Small Axe Kitchen is a Brunswick institution beloved for its breakfast pasta just as much as its warm hospitality from co-owners and husband-and-wife Adam Pruckner and Kirstyn Tate.

Following the cafe’s eighth birthday, we speak to Kirstyn about the role food plays at home and the dish she cooked to win Adam over when they first met.

Born in Malaysia to a family of cooks and restaurateurs, chef Tony Tan grew up immersed in the world of good food. Now based in Trentham, Victoria, he draws inspiration from the rich culinary and cultural tapestry of his home country – a thread that runs through his recently published book, Tony Tan’s Asian Cooking Class.

Nduja is a spicy, spreadable salami made from cured pork, pork fat, and hot Calabrian peppers. This recipe yields 1.1 kg of Nduja and can be scaled up as needed.

Tim Fleet has had a love affair with salami for over ten years, making it at home as a hobby before eventually gathering a crew of friends to join him more formally. Known as the ‘Bullanoo Short Goods’ Crew, the group connect over their love of salami-making and have even been awarded for their creations at the annual Dal Zotto Salami Festival.

Chef James Cornwall has had a dynamic career. He currently oversees the kitchen at Ruby, Young Hearts, Bonny and Seville Estate and has previously worked in London and Hong Kong.

But iconic dishes from his childhood in New Zealand remain a core inspiration behind his approach to cooking, as he shares here.

Sri Lankan-inspired cafe Lankan Tucker is a beloved West Melbourne institution that’s been serving the community for nearly a decade. In this Kitchen Kind, co-owner Nerissa Jayasingha explores a few fixtures of Sri Lankan cuisine and shares her favourite way to start the morning.

Kanji Kohanda has always been excited by food. As a child he learned to appreciate the flavours and intricacies of kaiseki with his family, and later how kaiseki is a feeling as much as it is food.
These family moments have driven the love and passion for sake that forms the foundation for his business, Nomu Saketen.

We didn’t buy much in my family to my dismay as a teenager growing up craving normality. Our garden fed us and all excess was bottled and preserved for later in the year. We made everything from scratch and bread was a daily process undertaken by either myself or my mother. Sometimes it was a simple country loaf or seeded rolls, other days flatbread but my favourite was always focaccia.

Chef Zoe Birch grew up in a home with the kitchen at its heart. As a child, she and her mother would do the baking competition show circuit every year over the September, October period and baking – bread in particular – has shaped much of her work at her award-winning eight-seater restaurant in Melbourne’s Hurstbridge.

Fides-Mae Santos who works in Economic Development in the Wyndham City Council is a well respected and admired member of her Filippino community and her Melbourne family. In this Kitchen Kind, she shares the story of an ingredient key to her culture, her heritage, her memories and her future.

Rarely will I drink a Bloody Maria laced with booze, but if I do the combination of Amontillado and tequila is the only way I’ll take it. My affection for this combination of rich, salty, umami and spice are sizable. But this recipe does more than satisfy my palate, it has now been consumed so many times and in so many different contexts, a sip stirs all kinds of memories.

We see Kitchen Kind as a bit of a love letter to food and drink. Emely Donegan, co-owner of Scrub Hill in Newlyn with her partner, Jente van Beek, took it next-level as she writes to the drink she loves best and shares her memories of comfort and fun with this spicy mix.

Joanie loved to prepare a rich, moist delicious cake full of dried fruits, with loads of butter, mixed spice, and sugar. She never liked dried citrus peel, so you would never find lemon or orange rind in her cakes!

The Director of Great Ocean Road Gin shares the story of the ritual, routine and heady scents of her mum, Joanie’s, Christmas Cake, with memories so lush and comforting she’s made a gin to honour it.

Chef Ana Cortes Garcia, head chef of recently opened Beso in Melbourne CBD, reflects on a favourite dish from her childhood in Spain and shares how she has refined it she’s for the menu at her Flinders Lane venue.

Ilona Topolcsanyi’s upbringing with a Hungarian father and Maltese mother has been anchored in love and good, traditional breads.

Jordan Clay is chef and co-owner of much-loved Pipi’s Kiosk in Albert Park and we just love his answer to this question…

I am grateful for the blood, sweat and tears my mother and father have put into making varenyky over many years and the love of food and tradition they have passed on to our family.