Ed Charles dishes up the latest on Melbourne’s food, wine and bars FIFTEEN CHANGES Less than a year in and the director of the local franchise of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Foundation charity, Lauren Oliver (right), has quit. She is replaced by short-back-and-sides Peter Brown, who has a background at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital and more recently the People and Parks Foundation. He’ll be ramping up fundraising, and looking to culturally diversify the next intake and broaden the kids’ education. […]
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Sweet success in chocolates
The Australian, Entrepreneur ONCE upon a time chocolate was the preserve of the rich. That’s if you could find any decent chocolate to eat — a chocolate culture didn’t really exist in Australia. Then, inspired by their travels, local entrepreneurs began trying to replicate what they had found abroad. One of the first was Yarra Valley winemaker Peter Wilson who — seduced by the taste of Valrhona chocolate in France — started making his own in the late 1990s and […]
Rocky relations
The Australian, Entrepreneur A well-meaning government code to clear up franchisee confusion may be badly flawed, reports Ed Charles March 30, 2007 GOVERNMENT moves to make the franchise industry more transparent have been cautiously received by the $128 billion sector, with worries it will lead to more red tape and increased costs and that important elements have been left out. Chris Malcolm, founder and managing director of Clark Rubber, which last year was awarded franchise of the year, says the […]
Ed Lines
ED CHARLES dishes up the latest on Melbourne’s food, wine and bars BEST COFFEE Out of six Victorian baristas battling it out for the title of Victoria’s best coffee maker on Sunday, five used coffee from Veneziano Caffe in Abbotsford. David Makin, who is in sales and training for the company, won for the second year in a row and last year represented Australia at the world championships. Second was Erin Sampson from Coffee HQ at the Monash Campus in […]
A fishy pleasure
• THE CURIOUS COOK 
Ed Charles I AM at the new central market in Siem Reap, Cambodia, enduring the smell that pervades every market here, from Battambang and Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville on the coast. The odour comes from a red washing-up bowl filled with grey sludge in which float pieces of silver fish. The smell is outdone only by an equally pungent pile of grey paste with bits of rotting fish poking out. The wet grey stuff is fish […]
Ed Lines
Ed Charles dishes up the latest on Melbourne’s food, wine and bars FUNF FUN Popular eatery Yelza has new owners and a new name, Sentido Funf (245 Gertrude St, Fitzroy). A much-needed lick of paint has given new life to the baroque, red velvet-draped space. Friday to Sunday DJs play in the back glasshouse. The kitchen will be reopening in a couple of weeks offering tapas-sized grazing plates. EUROPEAN NIGHTS I won’t mention the Supper Inn (15 Celestial Ave, city) […]
At your service for tickets, tee-offs and tables
by Ed Charles ALL platinum credit cards offer a concierge service, apart from the American Express credit card product. Amex reserves the concierge service for the top echelon of charge card holders. That’s those with the $1000-a-year platinum charge card or the $4300 Centurion cards. Concierge services also overlap with fine dining, ticket-booking and club schemes run by Mastercard and Visa. The Mastercard Moments and Applause schemes offer premium tickets for shows and can book some of the unbookable tables […]
The pay-offs of going platinum
COVER STORY Platinum is the new gold in the prestige credit card market, Ed Charles reports ONCE upon a time it was a class act to have a gold credit card. Then in 1997 along came the American Express Platinum charge card. It was invitation-only and more exclusive. Although the prestige was diluted when other players entered the market, led by Citibank in 1999 and the high-street banks three years ago, people still can’t resist the lure of platinum. “Platinum […]
Ed Lines
ED CHARLES dishes up the latest on Melbourne’s food, wine and bars CHEF SWAP Bigger portions and lighter, fresher food are promised by chef Richard Hooper at veg-aquarian concept restaurant SOS (Level 3, Melbourne Central). It’s the one hidden behind the strange entrance at the top of the escalator. Hooper replaces Riccardo Momesso, who fell out with the restaurant’s vegetarian owner Paul Mathis over cooking style and the joint’s unused wood-fired oven. The oven will soon be baking pizzas for […]