Emma Aiston
Industrial Designer - Daniel Emma
Emma Aiston established the design studio DANIEL EMMA in 2008 alongside her husband Daniel To, to enable them to express their thoughts through Industrial Design. The pair work on a large variety of projects, ranging from the design of desk objects to installations, as well as overseeing the creative direction of JamFactory’s four studios.
They look to create the unexpected from simple objects using simple forms, drawing influence and insight from Australia’s diverse culture, ultimately aiming to create designs that are ‘just nice’.
Gill Gordon-Smith
Winemaker, Educator, Wine Judge - Fall From Grace Wines
Gill Gordon-Smith IWE is a VIA expert, artisan wine producer, retailer, writer, wine judge and educator based in Australia’s McLaren Vale Region. With Diplomas in Training Design and Development as well as Vocational Education and Training, she is a WSET Certified Educator, has worked with Qantas Airways developing the renowned Sommelier in the Sky Program, presents internationally for Wine Australia and VIA, and co-ordinates the Wine and Spirits School TAFE SA.
Gill has been involved in Educator Training and mentoring programs for many years including the WSET Educator Training and leads the Vinitaly Academy Educator program. Passionate about Italian grapes and wine, she produces minimal intervention wines from Italian grape varieties in McLaren Vale and is one of only 14 people globally to pass the rigorous Vinitaly Italian Wine Expert exam.
Gill is a regular panellist for Vinitaly international’s 5 star competition and Wine Without Walls. In her spare time she runs Fall From Grace tasting bar and cellar door. She is the Wine Communicators Australia 2017 Educator of The Year and 2017 Australian Wine Communicator of the Year.
Matthew Waltner-Toews
Founder - Unspun Honey
Matthew Waltner-Toews is a first-generation beekeeper, honey connoisseur and entrepreneur. Born in Saskatoon, Canada, he now lives with his wife and children in Mount Gambier, South Australia. He has previously been a landscape architect in Toronto and Adelaide, a marine biologist on the Bering Sea, an English teacher in Beirut, and a field researcher at the University of Guelph in Canada.
Matthew started Unspun Honey in 2014, building his own hives, and now runs 100 Warré hives on the Limestone Coast – one of only a handful of beekeepers using this 19th century French method. He is passionate about real terroir honey, the importance of place, and the language we use to describe flavour.
Maria Rosella & Nicci Bugeja
Lucia’s - Adelaide Central Market
Lucia Rosella opened Lucia’s Pizza and Spaghetti Bar in 1957 in the Adelaide Central Market. Lucia learnt to cook from her mother in the farming village of Pago Veiano in Benevento, Campania, in southern Italy. She emigrated to Adelaide in 1956 with her two daughters Nicci and Maria.
A neighbour, who was enthralled by Lucia’s cooking, encouraged her to cook her delicious recipes on a commercial basis. This eventually prompted her to open Lucia’s Pizza and Spaghetti Bar, creating the legacy that continues today.
These days, daughters Nicci and Maria are the brains and brawn behind the business, dishing up delicious bowls of spaghetti bolognese and pizza margherita to anyone who walks by. Along with the kitchen team, they only use the best local produce from the market in all their dishes, meaning they have access to the freshest fare at all times. Pasta sauces are made in-house during the summer, harvesting local tomatoes and combining them with fresh basil, garlic and olive oil.
An Adelaide institution, Lucia’s is the epitome of a successful multi-generational hospitality business.
EMMA BUGEJA
Lucia’s, Adelaide Central Market
Emma grew up in the Adelaide Central Market, surrounded by the sights and smells of fresh food. Her mother was already an icon of the market; Lucia’s already one of Adelaide’s best known cafes.
Initially she avoided the family business - she finished school and studied auto engineering - but the pull proved too much, and she returned to the fold in the early 2000s, before organising the opening of the fine food store in 2004. This was followed by the charcuterie and cheese shop in 2012, and a greater role in the administration of the business.
Now a mother herself, Emma has been immersed in this business her whole life, and offers a view of hospitality that many of us can only imagine.
Simon Bugeja
Lucia’s - Adelaide Central Market
Simon Bugeja wanted to be an accountant. Something nice and easy….but that was never going to happen.
Both his parents worked in the Adelaide Central Markets - his father had a fruit and veg shop, and his mother was part of the family team that ran Lucia’s. After uni, he ran his own fruit and veg shop for a while….the appeal was magnetic.
It was during a family session pulping tomatoes and making sauce that his analytical brain got to work and devised more efficient ways for the family to operate. This led to a commercial kitchen and before they knew it, a new range of branded products.
Today, as GM of the Lucia’s business (as much as there is a GM in a small family business!), Simon oversees all aspects of the brand, including the recent development of exporting their wares to the USA.
Lucien Alperstein
Fermentation Expert
Lucien Alperstein is a writer, photographer and scientist interested in food and alcohol fermentation, growing and preserving rare apple varieties, making science information digestible for all and turning waste into delicious.
He has recently completed study into traditional Indigenous Australian fermentation practices and collaborated with artists and hospitality legends to produce koji, beer, vinegar, rum, black garlic and crackers.
Lucien also forages a little too heavily, can talk about dough hydration until it gets awkward and makes wooden food utensils from found wood.
Daniels Langeberg
Owner - EcoCaddy and Co-founder - Mâché Co-Working
Daniels Langeberg was born in Sweden and has a Tanzanian mother and moved to Adelaide when he was 5. He spent 2.5 years as an Urban Planner in China, and discovered the joys of cycling while cruising through Shanghai. When he returned to Adelaide with fresh eyes, he wanted to make the city even better - dynamic, creative and sustainable.
Daniels is a tenacious entrepreneur and faces his fair share of challenges, but revels in finding solutions to problems.
He is the CEO and founder of EcoCaddy, an eco-friendly transportation service made up of a fleet of electric-assisted, bamboo-bodied pedicabs. He is also the CEO and co-founder of mâché, a diverse co-working and event space, aiming to become one of the most carbon neutral workplaces in Australia.
Daniels hopes his businesses can inspire other people to do things differently and take chances, while connecting people and giving back to the environment.
Izzy Pearce
Yoga Teacher & Co-founder - Mâché Co-Working
Izzy was born in Adelaide and is a Yoga Teacher, Performing Artist and Art Therapist. She founded Fresh Sprouts, and runs regular yoga classes at her studio, as well as private, corporate and kids yoga. Izzy is also the co-founder of mâché, a co-working and event space in the Adelaide CBD, fostering human connection and the community spirit.
Izzy believes in the healing potential of art, nature, movement, music, yoga and meditation. She holds a welcoming space and guides people of all walks of life to find their own sense of wellbeing. Her classes are refreshing, free-spirited and suitable for everyone. Laughter is welcomed!
Izzy is passionate about reducing waste and taking care of the environment. In her spare time she is gardening, tending to a jungle of indoor plants, and writing and producing a video series that shares the joy of yoga, art and music with children.
Barbara Santich
Author, Academic, Food Historian
Barbara Santich has had a long career as a food writer and culinary historian, focusing on both Australia and France. She has been a columnist for publications such as the Sydney Review, Weekend Australian, Financial Review and Sumptuous magazine, as well as restaurant reviewer, including seven years contributing to the New York Times.
Her books include the award winning Looking for Flavour and Bold Palates: Australia’s Gastronomic Heritage, shortlisted in the Non-Fiction category of the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards.
Professor Emeritus at the University of Adelaide, Barbara instituted the first postgraduate courses and awards in Australia in both food writing and gastronomy/food studies, attracting students from all over the world to study in Adelaide or online.
Currently Barbara is enjoyably embroiled in research into food, cooking and eating in eighteenth-century Provence.
Sali Sasi
Owner - Leigh St Wine Room
Co-founder - Stylerunner
Sali Sasi is a mother, breast cancer survivor and owner of Leigh Street Wine Room. She spent 10 years in recruitment, before co-founding the world’s first globally recognised luxury activewear e-tailer, Stylerunner, in October 2012.
Sali achieved #10 Female Entrepreneur Under 40 in 2015 and was a finalist in the InStyle Women’s Business Category alongside Stylerunner co-founder Julie Stevanja, Janine Allis of Boost Juice and Pip Marlow of Microsoft.
At just 27 years of age Sali was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer.
Sali says “breast cancer has definitely been a hidden blessing. It has taught me that you only get one shot at this life, so you need to live it by doing something you love”
In late 2019 Sali opened Leigh Street Wine Room with her husband Nathan.
NICK RYAN
Wine Writer & Wine Judge
Thrown out of university in Adelaide and moving to Sydney, Nick Ryan used the knowledge he’d gained raiding his old man’s cellar to land a job with one of Sydney’s leading wine merchants.
Realising that writing about it was easier than lifting it, led him to where he is now. He’s a wine columnist for The Australian, a regular contributor to Gourmet Traveller Wine and Wine Business Monthly, and he writes a weekly column musing on life for Adelaide’s Sunday Mail.
He has judged in many Australian and international wine shows and is a graduate of the prestigious Len Evans Tutorial.
He is excited by wines that are just as interesting by the fourth glass as they are at the first and would give it all up to play one game for the Port Adelaide Football Club.
Steve Pannell
Winemaker/Owner - S.C. Pannell
The S.C.Pannell label was established by Stephen and wife Fiona in 2004, but Steve's journey to winemaking really dates back to 1969, where as a toddler he grew up on one of Australia's most iconic boutique wineries, Moss Wood in Margaret River.
From there the wine grower path was inevitable and led to Chief Red Wine Maker at BRL Hardy via vintages in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Barolo and Priorat. Based in McLaren Vale the role allowed Steve to form a unique bond with the Vale, it’s micro-climates, growers and culture.
Perhaps most importantly it is the Vale’s ability to produce dry-grown and environmentally sustainable Grenache, Tempranillo, Touriga and Shiraz that drives Stephen’s passion and formed his winemaking philosophy: a holistic approach that starts with climate and emphasises the importance of the vineyard, as well as wines relation to the food he loves to grow, cook and eat.
Ashley Ratcliff
Owner - Ricca Terra Farms
Ashley grew up on a farm in the Adelaide Hill and planted his first vineyard (Chardonnay) in 1991 on the family farm.
Prior to starting his pioneering estate Ricca Terra Farms, he worked for a number of wine business but spent 16 years at Yalumba in various roles (viticulturist, winery manager & operations manager).
With wife Holly, they purchased their first vineyard in the Riverland in 2003. They quickly started planting alternatives grape varieties, due to their drought resistance.
Today they have just under 200 acres and still continue to plant grape varieties that they feel are better suited to the Australian climate.