The co-founder of Foodie Finance talks about tailoring her business to suit her food industry clients and what she’d serve ASIC for dinner.
Q: Why did you create Foodie Finance?
A: My co-founders, Tanya Lawrence, Nick Michaelides and I, are all from different multicultural backgrounds. We all love to grow, cook and eat and it’s a bond that makes for a great working relationship. As a result, we have a large client base in the food industry and we have gained a lot of knowledge about the food industry over our years as brokers. Foodie Finance was created to deliver a finance broking offering that shows understanding and commitment to this industry no matter where the customer fits into the ‘field to fork’ cycle.
Q: What are some challenges the food industry faces in getting finance?
A: The food industry is notorious for long hours, so many of our clients are super time poor. They know they need a new piece of equipment, or want to start an additional site – but often these decisions get put on the too hard list. We don’t work 9 – 5. We fit ourselves in to our customers’ schedules. If they have to sign paperwork at 6 am while setting up for the breakfast coffee rush, we’ll do that. Hopefully we get a strong coffee, too. We also understand the difference that specialised equipment can make to a food business and we can frame this so financiers are comfortable with their lending decisions.
Q: Can you tell us about one memorable meal you’ve had?
A: A meal that lingers long in my memory is not a formal Michelin-starred restaurant, but instead my sister and I having a train picnic as we travelled from Lyon to Venice. We had shopped at the famous Les Halles market and tucking into a pistachio studded saucisson baked into a brioche with the breathtaking beauty of the Alps outside my train window and a trail of crumbs down my shirt is a memory that will sustain me for a long time.
Q: How did you get into broking?
A: Working in an equipment finance company in a credit role was a natural fit for me: My dad had an earthmoving business and the rest of my family were farmers, so I grew up around heavy machinery. After about 10 years, my employer restructured, I had a child and broking was the perfect way to juggle work and home. I have never lost the buzz of putting a deal together and being able to get a client approved.
Q: If you had an ASIC executive over for dinner, what would you serve?
A: I would start by taking them for a walk around the local farmers’ market and sourcing our ingredients. I love farmers’ markets because they are a hub of so many small businesses and it would be great for the ASIC exec to have a chat and hear true tales of small business foodie life.
If everything was in season, I would go for a menu that uses simple uncomplicated recipes – because business people don’t need any extra paperwork and complications in their life – a point that ASIC often hears from me.
Starters: Thinly sliced homemade salami (closely guarded family recipe), crusty bread from Cannibal Creek Bakehouse (they have a 110-year-old Scotch brick oven), a little wedge of Woolamai Mist Prom Country sheep milk cheese. A tiny glass dish filled with homemade apricot jam finishes off the grazing board nicely. I was first introduced to the flavor combination of apricot jam and salami in Modica in Sicily and it is amazing.
Main: One of my favourite dinner party recipes comes from my Mum’s hand-written recipe book. Thinly slice some pasture raised chicken breasts and coat in a mix of breadcrumbs, freshly grated parmesan cheese and chopped parsley. Shallow fry in butter with some crushed garlic and then layer into a heavy baking dish. Cover the chicken with a tomato passata reduction combined with half a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, capers and some black pepper. Slice a buffalo mozzarella over the top and bake at 190C for about 15 minutes. Depending on the season, I would serve either fresh lightly steamed asparagus from Koo Wee Rup, or blanched green string beans with a drizzle of lemon juice and olive oil.
Dessert: Always my favourite course. When planning a menu, I often start with the dessert and work backwards. A thin layer of panna cotta made using Gippsland Jersey cream (this thick, rich cream makes me think I am in Normandie, France), topped with a layer of pomegranate juice jelly. Scatter some purple raspberries from my home berry batch and it is a picture perfect delight to finish a meal.
A tiny cup of strong espresso with a bite-size pistachio amaretti cookie and I think even the most hardened ASIC executive would go home happy.
