Page 20 - foodservice Magazine August 2018

20
DINING
Clockwise ( from above):
The bar at Biggie Smalls’ Windsor location; ‘Chicken H.S.P.’ - spiced ground chicken with fried halloumi crumbs, chips, hot sauce, cheese sauce and spring onion; and Biggie Smalls owner, Shane Delia.
Shane Delia’s just come back from lunch with the prime minister. For the first time in ten years, he’s on holiday – in Malta, the country his father left at age 17 – where he’s kicking back with his
wife and kids, watching the World Cup, drinking beers on the beach... and having the odd get-together with reigning heads of state.
It’s a situation Delia finds somewhat surreal, difficult to square with the humble beginnings he still uses as an anchor. “I’m just a fat wog from the suburbs who left school when he was 16,” he says. “You know, I never thought that I’d be sitting at the table with a prime minister having lunch, talking about business and politics and and opportunities and what I can contribute – I mean, that’s, that’s stupid shit.”
It’s true that Delia left Keilor Downs College at 16, where he struggled with learning difficulties and attention deficit disorder.
And, he followed the same path as countless other apprentices before him, moving steadily through the ranks until heading up his own kitchen. But there’s far more to Shane Delia than that Boy from the ‘Burbs. Beneath the affable exterior there’s a canny businessman, an entrepreneur with sizeable ambition, someone ever on the lookout for that next opportunity, and someone with the energy with which to take it.
Ten years ago, Delia opened Maha, with the help of fellow celebrity chef George Calombaris. Their split in 2013 wasn’t exactly amicable,