Reporting from murder scenes and interviewing Lorde live at the Grammys – that’s what Joanna Hunkin did before she became editor at Gourmet Traveller. Enduring these high-pressure situations meant she wasn’t too shaken by her first year at the magazine – which has been incredibly eventful and challenging, and involved her relocating from Auckland to take up the role.

On her very first day on the job, at the Restaurant Awards at Bennelong last year, she was handing out honours to chefs Ben Shewry and Kylie Kwong. Then, as the pandemic hit, she found herself having to produce a magazine under lockdown – a tricky feat, given that photo shoots, recipe testing and other group activities are key to  Gourmet Traveller‘s coverage. Her team used some leftfield ideas to complete cover shoots and other editorial work while socially distancing!

We talk about some of the most memorable stories that have run in the magazine in the past year as well as relevant topics such as “authenticity” in food and how chefs feel about dealing with dietary requirements (from diners who claim they can’t consume anything “shiny” or beginning with the letter ‘A’ to legit allergies to gluten and wheat – I wrote about this for the October issue of Gourmet Traveller).

We also cover her early days in Hong Kong (where her mother fed her microwave bacon!) as well as Joanna’s return to the city later in life, where she dined at secret restaurants hidden inside Hong Kong’s high-density apartments.

Joanna also chats about her top three Australian restaurant experiences of the past year, as well as her favourite dining spots in Auckland.

You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or download it via RSS or directly (or just hit the ‘play’ button above)! You can also find it on Stitcher, Google Podcasts and other podcast players, too. A massive thanks to anyone who has scribbled an ultra-kind review about this show on Apple Podcasts, plus (socially distanced) high-fives to anyone who subscribes to this podcast and lets me know how much they enjoy listening to it. Also: look out for future podcast episodes with Momofuku Seiobo’s Paul Carmichael, Anchovy’s Thi Lee, Golden Century’s Billy Wong, Yerrabingin’s Christian Hampson and Lee Ho Fook’s Victor Liong!