The Toscano Family – Legend
Newcomers to Melbourne inevitably discover the city has an Italian heart. If they’re really lucky, they’ll soon realise that it has a name: Toscano’s. The family-run grocer celebrated its 75th birthday last year, giving a moment to reflect on what their steadfast commitment to the fundamentals of good eating brings to Melbourne’s home cooks. It begins in their wheelhouse of fresh produce that’s always unimpeachable in its quality, often molto Italiano in its focus – here is the place to broaden your horizons five kinds of radicchio or two different rosemaries, or connect with your heritage with fresh borlotti beans or purple sprouting broccoli.
Italian as it may be, Toscano’s is also very Melbourne, which means alongside the cumquats and bergamots you’ll find yuzu from orchards in the High Country. Tom Sarafian’s hummus shares fridge space with Con Christopolous’s taramasalata, there’s Jock’s ice-cream in the freezer, and Baker Bleu in the bread basket. Put simply, there’s a strong case to be made that this is the finest greengrocer in Australia.
Pat Nourse, creative director of MFWF, is a fan, and says that even in a city where fresh food markets and specialist grocers are in no short supply, Toscano’s has few rivals. “Just like they say you can’t make old friends, could you even make a new Toscano’s if you tried? So much of what makes it great stems from its history, the knowledge of produce and Victoria and relationships with growers and suppliers and customers. Auguri, Toscano’s, and bravo, famiglia Toscano. Melbourne is so much the better for your efforts.”
Alex Dekker – Trailblazer
Remember the pandemic? Alex Dekker certainly does. Those lean years transformed him from a 19-year-old university student into the leader of a not-for-profit powerhouse reimagining traditional approaches to food relief. It began with lasagne. Specifically, a tray baked for his sister, an emergency doctor in a hospital COVID ward. Alex Makes Meals quickly snowballed into a volunteer-staffed production line making meals for frontline workers. Now powered by nine full-time staff and 100 volunteers, it provides 230,000 meals each year to people in need from its Preston kitchen. Another kitchen is set to be launched soon in Yea to feed the state’s north-eastern corridor.
“We focus on getting high–quality food access inside of community organisations themselves, so they can run their own food programs,” Dekker says. “It’s allowing other organisations that are doing direct community involvement to integrate food programs into their offering. That means we might go to neighbourhood housing and help them run their own community dinners. Or to a domestic violence program where women can frequently go to pick up take-home meals for their kids. That allows us to draw more people into those programs and into the arms of social workers. It makes a very big follow-on impact. Every meal that someone eats isn’t just a meal; it’s the start of a relationship with someone who can help.”
Now 26 and embarking on a year-long MBA at Cambridge that will feed directly back into his mission, Dekker has proven to have the kind of daring that has won him a legion of admirers including restaurateur Legend Duré Dara: “At his age, to be such a veteran of feeding people and encouraging us all to think about food security… he’s a legend ahead of his time.”
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