THIS IS HOW IT ALL BEGAN!

Meet Julie & Russ ... my 'Foster Parents' in Oz! Russ was my boss when I landed in Sydney in 1981 as a management trainee with J&J. Aside from teaching me corporate conduct, he and Julie were instrumental in showing me the Aussie life style. I was exposed to fine dining - the modern definition - for the first time when they took me & my stunning wife-to-be, Dora, to Tetsuya when it was a much smaller, but nonetheless already famous joint in Rochelle, in 1982. We had Kumimoto oysters with
Japanese rice wine vinegar & chives, plus Wolf Blas Gold Eagle 'champagne'. It was still called chamapagne then before the French caught up with them. Our lunch was 4 hours long. It was 27 years ago, when some of the chefs we know now were in diapers.

I learned about the beauty of Aussie ingredients then; Tsamanian scallops, green prawns, mud crabs, John Dories, meats, produces etc etc .... you name them, I ate them.

Best of all was the 'eating opportunites' they offered me. Russ' defintion of a vacation is counting these opportunities ie at 3 meals per day, a 1-week holiday equates 21 eating opportunities. I was introduced to Manfredi & Doyle, celebrity chefs then, way before Perry et al.

My decison to join LCB in Oz after checking out their schools in Paris, London & Tokyo has a lot to do with this couple. To Dora and I they are our mentors and very special family friends who looked after us for almost 30 years. Mucho Gracias - Julie & Russ!