00:00I just think I'd like to present the Chair of this House Board, Mr Cullen.
00:08And I think there's some other person as well, Mr James.
00:12It's lovely to see you.
00:14Ah, you're a friend of mine.
00:16I'm very impressed as well.
00:17Ah, you also have a message.
00:19Make sure you see my phone.
00:21We've been texting for the last few days.
00:23Good, so I think he's coming out to you.
00:25Yeah, he's definitely coming out to you.
00:27Lovely sign.
00:29I'm the Chair of the House Board, Mr Cullen.
00:32Hello.
00:34Lovely to meet you.
00:35Lovely to meet you.
00:36Very nice to meet you.
00:37Thank you so much.
00:38I would just like to...
00:40So I just want to acknowledge that we meet here today on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
00:46And I have my deepest respect to all First Nations people.
00:51And we are so honoured to welcome you here today in this space, Refettorio House House.
00:58I wanted to share just a few little details about this space.
01:02Because I think you know Mr Massimo Bottura.
01:06And this Refettorio has been created to provide free lunch to vulnerable, beautiful people.
01:14But the story of this space is that one of my philanthropist friends,
01:19when she heard that I had this idea to open a restaurant,
01:24gave us this space.
01:27She liked it and she said, now it's yours.
01:30So I want you to know that every single thing in this space has been their space.
01:35Our guests here today are philanthropists, business people,
01:40who all are phenomenal supporters of us.
01:44I think you did.
01:45Would you like me to do another thing for you?
01:48No, I think that's fine.
01:53And I'd like to introduce you to our extraordinary chefs,
01:57which I will do in a minute.
02:00There we are.
02:02So I'd like to introduce you to our head chef.
02:06Oh no, this is easy. It's okay. Very easy.
02:09You're not going to make me cook, are you?
02:10No, definitely not.
02:11These are all from our Oz Harvest garden.
02:13And our lovely volunteers grow them all.
02:15These are all edible flowers.
02:16So we just use them to pick flowers.
02:19That's what it says.
02:23And then you just decorate.
02:26You can have the big ones, they're the best ones anyway.
02:29They taste better.
02:32Better flavour, more colour.
02:34Yeah, so we can use them.
02:35You can stick them in things to make drinks.
02:37Or you can just use them for beautiful decorations.
02:40Put them into herbs.
02:41So what's a favourite?
02:43We just try and make beautiful, delicious food.
02:45What's on the menu today, James?
02:47What do we have on the menu?
02:48Oh, we've got these beautiful heirloom tomatoes.
02:51Do you see yellow ones, orange ones, red ones?
02:54We just make a beautiful salad with yummy spice like rice.
02:59We had excess or had things that I needed to move on or renew.
03:10Well, it's different every week.
03:12Go below me if you want.
03:14Go below you?
03:15If you want, you need a quick camera underneath.
03:20I want to touch it.
03:25Beautiful, isn't it?
03:27And these are all from our garden.
03:28We have an Osmond style down the hill.
03:31And there's a lot of lucky diamonds.
03:34Yeah, really lucky diamonds.
03:36The flowers will be on your plate as well, upstairs.
03:39You'll see them in action.
03:46I'm sorry.
03:50No, that's perfect.
03:54Thank you so much.
03:55Thank you so much.
03:56Quickly.
04:03Thank you very much, Mel.
04:34These are guests of ours who come during the week for lunch.
04:39And they were so thrilled to be invited to join us for lunch.
04:45These are regular, regular guests of ours.
04:48Hello. Nice to see you.
05:00Hello. Nice to see you.
05:05Can you tell me what you eat?
05:09Well, I don't eat anything.
05:11This is beautiful.
05:16I will tell you that this is crispy potato hash with fennel, Persian feta, green schuch, heirloom tomatoes and house pickles.
05:26And all of this has been rescued.
05:29So it would have come from surplus that might have been given to us from a supermarket or from a manufacturer or a producer.
05:40And then our chefs, the beautiful people you met downstairs, turned it into this exquisite.
05:49And I'm drawing your attention to this.
05:51This is life-changing lemonade.
05:55We have benches where we take ugly lemons that would otherwise be discarded and convert them into lemonade, which is a delicious drink.
06:10Yes, and the misshapen things that we reject in the supermarket.
06:16Yes, we deliver one and a half million meals a week from food that would otherwise be thrown away.
06:25So how often do you come?
06:28Once a week.
06:31I bet you look forward to it.
06:33Every two weeks.
06:35Normally we have... I'm going to read you what today's menu is.
06:40Because today this is just tea.
06:43But lunch today, this is the first course of lunch today.
06:48And then there's a chickpea and lentil dish, protein.
06:52So it's really important to make sure that our guests get nourishing food.
06:57Related to the newspaper, the perpetrators get punished.
07:01That's another option.
07:03Or number three, we can run and find a jug, a bucket.
07:08And if we cannot find a bucket, we should try and find a jug.
07:12And if we cannot find a jug, we should find a teaspoon.
07:16Because although a teaspoon is tiny, there are millions of us.
07:21And every single one of us has a teaspoon.
07:24So I invite everyone to join the order.
07:29Wear a teaspoon on your shoulder.
07:34Exactly, I wear a teaspoon.
07:42A little teaspoon, but somebody tied it up.
07:45A little teaspoon brooch.
07:49I don't know if you can see, but there's a little crown at the end.
07:55Right there.
08:03The purpose of the teaspoon is to remind us of random acts of goodness.
08:08Of all of the things that we do every day to make a difference for people.
08:13Which is why I felt you absolutely are the most prestigious member of the order of the teaspoon.
08:21Because your life is devoted to service and to giving back.
08:26And all of our people here are members of the order of the teaspoon.
08:32Well I'm very honoured to join you.
08:34I feel it's a very good order to get back to work.
08:38So do I. Thank you so much.
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