In the year since I first talked to Andrew Levins on my podcast, he’s notched up some major achievements – such as becoming a dad and accidentally ending up as the face of the opposition to Barry O’Farrell’s lockout laws. He also closed The Dip (where he found himself making 200 burgers in an hour) and landed on the other side of food-reviewing game – writing criticism as editor of TwoThousand.
In this guise, he’s really tested himself – such as enduring a Vegemite-crust-stuffed pizza so that we don’t have to (he calls it “one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten” ) as well as expanding the geographical reach of TwoThousand to some of his favourite postcodes outside the inner city. This includes heading to “Sydney’s greatest suburb” and sharing with readers the details of his Cabramatta Happy Meal (take note: the sugarcane juice stand he recommends is knockout-level good) or the place in Sydney where you can eat baos that are like burgers.
And speaking of buns and patties, he talks about some of his most memorable reviews (such as his take on Burger Project), plus being sent by California’s tourism board to document his “favourite fast food place in LA”, the piggy fries at Oinkster and the establishment where Levins knocked back the “best tacos of my life” at 4am – an event that also did double-duty as “one of the best meals I’ve had in my life”.
We also chat about the unexpected second life of his cookbook, Diner; whether he misses cooking commercially; the grossest thing he’s ever had to do as a chef, and where he likes to eat in Sydney with his son, Archie (Pinbone, ACME and Moon Park are a few of their fave hangouts). Oh and we talk about his obsession with buskers taking on Taylor Swift, too!
You can listen to this episode on iTunes or download it via RSS or directly. And XL-sized thanks to everyone who has kindly spread the word about this podcast or left a rating or comment in the iTunes store – it makes the bleary-eyed editing sessions worth it!
Epic thanks to Daniel Boud for generously letting me use this awesome photo of Levins photobombing himself at The Dip, an image that was originally created for Time Out Sydney. Check out more of Dan’s standard-setting pictures at Boudist and on Instagram.
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