Category: Hospitality Industry

Melissa Leong has revealed she was sexually abused while working in the hospitality industry 15 years ago. The MasterChef Australia judge shared the harrowing experience in an interview with The Age to promote her upcoming memoir Guts, which chronicles the 43-year-old’s career in food and television. In the book, she recalls being asked to speak…

Australia’s top hotel receptionist has revealed how she navigated role playing with a fake general, mathematics and the game-changing tactic she used to win the quirky competition. Maddie Heffernan, 30, spoke to 7NEWS.com.au after winning Australia’s Receptionist of the Year award last month in Melbourne, a regional award for the Amicale Internationale Des Sous-Directeurset Chefs…

The New South Wales Food Authority is warning businesses storing and transporting seafood, including cafes and restaurants, to ensure effective temperature control is maintained as temperatures soar across the east coast of Australia. Temperatures reached above 40 in Sydney over the weekend. According to the Food Authority, reports of Vibrio illness associated with Australian seafood…

City of Melbourne is hosting free allergen information sessions in March 2026 to keep business owners, food handlers, chefs, front of house staff, food safety supervisors, and managers up to date with allergen food handling best practice. A food allergy is when foods or ingredients can cause a severe adverse reaction in an individual, including…

With lengthening days and more heat comes an uptick in long-lunches and after work drinks. This demand means staff need to be hired, trained, and prepared for the extra people who are likely to walk through the door. House Made Hospitality Director Justin Newton says that pre-Covid, Melbourne Cup in November would signify the start…

As deeply niche sub-sections of society form online, so too do we see the social media segmentation food culture. In one sphere, a high-protein, carnivorous, raw meat, and raw milk diet appeals to some; in another, a vegan, oat milk matcha, and chia-rich diet engages others. Meanwhile, TikTok scrollers look towards experimental snack trends and…

Wollongong Council has awarded The Grounds of Alexandria a 10-year lease agreement for the restaurant at Stuart Park North Wollongong following a unanimous decision on Monday 15 December. The venture marks the hospitality group’s first outside of Sydney. The agreement outlines an initial five year lease for the restaurant on the Stuart Park Crown Reserve…

Head Chef Alex Meimitis (Chin Chin Club, Geelong, Claypots Evening Star) has teamed up with Shayher Group on Koi Toy, a Japanese restaurant with global influences. “At Koi Toy, we want to play with tradition. We don’t want to be just another Japanese restaurant – we want to be a culinary playground where the precision of…

Cleo has opened on the 12th floor of Hyde Melbourne Place, a new “cultural anchor for the city” replacing former rooftop venue Mid Air.    Having spent three months refurbishing the venue, and with a new team in place, Cleo brings Eastern-Mediterranean “sensibility” together, with uncomplicated, generous food.   Hyde Melbourne Place General Manager Jodi Brown says they…

Drawing on the success of Cibaria Manly, Anna and Alessandro Pavoni have taken their Italian seaside journey north to the Sunshine Coast.   The pair have opened Cibara Nossa within the Elysium Noosa Resort on Hastings St – an area that Alessandro Pavoni says has always felt like a second home.   “A place we’ve returned to over the years with our family, drawn to by its beauty,…