Melissa Leong

“Dad was a draughtsman; he's now retired. Mum was a nurse who spent a lot of her time in ER and oncology. She's such a compassionate, generous person. If I was meeting her on the worst day of my life, I'd be very grateful to have met her.”

“I believe in being able to reserve things to yourself. That's the way I was brought up.”

“Asking people about their first food memories can be illuminating.”

“Mental health is not a novelty; it's part of who we are and we need to treat it as if it were a broken arm or any other kind of medical consideration.”

“Knowing how much was sacrificed to give me the opportunity to find the thing that lights me up isn't lost on me, and it's something I know a lot of people can relate to, whether their parents arrived here in Australia recently or not.”

“Country town to the city heart, in every corner of the globe you'll find a Chinatown, a Chinese restaurant or an Asian grocer. From this vast and ancient culture, we credit noodles, dumplings, rice, countless spices and cooking techniques to have enriched every culture that they've landed in.”

“Every so often, the hospitality industry gives us a champion - a bright spark that lights up a room and makes everyone feel that little bit extra special just by being around them. Simon Lay - aka. Charles Bronson from the East - was such a man.”

“I've really missed my Reformer Pilates sessions during lockdown because I'm someone who likes to workout with a lot of toys!”

“A reasonably new theme in the western world, Indian culture has known how to heal the body through food for thousands of years.”

“I live a very straight forward life and my job is public, my life isn't. That's a very clear delineation I've made from the beginning and will always tread that line.”

“I always set out to be open-minded and open-hearted in everything I do.”

“Elevating baked eggs to exotic, spice-laden heights, Australians have come a long way since the days of only knowing Middle Eastern cuisine to be dried-out pucks of falafel, or the occasional late-night kebab.”

“Have you ever booked multiple restaurants so you could decide on the night where to go? Complained about the price of a dish that you loved? Ordered a coffee to use a cafe's wi-fi for half a day? If you said 'yes' to any of those, chances are there's a restaurateur out there who's hurting a little because of it.”

“I have a confession to make: my name is Melissa Leong and I am a former food blogger.”

“For the most part, Australian diners are familiar with kimchi, Korean fried chicken and even bimbimbap - those deliciously nourishing bowls of rice topped with a rainbow of veggies and grilled meat - but that's where some folks' awareness stops.”

“In Australia, Chinese food culture has imparted flavour, dimension and excitement to the way we eat.”

“It's about learning how to slow down... I think this Covid environment that we're in there's a lot of sadness and a lot of pressure going on in terms of the uncertainty, but what it is teaching us or forcing us to do is appreciate the small things: be grateful for a slower pace of life.”

“I'm a big believer in digging deep when I travel to a new place.”

“As Australian palates continue to be curious and enquiring, so does the variety and regional specificity of cuisine options.”

“There's no point in sanitising your past. I believe everybody deserves to evolve and change their perspectives. To be human is an ongoing process.”