and hugged by the organiser from each event after the event is finished.

What did you eat today: Fresh Snapper Fish Tacos with fresh guacamole, fire roasted salsa then chicken mole with coriander pepita seed rice, sautéed bananas and pears with cajeta sauce – yes I had a dinner party!

What do you never eat: Fast food or frozen dinners

What is your signature dish: Chocolate Chilli Truffles

What are your ten favourite ingredients: chipotle chilli, garlic, fresh coriander, corn, quinoa, any fresh fish, fresh basil, tomatoes, white anchovies and tamales

If the world ends tomorrow, what will you be eating and drinking today: My Italian mother’s homemade ravioli, a robust Italian red wine, olive and rosemary foccacio and her strawberry shortcake. This memory of my childhood is one I will remember forever.

Thanks Victor

Insider chat with ... Brett Stevens, food photographer

For all the voyeurs out there, this is the first of what will be a series of chats with food industry insiders.

Brett Stevens in action

Brett is one of Australia’s most talented food photographers and I have worked with him many times at The Australian Women’s Weekly and absolutely love his work. He also was the photographer for my award winning book Balance. Matching Food and Wine. What Works and Why.

He is based in Sydney and his pics have appeared in many top local and international mags: The Australian Women’s Weekly, Delicious, Waitrose Food Illustrated, Marks and Spencer, Martha Stewart Living, Country Style, Sainsburys and Vogue Entertaining + Travel. Brett has also shot and contributed to around 40 cookbooks, including my book Balance, Fired up, Snowflakes and Schnapps, Murdoch’s Indulgence series, Valli Little’s Faking it and Quick Smart Cook, Donna Hay Seasons, Gourmet Traveller Salads and many more.

Briefly describe a typical day: A shoot will generally start with a meeting with the Stylist and Food Prep about the brief from the Client and how we are going to interpret the required shotlist into a story. We would shoot each scenario with our particular style and build the shots into a storyboard which conveys the feel and mood of the shoot ie: Beach Summer, Winter log cabin etc... once we have completed the shotlist, everyone packs up their props, kitchen utensils and camera equipment, books couriers for returns of rental items and then post production copmmences on the days shots. This usually takes a couple of hours depending on the quantity of shots, these are then sent to the Client - job done!