The Food Mentor

Apr 29 2024 1
The Food Mentor Podcast artwork

For those of you who know me, you would know I love working in this wonderful food industry, but I also love talking about it!The Food Mentor Podcast unravels innovative, insightful and insprirational stories from individuals and businesses from the food industry. If you are interested in developing or growing a food or beverage brand/business or you are a retail, food service, hospitality, distribution company or even a food industry service provider, then we have you covered. One thing is for sure when listening to The Food Mentor podcast, you will always meet someone interesting (virtually) and learn something new - guaranteed!

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 Episode #21 Meet the founders Joe and Cindy of Sevenoaks Catering and the all new Sevenoaks Foods retail brand. This Perth based couple are embarking on a journey to launch a retail brand after 10 years as a leading Perth corporate catering company.

Apr 29 2024 24 mins  
Welcome back to the food mentor podcast I’m David Burns your host and today we are chatting to a delightful couple Cindy and Joe who are based in Sunny Perth, Australia. Cindy and Joe established Seven Oaks Catering 10 years ago and it has now become one of Australia’s leading corporate catering businesses supply 1000’s of platters a month of delicious fair to Perth’s corpo

#19 The Parkrun 20 year journey is an amazing story of bringing local communities together to promote great physical and mental health. Today I’m chatting with Joanne Watkins the event director of Australia’s largest Parkrun at Albert Park.

Feb 21 2024 27 mins  
In this crazy food and hospitality industry, (and for any industry for that matter), looking after our mental and physical health is critical. Introducing Parkrun https://www.parkrun.com.au/ The Parkrun story is nothing short of amazing, and in 2024 celebrates its 20 year anniversary. Parkrun for me personally has been a key part of my life for over 10 years now. Parkrun is a free

#18 - Meet David Freeman the CEO and founder of H2COCO, one of the first coconut waters on the market here in Australia launching back in 2009. We chat through the journey and lessons learnt along the way!

Feb 16 2024 28 mins  
Today I’m chatting with David Freeman, the founder and CEO of H2COCO. David is the pioneer of coconut water here in Australia having launched in 2009 so almost 15 yearsago. This is a great story of how David has not only held onto this market leading position but also how he has cleverly diversified into other beveragesegments. David also chats through the importance of having a

#17 - In this episode our hosts David and Zac outline the new product and brand development process. How much should it cost, how long should it take and what are all the key steps to reduce risk and get everything right first time.

Feb 02 2024 25 mins  
We get asked this question a lot.How long does it take, how much does it cost and what is the best process to develop a new food/ beverage product from scratch? Regardless if you are a budding entrepreneur, a small - medium business or a large multinational organisation- the same detail applies.Zac and I have some fun with this one given we are well qualified to get into the detail

#16 - With a New Year comes new opportunities, with change being a key element on everyone's minds. This episode covers just that, with change management expert Friska Wirya from Fresh by Friska.

Jan 09 2024 16 mins  
In this episode we are delighted to be chatting with Friska Wirya from Fresh by Friska.Friska has a wealth of experience in change management consulting and is a renowned thought leader in this space. She shares with us her key insights surrounding change strategies for organisations and budding entrepreneurs. Technological advancements are providing unique opportunities for busine

# 15 - In this Food Mentor episode we have mashed up the key highlights of our inaugural podcast year - 2023. Take a listen to these pearls of wisdom from some of our favourite guests throughout 2023.

Dec 21 2023 26 mins  
Throughout 2023 Zac and I were very grateful to have met and chatted with some fabulous insightful guests.This mash up includes 2022 AFR fastest growing business David Andrew from Naked Life, The founder of Karma Bites Ashwin Ahuja, Tim and Liam from Bae Juice, a personal branding lesson from Tima Elhajj and more recently The Coles grocery GM Leanne White.Zac and I also chat throug

#20 Yet another fabulous start up story. Introducing Nana Kwarteng who has developed a fabulous new brand Nana Africa. Nana Africa combines the flavours, colours and aromas of Ghana, West Africa.

Dec 03 2023 26 mins  
Nana Kwarteng is a delightful Ghanaian lady who has lived in Melbourne for 20 years.She has always been very passionate about bringing Ghanaian flavours, aromas and culture to Australian shores.The initial range of Nana Africa meat and seafood spice rubs really do look and taste amazing and I’m sure the splash of colour and pazaz is well needed within the current supermarket spic

#14 - Meet Leanne White - Coles Supermarkets General Manager of Grocery Merchandise. What a fabulous insight into the world of one of Australia’s largest retailers - Coles Supermarkets

Nov 14 2023 24 mins  
I was lucky enough to work with Leanne White at BP Australia between 2006-2009 during a transformational period. We were both with Coles at the same time also.Leanne is very talented and it’s absolutely no surprise she has enjoyed a fabulous career with Coles having looked after 6 different categories prior to being appointed as General Manager Grocery Merchandise almost 4 years

#13 - This is a fabulous thought provoking chat with Tima Elhajj from Tima Media about utilising your personal brand, purpose and then unlocking amazing content to engage with your desired audience and customers.

Oct 18 2023 27 mins  
This really is a fabulous thought provoking chat with Tima Elhajj which challenges the norm for entrepreneurs and CEO’s when it comes to their personal brand and purpose. Tima says that when you are clear on these two pieces it is then much easier to create content to stand out, connect and engage with your audience and customers. Amazingly only 1% of LinkedIn users post on linke

#12 - Surprise and delight in 2024 and beyond with new products and brands that get noticed! David and Zac from DJB Food group share their views on the categories and segments to play in for 2024 and beyond and how best to go about it.

Sep 24 2023 34 mins  
In 2023, the clients we work with will have achieved 50mil in retail sales from products and brands we have helped develop in the prior 12-24 months.How?Because we know where to play and then how to pull the pin on the differentiation hand grenade.In a crowded market place, if you don't understand your consumer and aren't different you have no chance.In this podcast we are talking