Nourished - Stories From The Table

What happens when a dinner conversation turns into a national community supporting women in food? For Cheryl Appleton, it was the beginning of something much bigger.In this episode of Nourished – Stories From The Table, Mel chats with Cheryl Appleton, founder of Canadian Women in Food (CWIF), about female entrepreneurship, building food businesses and the power of women supporting women.With 30 years of experience across food manufacturing, food service, grocery retail and supply chain, Cheryl understands the challenges women face when growing a business. What began as a conversation between women in food and beverage ha...

What if your next holiday wasn’t about finding yourself, fixing yourself or becoming a better version of yourself?What if you simply… had a really bloody good time?In the first episode of Season 2 of Nourished – Stories From The Table, I’m joined by Philippa Girling, co-founder of Camp Chateau, a women’s summer camp and women’s retreat in the French countryside built around something many women are desperately short of: rest.Camp Chateau is based on a wonderfully simple idea: you are already enough. You don’t need to work on yourself. Y...

From Burnout to MasterChef: Food, Travel & Finding Your Way Back to Yourself with LarissaWhat happens when the career you worked so hard to build no longer feels like the life you want?For Larissa Hawkins, a successful career in corporate law eventually led to complete burnout — and a search for something that felt more creative, meaningful and authentically hers.In this episode of Nourished – Stories From The Table, Mel sits down with Larissa to talk about food, family, travel, career change, burnout, MasterChef UK and the messy process of reinventing yourself.Wi...

Have you ever wondered what might happen if you stopped waiting for the “right time” and started creating the life you actually want?In this solo episode of Nourished – Stories From The Table, Mel takes a step back from the guest conversations to talk about where Nourished is heading — and the bigger vision she has for bringing women together through food, cooking, travel, adventure and connection.From solo travel and turning 50 to the mental load women carry and the importance of making space for ourselves, Mel explores what it really means to feel nourished — not just by wh...

What if the food we grow up with doesn't just tell us where we've come from—but inspires us to discover where we're going?For Paola Bacchia, food is memory.Growing up in an Italian migrant family in Melbourne, the kitchen was the heart of her childhood. Family meals were where everyone gathered, talked, laughed and connected. That love of food eventually became a career spanning Italian cooking, food photography, storytelling, culinary travel and cookbook writing.In this episode of Nourished – Stories From The Table, Paola takes us from her family kitchen to the...

What if the food we grow up with doesn't just tell us where we've come from—but inspires us to discover where we're going?For Paola Bacchia, food is memory.Growing up in an Italian migrant family in Melbourne, the kitchen was the heart of her childhood. Family meals were where everyone gathered, talked, laughed and connected. That love of food eventually became a career spanning Italian cooking, food photography, storytelling, culinary travel and cookbook writing.In this episode of Nourished – Stories From The Table, Paola takes us from her family kitchen to the...

What if eating better didn’t mean giving up the food you love—but simply learning how to make it differently?In this episode Mel sits down with Violet Parcha, creator of Right At Home, to talk about real food, family, wholesome cooking and what happens when you start paying attention to how food makes you feel.Violet shares her experience of changing the family’s meals, including the improvements she says they noticed in her husband’s energy, digestion and overall wellbeing. We also talk about the connection between gut health and mental wellbeing, and how...

What if food isn't just something we eat, but a way of remembering where we come from, connecting with nature, and expressing who we are?In this episode, Mel sits down with Marissa, a photographer, food creative, forager and storyteller whose relationship with food has been shaped by an incredibly colourful family history.Growing up between a scientist father and generations of celebrated family chefs in Estonia, Marissa was surrounded by both curiosity and cooking. Her creative journey eventually took her into photography, food blogging, foraging and beverage creation — proving that sometimes our passions don't fo...

Episode 5: From Professional Chef to a Life Well Lived — Ed Seisun ManterolaWhat happens when a chef with more than 30 years in professional kitchens decides that family, food and a life well lived matter more than the next kitchen accolade?In this episode of Nourished – Stories From The Table, Mel sits down with chef and caterer Ed Seisun Manterola for a wide-ranging conversation about food, family, travel, professional kitchens and the experiences that have shaped his life.With Maltese and Chilean roots, Ed grew up surrounded by food and family meals before building an i...

Can you eat well, travel the world, enjoy a glass of wine—and still look after yourself? Absolutely.In this episode, I’m talking to Tess Cheng, a health and wellness coach and clinical nutrition expert, about creating a healthier lifestyle without falling into the trap of restriction, guilt or the latest fad diet.Tess has more than 13 years of coaching experience and takes a refreshingly practical approach to nutrition, healthy eating, cooking, travel and sustainable lifestyle change.We talk about why food has become so confusing, how to make healthy food genuinely deli...

What if the food you grew up with could take you all the way back to where you came from—and even show you where you want to go next?For Angela Palermo, food is family, heritage, travel and connection.Growing up in a Calabrese Italian family, she learned early that food wasn't simply something you ate. It was how you gathered, celebrated, shared stories and kept traditions alive.Her journey has taken her from landscape architecture to hospitality, pastry and Italian cooking, eventually leading her to create her own cooking school in So...

What if the food we grow up eating becomes the passport to the places we travel, the people we love, and the stories we carry with us?For Steph, food has always been about much more than eating.As a little girl, she was famously a fussy eater. But somewhere between cooking with her beloved grandmother, Mamina, in southern Chile and gathering around her family’s dinner table, food became a way of connecting with people, culture and place.Her love of food eventually took her to San Francisco to study culinary arts, sp...

What happens when you stop waiting for the “right time” and finally do something just for yourself?For my 50th birthday, I packed my bags, travelled solo to Italy, and went to culinary school.It wasn't a holiday in the traditional sense. It was an investment in myself—and one of the most nourishing things I've ever done.That experience reminded me that food, travel, cooking and self-care aren't simply luxuries or indulgences. They can be ways of reconnecting with ourselves, discovering new passions and creating the kind of memories that stay with us lon...