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Humans of the Northern Beaches: We Belong is a podcast amplifying diverse voices from Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Hosted by local community leaders, each episode takes you on a journey through personal stories that delve into identity, culture, migration, disability, food and the profound connections that bind our community together.
Join us as we celebrate the stories that unite us all and discover how these narratives can inspire meaningful change in our own lives. Subscribe now and be part of a movement that embraces diversity and fosters community spirit.
All views and opinions expressed by participants in this podcast belong to the participants and do not reflect the views of Northern Beaches Council.
Hi, and welcome to the humans of the
Northern Beaches We Belong podcast,
the show that gives a voice to a diverse
range of community members here on the
Northern Beaches in Sydney, Australia.
We wish to acknowledge the traditional
custodians of the lands on which we are
recording this podcast and show our
respect to the elders past, present, and
any Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people listening in.
This podcast is broadly funded by the New
Southwest Government to the New Southwest
Social Cohesion Grants
for Local Government.
All views and opinions expressed by
participants in this podcast belong to the
participants and do not reflect the
views of Northern Beaches Council.
Welcome to humans of the Northern Beaches,
the podcast where we explore stories of
belonging, culture, and the
connexions that bring us together.
Today, we are diving into a topic
that speaks to everyone, food.
I'm Maria, and my guest is Claire Hammond.
Claire believes that no matter a person's
background, language, or lifestyle,
sharing a meal has the
power to connect us all.
Through Chef by the Sea, a Northern
Beaches catering service, she celebrates
food as a breach to relieve memories,
honour family traditions,
and learn from others.
Welcome to the show, Claire.
Hello.
It's good to have you.
I have a list of quick fire questions to
get to know you a bit better and
understand your life and what's your life
living on the northern beaches looks like.
But before that, would you
like to introduce yourself?
Hello, again.
My name is Claire.
I live in Avalon.
I have two kids and a dog.
It's important.
It is important.
But yes, food.
Food is my third love, I guess you
could say, after all of those things.
Not
just my job, my hobby, something I enjoy
reading about, something I enjoy
shopping for, taking photographs of.
I love food, and I
feel very lucky to have such a passion
that is not only my income, but my
way to unwind as well, and
something I can do with my friends.
Great.
I I can't wait to hear more about this.
So let's go to those quick fire questions.
What do you prefer, Manly or Palm Beach?
That's tough for somebody who lives on the
That's a really tough one.
I'm going to say Manly, though.
All right.
Beach or Bush?
Oh, again, another really good one.
I'm going to say Beach.
Beeline or Ferry?
Ferry.
Mm-mm.
Warringah Mall or Warringah Square?
Warringah.
Warringah because it's closer.
And I guess it's also shopping in a
shopping centre or maybe at the
Warringah market, shopping locally?
Yes, I do love.
I love going to produce markets.
But the problem is
I always buy more than I need.
Coffee or tea?
Oh, God, these are hard.
Tea before coffee.
Good one.
Early bird or night owl?
Early.
Emu or kangourou?
Kangourou.
One thing you can't live without?
Oh, God.
Which is not food?
The first thing that came
to my mind was my pillow.
I don't know why.
I think it's because I said it to myself
last night before I went to sleep.
I love my pillow.
Oh, nice.
Cute.
What's your go-to comfort food?
I think we're going to talk about this
later, so you can skip this question.
Oh, but it's easy.
Spaghetti bolognese.
Nice.
Summer or winter?
Winter.
And here is where I like to ask
Southern hemisphere, winter,
or Northern hemisphere.
Do you like snow?
I absolutely love snow.
Skiing is one of my favourite
things in the world.
So probably Northern.
It's just a bit more snow up there.
More.
Sweet or savoury?
Savoury.
Savoury.
Nice.
Do you have a favourite coffee
shop on the northern beaches?
There's a place called the Marina Cafe
in Church Point or Bayview Church Point.
I just love the ambience there.
City life or countryside?
Country.
What's your favourite way
to relax after a long day?
One of my My favourite, favourite things
is watching a movie,
snuggling with my kids.
I'm open for suggestions.
Do you have a favourite spot
on the northern beaches?
I do love going up to the Lighthouse.
Yeah, I think that's an incredible walk
and an incredible vista
once you're up there.
It's true.
Thank you.
It was interesting to hear about these
little the choices that you
make and that makes your everyday lives.
All right, let's start at the beginning.
What inspired your love
for food and cooking?
I think it's an easy question to answer
looking back, though, if you'd have
asked me the time, I didn't realise.
But I grew up in a family where we always
used to go to Sunday
lunch at my grandma's.
And my My grandma had the most amazing
vegetable garden where she grew beans and
tomatoes and cucumber and merrows
and all the berries you can think of.
Berries that don't even
exist here, like Goosbury's.
She had an apple tree She had mint, and
sage, and thyme, and rosemary, and
potatoes, and all of these things
used to go into our Sunday lunches.
And as a kid, six years old,
I never really appreciated it.
But now I look back and I think, Oh, my
gosh, how incredible were we to
experience that every Sunday.
Can I just ask where your grandma lived?
So in Somerset, in England.
England.
Yeah.
And then as I got older, I
started cooking for my friends.
Again, it's just something I did.
I didn't realise how much I loved it.
And I ended I'm not going to
university to study English.
And after I finished
that degree, I went and did a ski season
cooking in a chalet, and that was it.
I was like, I want this to be my job.
I don't want to go and do the marketing
masters that I've enrolled in.
My cooking, this is what I want to do.
This is what I love.
This seems to bring
other people enjoyment.
And I can travel and I can do this.
And that was it.
And here we are, 23 years late.
So you mentioned going to your
grandma's place for Sunday lunches.
Can you share a defining memory related to
food from your childhood?
So that was a memory when you
experienced it with the family.
It's a funny one.
My dad, we used to have curries
every Friday in my family.
And
I must have been early, and I'd gone on to
bed, and then my dad would be cooking
curry late on a Friday evening.
It probably wasn't late, but
in my kids' mind, it was late.
I used to get up, and he'd let me
deep fry the poppadums in the oil.
Then I think I couldn't even remember if
I had one or I just got sent back to bed.
But
I have this very clear memory of sitting
on the counter in my pyjamas and my
dad showing me how to fry a poppadum.
Oh, beautiful.
You said that you went
and you cooked In France?
In France, yes.
In a chalet, yeah.
And then you continued university?
So I'd finished Uni at that point.
And I had enrolled to
do a marketing masters, and I just
unenrolled from that course.
And in the summers, I would cook
in Scotland in hunting lodges.
And then in the winter, I'd go
back to France to cook in a chalet.
And I did that for three years
before coming to Australia.
And you came to Australia and
you started Chef By the Sea?
So first of all, I wanted experience of
working in fast-paced commercial kitchens.
Definitely something, a wish that came
true, and it was a baptism by fire.
Working in manly cafés, cooking for the
Bold and Beautiful as soon
as they'd come out the water.
Eggs, so many different orders for eggs
in the first five minutes the café opened.
It was definitely fast-paced, but
it was the experience that I wanted.
And from there, I went to work at Paloo,
and then opened my own cafe
and ran that for five years before chef.
Before?
Yeah.
So how did you start Chef by the Sea?
And what was your vision for that?
Honestly,
It was to do with income, wanting to
generate more income, knowing that I had
been a private cook in England
and thinking or seeing an opportunity
for it on the northern beaches.
And so I made some flyers one
Christmas for Christmas catering.
And
I think I understood as well that I was
getting bored of the
repetition of the café.
It'd be five years, and I think I wanted
something new, and I
understood that catering does give you
more opportunity to try new
things, to be more creative.
And at that time as well, I became a mum
and sold the café, and Chef by the
Sea was born in earnest, I guess.
Yeah, that's how it all came about.
And throughout your life and throughout
your cooking experiences, and
you had a chance to
learn about different cultures as well.
Is there a dish that best represents your
cultural background or personal journey,
or have you learned any specific
culture of dish?
I think I'm going to answer the question,
what dish best represents me?
And I think that's the
Sunday roast chicken.
Oh, nice.
Because I feel it's something
that you can always share.
It's something that everyone enjoys.
The roast potatoes, I always say that a
lady called Jane taught me
how to make roast potatoes.
I used to be her assistant
at this beautiful country house, and she
made the best roast potatoes.
And she used duck fat, and she used to cut
them to a particular
size and roast them just a particular way.
I do my carrots with butter,
honey, and a little bit chilli.
I guess that's not quite so English, but
maybe an influence from other places.
And broccoli, and we always have that.
That's our Sunday roast.
Sounds amazing.
I think I'm going to be hungry.
So yes, broccoli, those
are a bit tricky to cook.
Just very quickly.
Very quickly.
So that's the strict it.
Okay.
Yeah.
So they're still crunchy,
so the kids enjoy them.
So food is such a unique way
of breaking down barriers.
Have you seen need to
bring people together?
I don't think it matters.
I don't know how to answer that.
I think I feel everyone
enjoys food, don't they?
Even if people don't enjoy
cooking, they enjoy eating.
That's so true.
There's got to be something...
Maybe there's a memory that a particular
dish sparks, or
it's a way of saying, I love you, or
a way of empathising with someone.
Appreciating things,
appreciating each other as well.
When someone's ill, you
take them some food.
When someone's had a baby,
you take them some food.
When someone has a party,
you cook some food.
I even find it when you go to a party
and there are lots of finger foots.
And this is also how to icebreaker, right?
How to break the ice and how to get
into a conversation with somebody.
It's true.
So it opens up conversations.
I think so.
Yeah.
So I don't know if that's particularly
answering the question about culture, but
I just think that it's a common
ground that all humans have.
We all need to eat.
But it's so true.
It's so true.
I completely agree that every culture,
I think they have this tradition, like
gathering around food and celebrating
things with food
and appreciating things with food.
Let's And yes, sharing meals.
Now my next question would have been about
sharing meals, but we talked about this,
that sharing meals actually
brings people together.
It's a time for pause to actually
sit down and Stop what you're doing.
Talk about the day.
Enjoy a meal together.
Even though that's five minutes,
it's still making the time to do it.
Yes.
And even if it's not a five-course meal,
you can still have a really nice
conversation and the
day on a high note, I would say.
If you could host a dinner with people
from any background or any famous
people, what would you serve and why?
So a couple of weekends ago when I was a
book for the Living Library,
some people that I were talking to
I ran Ashrams for...
Well, had been involved in
running Ashrams for 80,000 people.
8,0, 80,000.
And those people
all came together for breakfast, lunch,
and dinner for the duration of the event.
And I just blew my mind.
So I think I would choose Indian culture
because not only do I love the spices and
curries and the amount of dishes that you
can have that are all shared, but it's
done on such mass that it's just...
Oh, it's beautiful.
I think it would be a wholly experience to
share food on mass in those numbers How
many people did you head
to your biggest event?
A hundred and eighty.
Oh, that's a lot.
I know, but it's not 80,000.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, a hundred and eighty.
And I loved it.
It was amazing.
And you mentioned Indian culture.
Do you cook different cultural foods?
Or are you sometimes asked to do that,
or you are just sometimes you choose to?
Definitely sometimes asked.
I can remember a Moroccan theme,
Mexican theme, Spanish A theme?
Yeah.
And I love creating menus around a theme.
That's something I really, really enjoy.
The research, the development of the
dishes, bringing it all together.
On a personal level, I love a
new cookery book from a particular country
and then creating dishes and learning.
Do you like experimenting?
Like trying new culture of dishes, trying
new recipes or maybe adapting them?
I do.
It sounds funny, but
I need time and head space to do that.
Maybe because what I do
every day, I do so easily.
And so when I get a new recipe in front of
me, that's more of a leisure activity, and
I need the time and head space
to be able to get it done.
But I do enjoy it.
I think this is like with
everything else, right?
When you really
to enjoy and try out new things and learn,
you need your time and you
need your peace to do that.
And do you have any particular preference,
any culture, preferences?
You mentioned Indian culture
and your love of spices.
Is there anything particular?
I don't think I have one.
I did mention spaghetti bolognese.
I do love Italian food.
But I also love French food,
and I also love Indian food.
And do you cook this food for your family?
Definitely.
They're lucky.
So what's a favourite tradition or ritual
involving food that you've
learned from another culture?
At university, I used to share
accommodation with
a girl who practised Ramadan.
She wouldn't eat from dawn to dusk, and I
always used to see her in the kitchen
in the evenings eating so much.
And then more recently,
the night markets in L'Aquemba and
all the amazing food stores there and just
all the people in the streets
and the wonderful atmosphere.
Pink milk, samosas, chicken
cooking over coals under fairy lights.
It It's quite magical.
It sounds magical.
It sounds magical.
And people from every culture there to
enjoy the food and the atmosphere and
to share it all together.
I like that.
I like that tradition.
Would you like to have something similar
on the northern beaches, perhaps?
It'd be awesome.
Lots of people are missing that.
And I heard a lot about the markets in
the Kamba, but I have never been there.
There's the night noodle
markets as well that they have.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
Food Any food market.
And what do you think is the biggest
lesson food can teach us
about life and relationships?
I'm
not sure it's a lesson as such, maybe more
of a philosophy, but people always ask
me, Will there be enough food?
I always like to think that I'm very
generous with my servings and portioning.
I think it's a nice philosophy, not
just for serving food, but for life.
A generosity of spirit,
compassion, and empathy towards other
people, and just being open, I guess.
So generosity.
Thank you for sharing your incredible
journey and insights with us today.
Is there anything else that you would like
share us, or where can a listener
find out more about Chef by the Sea?
If you want to stay up to date with
me, the best place is Instagram.
I'm always sharing not only food, but
family and adventures there.
It's a good place to connect in
this age where we do connect online.
So, yeah, that's a good place.
Thank you.
Thank you again.
Our listeners never underestimate
the magic of shared meal.
Everyone has a story to share.
The next time you see someone you don't
know in your neighbourhood, be curious,
say hello, and you may be surprised
to hear the story they have to tell.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode.
Leave a review, listen to another episode,
or contact us to share your story.