Sailing the Seas of Sustainable Eats with Plant-Based Master Chef Simon Toohey

Mentioned in the Intro: The 22Reboot Challenge - The ultimate 22-day transformation system... The simplest, most effective path to a healthy, sustainable lifestyle you can be proud of.

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Now, banana skin... You peel [the banana], you take off the white pith, and then you get two forks and you scrape it until it's pulled banana skin - shreds - and then you cook that into a  barbecue sauce and use pulled banana skin burgers and they're actually delicious!
- Simon Toohey

In this entertaining and eclectic conversation with plant-based chef Simon Toohey we explore the joy and passion that fuels his journey and discover how he's been able to inspire people across the globe with his commitment to sustainable living, community building, and a kitchen playlist that's as soulful as his food.

From ocean swims to advocating for zero waste, Simon shares his holistic approach to wellness that extends beyond the plate. We learn about local initiatives in Geelong, Victoria, and the global reach of the Forgotten Food Project in Sri Lanka, which reminds us that every bite we take can be a step towards a healthier, kinder world.

We wrap up with Simon's reflections on finding common ground in the fight for a sustainable future, whether you're full-fledged vegan or just dipping your toes into plant-based waters.

Tune in for an episode that's as much about nourishing the soul as it is about tantalizing the taste buds!

>> Full Show Notes, Guest Bio, and Special Links HERE <<

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Episode Transcript

Simon Toohey (00:00):
And my restaurant had butchers coming over and
then wives bought them there fora joke.
Of course it was their wives,the mental butchers.
But anyway, we'll move on toanother story.
So you know, early old sort ofbutchery man coming in, oh,
don't eat me.
Where's your steakhouse?
I said.
Look, in truth there's asteakhouse right below us.
If this doesn't feed you, thisdoesn't fill you up, then you
know I will personally buy youone.
And of course their portionswent through the roof and this

(00:21):
side and they couldn't walk outthe door and they loved it.

Ella Magers (00:31):
Hey there, and welcome to Rise and Thrive with
me, ella Majors.
I created this high vibepodcast from a place of profound
curiosity, fierce compassionand the deep desire to connect
you with the wisdom ofinspirational wellness, health,
fitness and conscious leadersand changemakers.
Here's to discovering our blindspots and embracing life as the

(00:53):
adventure it is.
The time is now.
Let's do this.
Hey, hey, everyone, and we areback After taking a month off.
I am thrilled to be kicking offthe first episode of the new
year with a super fun and deeplymeaningful episode with Simon

(01:17):
Tuei.
If you're not following Simonon Instagram yet, now's the time
to find him and watch hisplant-based cooking demos,
because they always bring animmediate smile to my face and
often an out loud laugh shortlythereafter.
The link is in the show notesto follow him.
So, yeah, you're in for a realtreat with this episode,

(01:41):
especially if you don't knowwhat a weenus is I didn't until
Simon educated me.
It's a lot of fun.
Simon has worked in thehospitality industry since he
was 15 years old.
He was a finalist in the showMasterChef and was invited to
compete in the All Stars season.
Simon has gone on to open tworestaurants in India, founded

(02:06):
the Sustainable Earth Network,is authoring his own cookbook
and has his own cooking show onChannel 10 called Freshly Picked
.
Before we dive in, I want tofirst give a shout out to a Rise
and Thrive listener, vivianaSherman, who was kind enough to
leave us a five star review onApple Podcast, saying if you
want to giggle while you learn,this is the show you want to

(02:28):
listen to.
I like the interviews a lot.
Every person gettinginterviewed has their insights,
struggles and knowledge.
My favorite part during theinterviews is when they answer
the question what is one mealthat you can't eat?
What is one meal that you can'tlive without?
So I want to give a big thankyou for your support to Viviana

(02:49):
and if you like what you hear,then please take 30 seconds and
leave us a review.
It is so helpful in helping usspread our message.
And last, given that it is thenew year and we've got some
fantastic interviews coming up,our very next episode will
actually be one with Quinn and I.
If you missed our first episodewe're calling you had me at

(03:13):
Quantum.
Make sure to check that one outas well.
Yeah, but given that it's thenew year, it's the perfect time
for you to take on my 22 rebootchallenge, which I created in
order to make the powerful toolsthat I use to help my one on
one clients transform theirbodies and lives accessible to

(03:34):
everyone.
22 reboot is a comprehensive 22day lifestyle transformation
system that I designed to helpanyone who has been neglecting
the one asset that we cannotafford to lose our health,
because there ain't no plan Bbody.
All without our health, we havenothing.

(03:56):
As you well know, 22 reboot isthe simplest, most effective
path to a healthy, sustainablelifestyle that you can be proud
of, so I want to invite you tojoin the hundreds who have
already achieved massive,sustainable results by going to
22 reboot dot com today, andalthough I designed it with

(04:18):
entrepreneurs and professionalsand mission driven leaders in
mind, this system will work foryou, even if you're not one.
Alrighty, that's it for now.
I will be catching you up on myholidays and some other fun
facts in the next episode, butfor now, let's do this.

(04:39):
Here we are, Simon.
We're doing this.

Simon Toohey (04:46):
How are you mate you well?

Ella Magers (04:49):
I'm doing great.
How are you?
What time?
Seven o'clock in the morning.
You seem very chipper.

Simon Toohey (04:53):
I am chipper, I'm a morning person.
It's nice actually, I like.
I like early mornings.
I spend my life doinghospitality, so it's quite weird
that I actually have foundmyself becoming more of a
morning person.
But I'm here, I'm happy and I'mready to, ready to chat.

Ella Magers (05:06):
Yeah, what is your morning usually like when you
get up?

Simon Toohey (05:10):
We have a golden retriever that puts her nose up
against your face and nuzzles into try to wake you up.
So that's kind of the startingpoint.
My partner is a yoga teacher aswell, so she's up at sort of
five o'clock to go teach classesat six and whatever.
So it's also forced morningperson.
But you know, get so much doneLike we take mental love, and
our dog's name is mental, by theway.

Ella Magers (05:31):
It's a name.
Oh my gosh, yeah, I know,mental, mental, the golden
retriever.

Simon Toohey (05:37):
So she's obsessed with swimming, as golden
retrievers are.
So we live kind of close to thewater, so we get up really
early, we get a coffee from thelocal cafe, walk her down to the
ocean and she just goes nutsfor an hour.

Ella Magers (05:47):
That's kind of it.

Simon Toohey (05:49):
It's kind of something to look forward to as
well.

Ella Magers (05:51):
Yeah, what a wonderful morning routine ritual
.
Yeah.

Simon Toohey (05:55):
That sounds lovely , love it Very much so.

Ella Magers (05:58):
Good, well, I cannot wait to dive in.
I mean, there's just so muchthat you are involved with and
so many things you're passionateabout, and I first of all just
want to say thank you for makingthe kitchen a fun place to be.

Simon Toohey (06:14):
And literally every time.

Ella Magers (06:16):
I go to your Instagram and I see what was the
one that really got me.
I think I had to scroll down alittle bit, but the eggplant
steak with caper Caesar dressing, oh yeah.

Simon Toohey (06:28):
That was fun.

Ella Magers (06:30):
That looks amazing.

Simon Toohey (06:31):
I should do that again.
Oh you're just going to bunchof eggplants.
Actually, I'll make that.
Oh, thanks for money, that'sgood.
You're welcome yeah.

Ella Magers (06:40):
Well, you know, before we dive in, I would like
to kind of just get a sense ofwho you are like Beyond the bio
and all the accomplishments andthe trips and the travel and the
nonprofits and all the thingsyou're doing.
Kind of, behind all that andbehind your bio, who is Simon?

(07:00):
You know who are you.
Like what does that mean to you?
You can take that however youwant.

Simon Toohey (07:06):
Yeah, okay, I'm an average person who did average
at school, who was obsessed withsport, a bit of a jock, and who
just loves trying to be joyous.
That's a really good question.
It's just a bit of a chill out,but I'm definitely a jock from
way back that no one reallyknows about.
Like, I am sort of like out ofthat pants, rugby, jumper,

(07:28):
sports five days a week, kind ofthing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that'show I did.

Ella Magers (07:33):
I did none of this, yeah.

Simon Toohey (07:35):
So I used to play a lot of sports but really fell
out of love with it because ofhis little.
I fell out of love with it justbecause of the people around,
so I just sort of stopped.
But yeah, that's it, I reckon.
And then, holistically, I thinkin a past life I probably was
maybe a yoga teacher or a livingin an ashram or you know,
studying that my partner's doing.
So I think there was that slowtransition to that.

(07:57):
I don't know.
But yeah, I'd like to thinkabout that a little bit more and
give a secondary answer at theend of the chat.

Ella Magers (08:03):
Okay, fair enough, and do you do yoga now with your
partner?

Simon Toohey (08:07):
Yeah, so was she your teacher constantly, but
I'll do it sort of a few times aweek to keep myself nimble.

Ella Magers (08:15):
Got to be nimble to do all the other things.

Simon Toohey (08:17):
That's right, all right.

Ella Magers (08:19):
Well, how do you feel now?
That was kind of the seriousquestion about a little
lightning round to have fun,little questions to kick us off.
Okay, all right.
Three daily habits or ritualsthat you attribute to optimizing
your health and wellness.

Simon Toohey (08:34):
Coffee Mushroom extract tablets like lion's mane
and that's just our stuff.
They're amazing and likevitamin B's Got it.
So they're any one of them.

Ella Magers (08:46):
And it can be as lightning as we want it to be.
Do you listen to music whileyou're in the kitchen and, if so
, what type of music do youlisten to?

Simon Toohey (08:53):
When I remember, yes, and I listened to things
like the Teske Brothers, I knowthey would know the Teske
Brothers, but yeah.

Ella Magers (09:00):
I just got introduced to the Teske.
I was just at the.

Simon Toohey (09:02):
Austin.

Ella Magers (09:02):
City Limits Music Festival and Teske Brothers were
there.
Yes, oh my gosh, they'reamazing.

Simon Toohey (09:10):
Georgia used to work with them back in the old
days.
Yeah, so you used to play ather cafe when she was running a
pizza joint in the country ofAustralia like country Victoria.
Yeah, so we got engaged intheir house too, which is kind
of funny.
So it's a little fun.
We love them.

Ella Magers (09:25):
How cool.
I mean just so soulful and ohmy god breaks me.
Oh my god, if you guys don'tknow Teske brothers, gotta check
them out.
Yeah, yeah, right, okay, aquirk or fun fact that most
people don't know about you.
Besides the jock thing, becausewe already said that I really
stretchy skin.

Simon Toohey (09:41):
So like this is called awareness, almost games
called awareness.
People might lose theirbreakfast if they're listening
to this.
At this stage I wouldn't showyou, but that's my party trick.

Ella Magers (09:55):
He's called a what?

Simon Toohey (09:59):
Yeah, yeah, you're almost.
Skin is called your weakness.

Ella Magers (10:13):
Okay, you get to gift one piece of kitchen
equipment to every household inthe world.
What equipment do you gifteverybody?

Simon Toohey (10:20):
Oh, solid technique pants and I'm not
being sponsored, so thetechnique pants are the
Australian made cast ironraw-dime pants.
You'll give them to the newgrandchildren, your
great-grandchildren.
They will last forever.
So that is something that I'llgive them because they're sexy
to you and look hot.

Ella Magers (10:33):
I love them oh all right, I'm gonna have to find
those and put the link in theshow notes.
You just sold that.
Okay, please do okay, yeah it'syour last day on earth.
Are you having tea or acocktail?
Maybe a Gibson?
What type of tea are youdrinking and how are you
preparing it?
I think one of us.

Simon Toohey (10:51):
Yeah, I'll drink, cause I'm a tea person as well.
I studied tea with Dilma, whichis a tea I don't know if you
have it in America, but it's asingle origin smoked tea done by
Dilma.
It's pretty fantastic, but it'ssmoked using cinnamon bark, so
it's like a lapsing Sushong orlike a Russian caravan, but
using a single origin Sri Lankantea, and they smoke it using

(11:11):
Sri Lankan cinnamon.
It's insane.
So that's my tea, and thencocktail wise at Gibson.
I think you just know that likeI'd have a Gibson in a
heartbeat.
Sure, give me all of those allthe time.

Ella Magers (11:22):
All right, cool, and we're gonna get to your East
Australian tour ofsustainability, which I can't
wait to hear about, and treelong good thing.
I like I can't wait to get upto all that before we do, though
I do want to kind of start withyour backstory.
Yeah, I know you started in thehospitality industry at a young
age.
Can you share about that andhow that path kind of eventually

(11:44):
led you to be so passionate nowabout sustainable eating and
zero waste cooking?

Simon Toohey (11:49):
Yeah, I mean I followed up.
My brother was a work in akitchen as a dish here at a
bakery.
I don't know how old he was,but I started at 15.
I took over his role because hewent, got a real job and grew
up and so I started scrubbingsugar off the bottom of pans and
making donuts and gosh or mightit's like those things.
It'd be safe if you want to eata McDonald's, don't work at

(12:10):
McDonald's, kind of thing.
You know it's like that in theold days.
Obviously we already they'regonna have the time based ones
at all, but anyway.
So the same thing with kind ofbakeries like old school bank If
you want to love a bakery,don't go work at the bakery,
because you really start tounderstand the incident of all.
But I did for a couple of yearsand I really all I've ever done
is hospitality.
That's literally everythingI've done.
So so they're at 15 work therefor a couple of years, it's sort

(12:32):
of so.
I think we started at 5 am or 4am, you know, on weekends and
something out of 15 years old,just kind of crazy, getting paid
nothing.
And Then I moved on to like apizza joint, which was a really
nice local pizza place down theroad from us.
Then I started studyinghospitality and tourism and then
I got into a hotel, then I gotto a pub and that public into a

(12:52):
cocktail bar and a cocktail bargo into another one.
And then I went to London andworked there.
So it was this sort of likenatural progression of really
enjoying Making things, beingcreative in this hospitality
world, loving talking to peopleand just bit of showmanship I
think I think at a young age youkind of Love this sort of idea
of being quasi famous.
You know people come to see you, they want to hang out with you

(13:16):
.
You want to talk them.
You give them a good time.
You're showing them a great youknow, showing them all the fun
that they could be having.
Quite so I think I became quiteaddicted.

Ella Magers (13:24):
Hmm, and well, it's interesting because earlier you
had said when you're kind oftrying to come up with my very
first tough question, but you'resaying I try to bring joy or
something like that, and to mejust in a little bit I've known
you and from what I can tell,like you don't need to try, you
really really embody that verywell.

Simon Toohey (13:46):
So lovely.
I mean it's now just ingrainedFlee like insane that if you
meet my parents you know myfolks are pretty lively and it's
my brother.
So I think it's genetic.
Thank goodness I just it wasluck of the draw and I really
loved it and I also I think justto finalize answer to answer
that question Is it's.
I think I became really afraid.
I probably still am now, but Ican work out where I can go in a

(14:08):
way he would take.
But I think you become quiteafraid of leaving, which is hard
.
And hospitality it's a verymuch a vortex because it's all
you ever know and you don't backyourself for anything else
other than knowing.
Have you know make a drink orwork in hospitality or whatever
that you know, being a chef orwhatever that could be?
And so there's stages where youprobably do want to leave.
When I did, I went to become atravel agent and I was there for

(14:29):
six months and I got firedbecause I sucked.
Well, this is funny blaminggame, for the manager was an
atrocious human being in a verynasty, nasty human.
So we're also sits quietly andthat's it happen.
The person hospitality tellsthe manager to go stuff
themselves and you know.
As a result, it's fine, whichyou know, sure enough.
Yeah, yeah yeah, I got it anyway, so that's right.

(14:52):
So that was six months of apain, but it was quite useful
because I thought we are Workout my travels around the world,
which I'm sure we're traveling,talk you out soon, but anyway.
So it's this vortex of likesucking you in and keeping you
dead because it's such a family,you know, it's such an amazing
group of people and if youaccept it and love it, you will
be loved and accepted so much aswell, and if you don't, that's

(15:12):
probably not a bad thing,because you can pull yourself
away when you're ready.

Ella Magers (15:16):
Mmm.
All right, so you know Most ofwhat's out there in terms of
hospitality, and then thesebakeries and all that are very
far from Fyne based.
Yeah, yeah, like a sausage rollwhen did you start making that
shift, making those connections,starting to feel, you know,

(15:36):
drawn towards that side ofthings?

Simon Toohey (15:39):
I actually think really it was my wife now I keep
calling her partner, but Isuppose it's wife, but Georgia
let's call it Georgia becauseshe's gonna make Georgia is
probably the one that started meon that journey.
That was not seven years agonow, so I Really was always
questioning it in a way.
But again was sitting by thesimplest and the ease of cooking
, you know mean three veg, whichis a very stunning.
You know dishes like whatevermeat, peas, potatoes being

(16:02):
something like that.
You know it sits at the plate.
That's kind of it and that'ssort of what we all grew up with
and what our grandparents andmothers and fathers all cooked
us, but rather was vegan andGeorge's veggie vegan and
George's mom was vegan out ofthe fact that the kids were,
because you know they livedtogether and so that so just was
easier to buy on the.
And what I actually found Ithink it became the background

(16:23):
of hospitality was this sort ofactually not being a challenge.
I was like, oh, this is quitechallenging and it's not that so
challenging for me because weI've got three other people who
know how to cook it.
I can just rely on them, butit's challenging for everyone
else and that's kind of fun.
So not only did I jump on boardthe vegan thing with great love
and enjoyment of trying newfoods and new dishes and taking

(16:44):
the things that are Meat-basedand to transfer them into
non-beat, based off, becauseit's not that lot of, it's not
that difficult some of it is alot of, it's not but it was
really exciting to try and getother people To do it, and not
in a forceful way.
I'm not saying like you need tobe vegan, I'm gonna.
I was like I'm gonna open up asmokehouse that smokes only
plants and you can come along ifyou like.
You know 60 70% of the peopleweren't vegan and they loved it

(17:07):
and they went home full and itwas really really great.
So these kinds of little tickssort of was what meant even more
exciting and sort of likesomething that I wanted to do
other than just I'm doing itbecause of animals slash plants,
slash climate.
You know animals slash climate,slash, you know.

Ella Magers (17:23):
Yeah, so it started down that and you bring so much
fun to it, right, it's thatsomething that you do?
Intention or is that just whoyou are and like, so of course
you're gonna bring it.

Simon Toohey (17:33):
I think I was born to yell Like the Bruce
Springsteen.
Was it born to run?
It's born to yell.
I just a lot of cooking showsreally dull.
I find a lot of there's lackinginformation and there's lacking
in joy, and all those puttogether kind of makes me say,
well, there has to be somethingbetter than this.
There has to be Something wherewe can produce really good food

(17:56):
with great information.
So we're not waxing lyricalabout plants and then going I
actually don't know what itmeans, though, and that's
another thing.
It's like well, what does thatmean for you to serve mushrooms
so much?
What is it about them?
That is really important.
You're like well, you knowspace of use, use of water,
vitamin D.
You know they're the outerexoskeleton which holds a lot of
moisture, and then it can bereleased and rah, rah, rah, rah.
So all these sorts of things iskind of just adds on to it, and

(18:20):
I want people to sort of beengaged and enjoy the food.
So if I can get them to enjoyme, then hopefully the food is
almost secondary in a way.

Ella Magers (18:28):
Mm-hmm.
It's not the case with so manythings, right?
Yeah, I was listening tosomebody and they were talking
about Just being so intentional,about connection, right about
in terms of Prioritizing wherethey're gonna spend their time
in their business, and they werelike you know what?
The majority of my time isspent building Relationships.
Yeah, because it's the people,it's the connections, it's not

(18:52):
the daily to-dos that you haveon your to-do list right that
are gonna help grow and inspireand Invite people to yeah, be a
part of your world.

Simon Toohey (19:01):
So it's so true, I completely agree with that.
And it's kind of like the worldis like a bunch of Lego pieces
and they all start building incertain areas of a town, but as
they get higher, higher, theystart spreading wider and then
they start connecting at the toppart.
So you don't need to know theirchildhood, you don't need to
know their basics at the bottomof where they started or where
you decide to start this section, but when you start to get the
top, they bind, and they bindquite strongly, you know what I

(19:25):
mean.
And they lean on each other andall these connections Can just
jump and hop across all thespace, all the bridges to meet
each other.
And I also feel the plant-basedpeople are those kinds of people
.
They're really open, they'recompassionate, because it's not
just plants that they're into,necessarily it's climate or it's
.
You know, we just had thereferendum that everyone but no
very heart breaking in AustraliaFor the first nations people

(19:47):
have a voice in Parliament, themajority of I don't know which
is atrocious.
It's broken us, I think.
But people who are usuallyplant-based, focused or have
that compassionate side of them,they would have that.
But yes, so you have this sortof it's or it's about equal
rights, or it's about women'srights in equal pay, or it's
about, you know, the balance ofpower, or it's about people who
are plant-based, aren't justplant-based.
I just feel as though they aremajority of time definitely not

(20:10):
everyone, but it's most peopleare completely holistic in all
those, all those sides.

Ella Magers (20:14):
Yeah, speaking of that, I mean this was not in the
plan, but where are you interms of?
I mean, you're traveling theworld and we'll just kind of
jump ahead here in terms of justwhat's most inspiring you right
now in terms of being impactful, because that's obviously like
being fun and engaging is onething, and then there's a
passion and what you justmentioned about justice and like

(20:39):
all of those pieces thatobviously mean a lot to you and
you're dedicating so much ofyour life to those.
Do you want to talk?
Should we just jump forward alittle bit and talk about what's
most inspiring you right nowand what you're up to, and we
can always go back and.

Simon Toohey (20:53):
Yeah, we can always pick up pieces when we
need to Just makes it fun.
That way People can try to jumpon board themselves.

Ella Magers (20:58):
Yeah.

Simon Toohey (21:00):
Well, I mean, I guess firstly is I love a good
ramble.
So I kind of answered thequestion and I forget what the
question was and I tried to runback and ask the question.
So let me know.
If I forget what I'm saying, Imight have to go what was the
question?
Sure, but that's just because Idon't stop talking.
Yes, at the moment we've justmoved to a little town in
Victoria called Geelong.
It's the second largest town inVictoria, but it's only 350,000

(21:20):
as opposed to what 6 millionthat Melbourne has thereabouts,
and but we're the fastestgrowing city in.
We call ourselves a city.
We're the fastest growing cityin Australia.
We're on a train line toMelbourne.
It's only an hour to get there.
We're on the beach,everything's quite cheap in the
way of housing prices, which isobviously a huge thing all over
the world, and I'm getting itsomewhere with this.
What's really wonderful aboutthis is that we've found

(21:41):
ourselves a community thatreally accepts people, or that
we want to get involved in.
That.
I think there's a better way ofputting it.
So we came here and we had ourwedding in honeymoon.
We're like, right, we'll sayfor that, say for that, say for
that.
So that's been about a year.
We've just come back a couple ofweeks ago and we're like right
now is the time to just divestraight into really belonging
and being part of all thecommunity.

(22:02):
So I work closely with an offthe proper called Give when you
Live Foundation at the Feed toGeelong appeal and they are all
about the hungry males and thefamilies that are just living
below the poverty line and evennot like we just have too many
expenses because they've gotthree kids and they've got two
jobs and they can't have thatsort of constant income to buy

(22:23):
food.
And so it's a food reliefsystem based out of Geelong cuts
out that sort of fear factor ofpeople feeling sort of
self-cultured about going to getfood and opens up the doors to
a really wonderful community.
We just joined David and AfghanFeast, which is five Afghani
women who had migrated fromAfghanistan whose husbands are
still over there I think one ortwo of them were and they're

(22:44):
waiting for their visa to comethrough and they're creating
food that is from their homelandand they're creating a
community from their homeland.
And that's just the mostdividing this place called
Common Ground, which is a not aprivate farm that grows food for
not only their little cafes andfor people to come and do it
like the Afghan women, but alsoanyone and give it out to people
who are in need.
So working closely with allthese people and feeding people

(23:08):
and making people feel welcomeand loved is something that I'm
super passionate about, andthere's definitely crazy avenues
to go down that with, becauseyou know, just to do a little
side track and then come back inin a second is a company called
Farmers Pick and they do uglyveg boxes right, so they go to
all the farmers that I'm sureyou've heard this many times
about people, but farmers thatyou know would normally produce

(23:28):
food for, let's say, a largesupermarket doesn't hold the
shape of a circular potato andso they have to throw it into
landfill.
Now Farmers Pick stops up fromhappening and saves you know so
much food.
So this is the other sectionthat I'm really passionate about
is sort of fighting food wasteside of things and
sustainability, and so savingall that food and using Farmers

(23:49):
Pick stuff for myself to thentake it to the Afghan people or
to the community and cook forthem.
So this weekend, on Sunday,we've got to cook for an open
day for the farm where the Givewhen you Live Foundation is
based, and so I'm going to goand use a pizza oven and I'm
going to cook for everyone thereand make this beautiful sort of
like meal to bring thecommunity together and get
people to have takeawaycontainers that can take it home
and really supporting a localcommunity.

(24:10):
And I feel sometimes that,especially in the world that you
and I are in, we find our eyesand not that this is a bad thing
, but we find our eyes and ourideals so broad that we end up
doing none of it because it's sobroad and we're trying to find
the people who are going to helpus get there because it's so
broad.
But in reality, if everyonedoes something locally in their
community, you're going to findthat community will grow

(24:31):
beautifully.
And there comes those Legobuilding blocks and we start to
find each other later on downthe trap in that really broad
view that we had before andfinally we're connected.
So, at the moment, right now, mybiggest passion is when it's
always been fighting food waste,but it's this community.
It's fighting food waste withthis community, feeding everyone
here, making sure thiscommunity is a soulful, divine,

(24:52):
loving, all-encompassing greatplace, because it really is.
But there's people there whoaren't there, you know, and it
would be naive of me to thinkthat everything over here is
great when it's not.
And so where can I find myself,where can I dive myself into to
help fix the problem, or justbe a little solution, or a
little set of ears, or play thefood or whatever?

Ella Magers (25:12):
Wow, you explained that so well because I think
people that are listening tothis podcast care.
They care about making adifference right, they care
about their own health, but thehealth of you did that.

Simon Toohey (25:24):
You brought those people into listen and made them
love it and it's you know,that's the community right.
You created that.

Ella Magers (25:30):
Yeah.

Simon Toohey (25:30):
Oh, you're reaching the way to the mind,
but it's.

Ella Magers (25:32):
Oh, my God, are you kidding?
No, but what I'm saying is andthank you for that, I'm blushing
because that means everythingto me and building community,
like you're saying.
But I think people do like it'slike, wow, these problems are
so large and who am I and whatcan I even do about them?
And we forget.
I think too, and tell me whatyou think.

(25:53):
In this age of the digital age,right With the social media,
and like we're seeing problemseverywhere and in the problems
just seems so huge in those waysthat we forget that you know,
we're still communities andwe're still local and we're
still people right around us,you know, right down the street,
that are hungry and aresuffering, and yeah, so thank
you for that reminder and forsharing that.

(26:15):
That's a big deal.

Simon Toohey (26:18):
Yeah, it is because, think about it, you try
to care for 350,000 people, oryou sort of focus on that as
being part of your community.
That's a lot of people.
That's not, you know, incomparison to what New York or
London or Melbourne or whateverit is.
It's small, but it's more thanone person can handle.
So, you know, get a group of ustogether and it's fantastic.

Ella Magers (26:35):
Beautiful.
Can you talk a little bit moreabout zero waste and in general,
and what people might not know?
That would be helpful for them.

Simon Toohey (26:43):
I love to think that people in the Playbase
world really understand zerowaste a lot more than the
majority of others do, becauseyou know it's just sort of like
cut this off and throw it out,it's done.
But for me zero waste itdoesn't necessarily.
I could say I just it's funny,okay.
So zero waste for me isobviously the idea of zero waste
food and zero waste eatingalong with.
You know, can transition intoclothing, you can transition

(27:04):
into, you know, whatever itcould be right, like a zero
waste thing you could recycle,reuse until really everything is
in tatters, falling apart andgoes into compost.
But ideally in my environment,zero waste is taking in an
ingredient, using it as much asit possibly can and then taking
that ingredient and then puttingthat into compost at the end of
the day or into the soil orit's being consumed.

(27:27):
You know, and I think there'sagain a big lack of education in
our environment America, uk,canada, australia, that sort of
stuff where some of us haven'thad the real understanding of
true poverty right, and knowingthat, like I mean, in the South
there's the food of the Creole,is just an amazing sort of
representation of using veryminimal ingredients and creating

(27:49):
unbelievable amounts of flavorand food and potential, right
and again this sort of side ofthings.
It's kind of like hold on, wedon't need this, so we're going
to throw it out, right, andthat's just sort of like this
privilege, which is really it'snot a privilege, it's stupidity
more than anything.
Right, like what it does theCO2, what it does to the soil
and all sorts of things that isnot great when it goes to
landfill.

(28:09):
So in saying all that, it'slike if I have a pumpkin and the
pumpkin has a skin, what can Ido with that pumpkin skin and
it's edible, like it's actuallyedible.
You can cut it off, you blanchit, you then chuck it through
some sort of spices whateveryour favorite spices are and
then you roast it until it'scrispy and you use it as a crisp
and it goes crispy and it'sdelicious.
Now, banana skin.

(28:30):
I know that's a bit of a thingyou're still stuck struggling
with me with my mind trying toget around it.
But you peel it, you take offthe little white piss and then
you get two forks and you scrapeit until it's into pulled
banana skins, into like shredsand then you cook that into a
Southern barbecue sauce, spiceor barbecue sauce and you use
pulled banana skin burgers andthey're actually delicious, like
there's nothing wrong with it,they're absolutely edible and it

(28:51):
is a little you know, reallycreamy coleslaw on top.
You know, very soft bun,fishbash bosh.
You're happy days, you know.
So it's sort of idea of likereally doesn't even be that
educated, just learning some funfacts about things and working
around and focusing on notbuying too much food, knowing
that your seconds is going to beleft over the next day.
You know dinner for lunch isgreat for me, like I love that.

(29:13):
And buying what you need, youknow, buying only what you need.
And that's again a big thingBecause, as we get to the stage,
even though majority aboutagriculture goes towards eating
animals, eating animalsagriculture goes towards feeding
animals.
There is enough food there foreveryone.
No matter what the facts are,it's doable.
But the problem is is we buy somuch?
So I'm sure people have saidthis on your podcast before but

(29:36):
in Australia a third of yourfood is from the farmers goes to
landfill.
So third of the food they growand produce goes to landfill
because of whatever reason.
It looks ugly right, it doesn't, it's just ridiculous.
A third of the supermarket'sfood goes to landfill, into the
bin, and then a third ofhousehold food goes to landfill
and as you put those alltogether, it's a huge, huge
problem.
So small steps of consciousnessis just, I guess, the way to go

(29:58):
about it.
It's really hard to teachpeople to be zero waste or to
talk about zero waste if theydon't really know what that is
or how to do it.
You need to have some form ofculinary skill.
Color only.
You need to have some sort ofmaybe kitchen confidence is all
you need.
More than anything.
I don't think you need culinaryskill.
You can tear things up withyour fingers, roast it, it'll be
grand.
But you know they're wanting tochange or they're wanting to

(30:20):
try new things.
But that's kind of where myrole comes into play, and it's
just to show that we can useeverything.
You can use a whole cauliflower.
You can use a whole broccoli.
You can use the leaves of soand so the beetroot.
You know you can make colorgreens out of the stems and the
root and the leaves of thebeetroot and the beetroot itself
.
You can make a you know,beetroot risotto, so things like
that.
Like it's eaves of options, butit's being afraid of it.

Ella Magers (30:41):
Yes, and I guess you know, especially for people
like me I live in a condo, Idon't, you know, have really a
condo.
Oh, what's a condo?
Are you asking what a condo is?
Yeah, an apartment, acondominium.
Yes, like an apartment, acondominium.

Simon Toohey (30:54):
Yeah, yeah.

Ella Magers (30:55):
Yeah, condo for sure.
And so, yeah, I'm still tryingto figure out some of these
things, what that is.
Yeah, I mean, I grew up in ahouse we had, we had a compost
and we had all those thingsgrowing up.
But now in Miami and I don'treally have you know, I'm
looking at maybe the lettucegrows to grow my own lettuce,
but so it's looking at what youcan do and some of the things

(31:16):
that create waste every day.
I would think, like bananapeels if you're somebody who
eats banana peels that I meaneats bananas and has banana
peels every day to havesomething to do with those foods
that you already know thatyou're going to have that waste
daily would be a great kind offirst step.
And one thing that I dorecommend with my clients, and
something that I do I considerleftovers.

(31:38):
Instead of like people are likeI don't know what to snack on,
like snack, healthy snack Well,I talk about your leftovers from
a meal can make a perfect snack, and so then we're not buying
the packaged snacks and all theways that comes along with them.
If we just shift our minds, likemost of this is about a little
bit of mindset shift, right?

Simon Toohey (31:58):
If I could what's a snack?

Ella Magers (32:00):
anyway, it's a small meal, like you just want
to eat a full meal.
So what if you ate the healthyleftovers from the meal the
night before for your snack andlike a lot of this is right,
like just yeah.

Simon Toohey (32:13):
I mean, I did this one, you know, when I was
really sort of being quite.
I just really wanted to stopwasting food, as my snacks was.
Always, it had to have oneingredient.
It couldn't be any more thanone ingredient, right?
And I kind of think that works,because you think, okay, well,
how does that make sense?
Well, it's an apple, or it's amango, or it's a banana, or it's
a pear, or it's like I don'tknow tomato, whatever.

(32:33):
So all these things that yoursnacks had to own could only be
one ingredient.
And what it does?
It stops buying crappy food,yes, stops putting the plastics
into the landfill because youdon't need that packet chips or
the dip or whatever it's goingto be.
So that kind of thing is alwaysfun, and the best thing about
that is you sort of reallyremove yourself from sugar, like
unnatural sugars or processedsugars, and so the peach or the

(32:53):
mango the sweetness of that islike mind-blowingly good, like
everything is better because ofit.
I don't know if you're ever.
I mean, in hospitality everyonesmokes and the old days I used
to smoke and it's like when Istopped smoking and I started
eating, it was like whoa, holdon, this actually tastes like
this and you're like yeah, it'slike where have?
I been the last time and I waslike not looking after my body

(33:14):
and drinking too much andsmoking too much.
So it's quite phenomenal.
So there's these things.
A lot of really busy peoplesort of go.
Well, I can't be bothered, it'stoo hard, and it's totally true
.
Like they're busy, I get it.
There's a lot.
They've got four kids, they'vegot a household of two parents
and two jobs, or one parent, onejob, whatever their thing is.
Yes, I agree with them.
So buying single ingredients ortaking leftovers and putting it

(33:37):
in a tub of container, that'snot too difficult, I don't think
.
If they're on the run, they canhave an apple, they can have an
orange, they can have a maybenot orange.
When you're driving, they canhave a peach, they can have
leftovers, and that sort of issimplifying things a little bit,
because the difficulty is wespend our life being too busy or
we've got too much on or we'redoing all these things, and so
the hardest job for us, as sortof like food people to, to give

(34:01):
out our teachings, is to makesure they're simple for them,
that they don't have to thinktoo much, they don't have to go
buy anything and that we knowthat we're there to give them a
little something to help themalong.

Ella Magers (34:11):
Yeah, absolutely.
Now I know you use the languagearound sustainability a lot,
like I don't hear you say theword vegan very often.
Can you talk about just how youlike to portray your message
and why you choose the languageyou do and the work you do and
how you kind of navigate that?

Simon Toohey (34:29):
Yeah, I never say vegan because I'm sure you'll
have some listeners there who'llsort of dislike me for saying
this, but I feel maybe theymight agree.
Now, I think it's a bit of adirty word.
It's kind of this euphemismtreadmill.
You know, we used to say toiletand then toilet became a bad
word.
So we said water closet andwater closet became a bad word,
so we said lavatory and thenlavatory became a bad word.
We saw it went back to toilet,you know.
So it's a treadmill, right?
So it's like so veganism isjust this dirty word for people

(34:52):
who don't like about eating anddon't like vegans, right, and
they're just like you're vegan,yeah, and so although I love
everything about it and mymessage is really about
sustainable eating and so if Ican produce really good food
through sustainability, then thebyproduct is they're eating
more plants.
So it sucks shit, idiots, Ican't swear.

(35:13):
There's one thing that thisperson commented on one of my
things.
I was talking aboutsustainability and climate
change and she's like climatechange is an absolute fast, it's
bullshit, it's not a thing,it's all government propaganda.
And I was like, okay, fairenough, like totally fair enough
.
That's absolutely your opinionand I respect that.
I don't love that.
I respect it.
Do I respect it?
I'm kind to it, Anyway.
So what I said, though, was ina reply I said do you believe

(35:35):
there's a lot of plastic and alot of problems with plastic in
the oceans and litter and liningour gutters and what it's doing
without marine life?
Do you think there's a problem?
That's absolutely.
It's awful what all thisplastic is doing with and all
this rubbish is doing.
I was like great.
So how about, instead offocusing on climate change as a
whole, as a word, let's get youfocusing on plastic problems and

(35:56):
let's get you focusing onrecycling and not throwing
things and picking up rubbishwhen you're walking down the
street.
Would you be cool with that?
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, I'mgoing to start that.
I'm going to get a communitythat will get that going
Brilliant.
So she thinks she's not helpingthe climate because she thinks
it's bullshit, but in reality,what she's doing is the best
thing you possibly can do.
So the thing about this is thatyou can visually see the
plastic being a problem, but youcan't see the climate being a

(36:19):
problem, because it's not.
You know, funny.
So it's not going down thewhole religious side of things.
So on my side it goes down tolike all right well, veganism,
it's the same sort of thing.
But if I can show them, if I canshow them that this food is
really, really good, then thatgets them not eating meat just
once for that day.
When these people eat meatthree times a day or twice a day
, and so you have someone going.

(36:40):
Well, actually, maybe we can doplants.
You know, one meal a dayinstead of three meals or two
meals a day, and that's a winfor me.
I'm not here to scream, andsome people are and go for them.
Good on them.
That's a real hard thing to doand it takes a lot of energy and
I'm all power to them, but Ican't see a positive change
screaming at someone.
And I can see a positive changeand I get someone smiling with

(37:02):
really good food once a day.
And if I get someone at myrestaurant, I had butchers
coming over and their wivesbought them there for a joke.
Of course it was their wives,the mental butchers, but anyway,
we've already gone on toanother story.
So you know, burly old sort ofbutchery men coming in, oh,
don't eat meat, where's yoursteakhouse?
I said look, truth is thesteakhouse right below us.
If this doesn't feed you, thisdoesn't fill you up, then you
know I will personally buy youone.

(37:22):
And of course, their portionswent through the roof and this
side of the roof and theycouldn't walk out the door and
they loved it.
And I don't need to convert abutchery.
It's not going to happen, it'sjust not possible.
It's not possible to convert aperson who lives in Thailand, in
the country, who lives offlocally raised.
It's just not.
But what it is possible is toget people who we know in our

(37:43):
community, you know in our area,who have the privilege to be
able to eat plants, is in acultural sort of difference in
some ways and be like, okay,you're not eating three times a
day meat, you're eating once aday meat, or you decide to
change completely, or you'regoing flex during all these
things, or wins for me.
So that's why I never sayveganism, I say sustainability.

Ella Magers (38:00):
Yeah, Well, there was really no anyone's thoughts.

Simon Toohey (38:03):
Yeah, no, no, no.

Ella Magers (38:04):
We've got quite a broad range in our audience of
people that are still very, youknow, just vegan curious and
yeah, cool.
Or you know, plant care iswhatever we want to call it, I
think yeah, whatever you call it, yeah, it doesn't it doesn't
matter.
Well, it does matter what wecall it, but I'm saying, yes,
the truth is the way things aregoing, and the research does
show is that we're making abigger difference, helping a

(38:27):
bigger population move in thatdirection, than trying to
convert people and say youbetter go vegan all the way or
nothing Like that's not working.
It's not happening, and so Ithink it's not just a win in
separation, and what we need todo is unite and find our common
ground, and I think that that'sexactly what you're saying.

(38:48):
So it's not just a win for you,it's a win for everyone.

Simon Toohey (38:52):
Well, that's right , and I think there's a vegan
who are probably not as extremeas those who are pushing it that
way.
And then there's me, who'snibbling at the sides.
And so, you know, I nibble atthe sides and I'm the person in
the back mustering the sheep.
And then there's the big vegansort of voices in the front,
sort of leading people along andshowing where to go, and I'm
like hoping them follow, youknow, and we'll all catch up.
We'll get there, yes, but if wedon't have everyone touching on

(39:12):
all the sides, you know what Imean 1000%.
Just not going to work, right,right.
So we're just creating a big,whole circle of love.

Ella Magers (39:19):
Where we are.
We're meeting people where theyare and people are different
places.
So we've got people meetingpeople at different places,
because that's where we are.
And we're all a big, happyfamily.

Simon Toohey (39:32):
That's right.
Until we watch the news, untilwe watch the news.
So we just don't watch the newstoo much yeah.

Ella Magers (39:38):
We got to stay away .
And yeah, I mean, the more I'mwatching I could go down a
rabbit hole.
Going down a rabbit hole, I'mtrying to work, I'm working on
my language, making sure like,instead of killing two birds
with one stone, feeding twobirds with one scone.

Simon Toohey (39:53):
That's a good one.
That's a good one, going downthe rabbit hole.

Ella Magers (39:58):
Is that a bat?
Is that negative?
I don't think.
That doesn't really seemnegative.

Simon Toohey (40:01):
No, I don't think so Going down a rabbit hole.
It's just where they live too.
So you're fine, right, but it'salso.
It's sort of yeah, that's right.

Ella Magers (40:07):
Yeah.

Simon Toohey (40:07):
And we got to a podcast.
They're all about really.

Ella Magers (40:09):
Right.

Simon Toohey (40:09):
It's kind of like finding where the darkness is
taking us and where we are.
We're just like oh God, I've noidea where I am.
Okay, back out.

Ella Magers (40:14):
Yeah back out.
We come, let's go to India.
Can we go to India?

Simon Toohey (40:18):
Yes, we can.
Let's go to India.
Let's go to India.

Ella Magers (40:20):
Can we touch on that as we start to pull things
together?
I would love to hear more aboutIndia.
Where did this tea fascinationcome from, and what do we not
know about tea and Sri Lanka?
And what a incredible videothat you posted on.

Simon Toohey (40:33):
What's trying to climb the tree or the one with
me?

Ella Magers (40:36):
I don't know if I saw the tree one there.

Simon Toohey (40:38):
I was like, I think I saw me trying to climb a
coconut tree and then gettingleeches all over my feet.
Ah, did you see that?

Ella Magers (40:43):
one Was that in India.

Simon Toohey (40:45):
It was in Sri Lanka, that one yeah.

Ella Magers (40:46):
Oh, that was.
I didn't miss that part.
I missed that part.

Simon Toohey (40:49):
So I got a couple of restaurants opening in India.
They were meant to open thisyear.
Last year, this year, last year,no, this year Early, early,
early, and then you know it'sjust a bit of a tough one to get
back over there.
So next year, up in the north,in a place called Varanasi, one
of the oldest I mean said to beone of the oldest cities in the
world continuously running, andJaipur, which is that if you fly

(41:10):
because we do, and I wouldn'tdrive that road, that would be
too scary for me it's about twohours drive west, so it's in the
Rajasthan region, which isdesertal and pretty amazing.
It gives such a beautiful space.
So they're a great hotel group.
They're a very small hotelgroup, family run, family-owned,
are all vegan or vegetarian,anyway religiously vegetarian,
but also vegan.

(41:31):
And the beautiful part about itis not only found in someone
who got there Anyway.
So just quickly, the restaurantsare great.
They're vegan, they're focusingon plan-based things.
The hotel has three veganrestaurants in it One from like
a Southeast Asian one.
It does classic Indian veganstuff, and then they got mine.
And then the other place overthere is a bit of a joint one,
because it's right near Delhiand Delhi are travelism.
It's a wedding venue andrah-rah-rah.
So that's vegan, mine is, andthen they do a joint restaurant

(41:52):
which is vegetarian and they'rereally beautiful, but the one
I'm in Rajasthan, one of theowners, the auntie, she's animal
activist, vegan, right Full-onand every year, for an example,
is the religion and excuse myignorance here, but the
religious side of India theysacrifice a goat to the gods,
whatever, whatever, whatever andthey cook and eat whatever,

(42:14):
whatever.
I'm sorry anyone who's Indianover there who's telling me I'm
wrong, but as far as I know,it's just stick with the fact
they sacrifice a goat.
Let's just stick with that,because otherwise I'm delving
into an area that I don't knowso well.
So she will drive around in agiant bus to where they
sacrifice these goats and buythese goats from the people, and
now the people, the community,will always take the money over
sacrificing a goat, and so thenshe will put the goats in the

(42:36):
bus and then she will drivearound to Nakhsod and she'll
stack this bus full of goatslike a pack full of goats, and
then she takes them out to asanctuary where she has a huge,
huge, pothetable bit of land andlets them go free and sort of
lets them live their last daysout in this sanctuary.

Ella Magers (42:53):
Can I interview her ?

Simon Toohey (42:55):
Because it's amazing.
Amazing and the crazy one wasthis is a great story actually
is that an elephant domesticatedvery bollocks word domesticated
elephant had killed someonebecause it's a wild animal and
it probably got in its space.
And so, of course, the classichuman thing to do is to kill the
animal because it killedsomeone, which just furiates me

(43:19):
because it's been hurt, withsharks in Australia and all
these sorts of things.
Like you're swimming in theirwater, you idiot.
Like that's the risk, this isthe risk.
You cannot hurt anyway, ranshort and over.
So she heard about this and wentover to the people and bought
the elephant and took theelephant back to the hotel.

(43:40):
So this hotel has this giantplot of land I mean, it's quite
a rare little hotel.
It was one of the earliesthotels in Jaipur, so it's huge
amounts of land and shebasically brought the elephant
to the hotel and she had theelephant in the hotel not in
physically in the grounds of thehotel, whilst they tried to
work out what to do with that.
But they stopped the elephantfrom being killed and whatever

(44:01):
they boarded the hotel.
The elephant just walked aroundthe hotel, the grounds of the
hotel.
Everyone was very staying awayfrom it noise and stuff.
I'm sure they kept it away inits own little section and then
they took it out to thesanctuary and now the elephant
lives out in the sanctuary withthe goats.
Wow, it's amazing.
And the hotel is completelyanimal friendly, so they open
the doors up to the animals.
But the problem was the animalsstarted to realize they could

(44:22):
really get fed, so it got awhole bunch of dogs in there, so
they started feeding themoutside.
And it's actually a reallybeautiful fast-start hotel so it
makes it even more amazing, soit's a really top-end hotel.
It's like a little scrollwaysort of hotel.
So it's beautiful, it's astunning place.
They've got a peacock and goosesanctuary where they've saved
all these geese, and they've gotan emu there, which is really

(44:43):
funny.
It's an Australian nativeanimal, an emu.
They've got the largest emufarms everywhere in India
apparently.
I don't know why, but they doso she saves them from being
killed and puts them in the andthat's in the hotel.
So you can look out your roomand there's these geese in this
beautiful little frolic throughthis beautiful foresty area and
drinking away and then they getfed and rah-rah.
It's quite phenomenal.

(45:04):
So that really sat beautifullyfor me.
Yes.
So I got there, I was like ohmy god, thank god, it's not just
me, it's everyone here.
Yes, oh, that's really quitenice.
So that's India.

Ella Magers (45:15):
I love it.
Oh my gosh, I want to go.

Simon Toohey (45:18):
Yeah Well, I'll be back over this year.
I'll let you know, will you, ifyou feel like a trim.
It's pretty crazy, but it'sgood.

Ella Magers (45:25):
Yes, yes.
Yeah, I am called more and moreto take a trip to India.

Simon Toohey (45:30):
to be honest, yeah , with the, it's stunning.

Ella Magers (45:32):
Yeah, fabulous.

Simon Toohey (45:34):
Yes, you'll say you're vegan, which is totally
easy over there, especially inthe north, because they use a
lot of mustard oil and vegetableoil as opposed to they do use a
lot of ghee, I don't know ifyou're familiar with ghee, with
ghee yeah.
Right.
The funny thing is like oh,you're vegan.
Oh, okay, cool, so fish is okay.
You're like no, no, no, no fishat all.
I was like, okay, right, right,right, Chicken.
You like no, vegan, no animalsat all, Okay, right, right,
right, but yogurt, you can haveyogurt.

(45:55):
But yes, you know what I mean.
So it's that it's hard.

Ella Magers (45:57):
Yes, India, yogurt, butter, like those are just
like.
When I went to Spain I meanthis was many years ago, but I
was like vegan vegetarian andthey were like but there's pork
in there, because pork is ineverything that doesn't count.
It's like, no, no, that counts.

Simon Toohey (46:15):
It's like the word associates from what it really
is.
Like it's not actually pork?
No, of course.
I mean.
Look for those who are going totravel to India who are
hardcore vegans.
You can easily eat vegan, butyou must.
I would have be aware that ifyou're in the more northern
areas, which is like Rajasthan,where you might find yourself
eating ghee, because they fryfood in ghee, which is clarified
butter for those who don't know.

(46:35):
So it's butter that they'vetaken the milk solids off and
it's fried at a really hightemperature.
So there is a possibility thathappens.
So if you're really hardcorevegan, just be wary.
And if you're okay withaccidentally doing it that
wasn't your fault then you'll befine.
Just apologize and continue onor just ask all the questions we
need to ask.
But a place we should go and Ithink this is a good segue
because I think we're going thatway anyway is Sri Lanka.

Ella Magers (46:57):
Yes, please.

Simon Toohey (46:58):
So that's.
Talk about Sri Lanka Are wesaying how do you say?

Ella Magers (47:01):
it correctly.

Simon Toohey (47:03):
Sri Lanka, yeah, sri.

Ella Magers (47:04):
Lanka.

Simon Toohey (47:04):
Yeah, sri Lanka.
That's great for the vegansbecause they really into coconut
oil, everything's coconut oil.
So, as opposed to India, whichis ghee and butter, this is
coconut oil.
They don't have the bestseafood you'll ever find.
Excuse me, it's still morning.
Where's your?

Ella Magers (47:21):
coffee.
Where's your coffee?

Simon Toohey (47:23):
Do you drink mushroom coffee?

Ella Magers (47:24):
because I am so into mushroom coffee.

Simon Toohey (47:27):
Yes, I do, I really do, and I've just found
it recently, so I've thoughtthat sort of thing in my
concentration is immense.
It's so wonderful.
I really, really, really loveit.
So I'm going to continue thatgoing on for a while, and I work
for a company called Fable,which I think you can get in
America.
It's a shiitake mushroom stemsthat have been torn up and dried
and they've done a bit of aprocess with them, but it's like
meat, because the stems of theshiitake are quite dense, so

(47:51):
you've got this wonderful meatytexture.
It's fantastic, like a jerkykind of thing.

Ella Magers (47:55):
Yeah, you cook them .
Yeah, you cook them.

Simon Toohey (47:57):
It's more like I wouldn't even say minced, it's
like a pulled meat, but it'sbeen set and so you can make
beautiful pies out of it.
You can make bolognese out ofit, you can make lasagnas, you
can do anything.
You want Tacos, that stuff.
So Fable it is in America, I'mpretty sure.
So, if anyone out there, fable,fable, fable mushrooms
Delicious, anyway, back to you.
So I'm talking a lot and peopleare sort of going where's more

(48:19):
questions?
So I'll make this no, no, no,no it's not about the questions,
it's about you.

Ella Magers (48:24):
So your doctor's time is a lot better than my
droning fricking.

Simon Toohey (48:27):
you know, headache of a sad voice.
It gives me a headachesometimes, isn't that sad?
Oh, like, anyway, it's just ashiitake mushroom.
Yeah, it's just like, it'sphenomenal.
So a long time ago, back in mydays, we skipped forward, which
I actually don't think is a badthing, because I worked in
London, ran a bar there calledKalu Kalei, and then got invited
to go to Sri Lanka to study teawith a company called Bolz,

(48:49):
which is a Dutch gin, and theDula Cures as well, anyway.
So I went to Sri Lanka with acompany called Dilma and I don't
know if Dilma is in America, Idon't think it's really big
there, but one of the biggesttea companies around the world,
in Australia, and they're allabout climate justice,
sustainability, giving back tothe community.
They're tea fields.
They only bring in people fromthe street.

(49:11):
They pay them a full wage and Iknow people would be like oh,
you know, slavery of tea fields.
They paid on a proper wage.
They build a doctor's generalpractitioner building inside the
tea fields that everyone whoworks for them gets free
hospital which is just unheardof and their children get free
hospital and their husbands getfree hospital.
They've got three primaryschools for underprivileged
children.
They've got two regular schoolsfor kids with disabilities to

(49:33):
learn and be taught whatever itis, that their level of
intelligence or their level cango to.
They've got ElephantRehabilitation Centre, which
takes in elephants that havebeen abused and poached and
brings them back into the wildand puts them back into their
national.
They've got like I'm telling you, they've got it all.
They've got this thing calledthe Forgotten Food I'm sorry,
dilma and Dilma, I forgot thename of it Forgotten Food

(49:54):
Project which is finding all ofthe indigenous or Sri Lankan
ingredients that have justfallen by the wayside over time
because of Westernization andthey find these back and they're
bringing them back to the worldand so they're producing this
cinnamon, because the bestcinnamon in the world comes from
Ceylon, from Sri Lanka.
You know.
They've got things like mugwort, which is, like it's called,
gotcha gulla over there.
It's like this beautiful leafygreen, almost like a spinach

(50:16):
that's really good for yourbrain functions, all these sorts
of things.
They're bringing this all tothe forefront.
It's fantastic, and veganproducers, food over there is
fantastic as well.
Right?
So that was that background.
So I went over there againrecently because through all my
work of like I want to stickwith sustainability side of
things.
I've obsessed with tea andwe've become really close
friends with people and lovethem dearly.
So I went over there and filmeda series called the Lost

(50:39):
Ingredients Lab Lost IngredientsLab.
There we go when I slow down, Ican remember it and we went and
researched all these places thathave, just, you know, doing
permaculture or growing thiswoman called Luck Luckmini.
She has a farm that growsgotcha gulla organically, which
is, again, quite unusual in thisworld, and she only employs

(51:00):
women and women who have I knowthis sounds strange, but a
husband and a kid, and she sortof sits at home and does nothing
.
And Luckmini is like well, whyare you sitting at home doing
nothing when you can have twoincomes?
I mean, wouldn't that be agreat idea?
And of course it is becauseeveryone should be allowed to
work.
You know, it's just like thisidea that this system has made
us think that women sit at homeand look after the children,

(51:20):
which is, by the way, more thana full-time job and should be
paid as a bloody full-time job,plus overtime, plus holiday play
pay.
You know what I mean?
This is just ridiculous.
Anyway, that's another story.
So she brings all these women inand pays them a secondary wage,
and so the husband obviouslysometimes doesn't have a job
either, because that's just theway we're men are.
They're lazy and shit sometimesa lot of the time, and so now

(51:43):
the mum has to raise thechildren and also is making an
amazing wage.
But she also allows them towork during times when they're
not at school.
So the kids get dropped off atschool, then the mum comes and
works if they want to and thenthey can leave before the school
.
Pick up is because, of course,the man is not doing it as usual
, and then she goes and picks itup and does that.
So that is a really wonderfulway to create this beautiful
female community and bring themall together.

(52:06):
So that was Sri Lanka recently,and that really opened my eyes
up into the most amazingculinary divinity.
You know they use coconut oil,so everything is basically vegan
unless you're using coastalseafood.
Most of the time you're eatingplant-based anyway, and it's
just special.
It's just the most specialplace in the world.
It's probably one of myfavorite countries that I will

(52:26):
forever live in, visit, retirein, whatever.
It's just heavenly.

Ella Magers (52:32):
Where can people watch that Serious?

Simon Toohey (52:35):
So that's on the Dilma's social media side.
But oh fly, but that was weird.
But in saying that we'refilming a TV show there in
February, so hold the line,callers.
That should be out online andon the Australian TV and then
around the world, probably bythe end of next year, and
that'll be quite similar to whatwe did here, so focusing on

(52:58):
sustainable produce, historicalingredients and all that sort of
stuff.
Wait, lentil.

Ella Magers (53:03):
Lentil she's so amazing.

Simon Toohey (53:06):
She's such a chiller Gosh.
She's the best dog in the world.
I'm curious this is the bestname in the world.

Ella Magers (53:13):
Oh, it's a fun name .
I don't know what makes that sofun, but it's so fun, like, did
that just come to you?
Was it your name?

Simon Toohey (53:22):
Yeah, so it was the Melbourne.
Victoria, or Melbourne itself,was the largest lockdown state
in the world right, or sittingin the world right.
We did over a year of lockdowns.

Ella Magers (53:32):
Wow.

Simon Toohey (53:33):
So before lockdown 2.0, I think, we were at this
little coastal town and we heardand we were trying to buy a
rescue dog.
It was really we wanted arescue dog, but over COVID no
rescue dogs were availablebecause everyone wanted a dog
over COVID, right.
And I would like to say myanimal is a golden retriever.
If I was ever to come back asan animal, I would be probably a

(53:54):
golden retriever.
Or a few word of morphine to ananimal, and I always wanted a
golden retriever as well.
So, anyway, a friend of ourssort of called up and said hey,
a friend of mine has just boughta Goldie, but the person who's
going to buy his sister haspulled out.
They kind of thought it wouldyou like it?
And we really, to be fair,couldn't afford it either, but
we also really would love a dogand it was a Goldie.
And so we're like you know what, we'll work it out later on.

(54:17):
And we are, to this day, veryglad we did.
And, as you were saying, we'redriving home that day, we're
trying to spitball names andwe're like chippies no, we like
the name Chippies because it'sGeorge's favourite food.
You know, chips and chips andfood.
And we're like well, what aboutlentil?
Yes, you, hello.
And we both just sort of pausedand went quiet and we're like

(54:39):
okay, we'll put that at the topof the list, let's keep going
and nothing sort of beat it.
No, I don't think you can beatthat name, I know Wow.

Ella Magers (54:47):
That's amazing that there were not rescue dogs
available.

Simon Toohey (54:51):
None, none, none.
It was crazy they were alltaken because everyone wanted a
dog over lockdown.

Ella Magers (54:56):
I mean that's fantastic.

Simon Toohey (54:58):
Well, it isn't.
It isn't Because, once lockdowndid lift All the people, they
ended up back yeah.
All the people that couldn'trealise they were actually they
couldn't get rid of it.
You know they couldn't actuallytrain the dog because the
family or did work and it's juststretching the old so I haven't
heard.
I'm sure there's someone outthere with a lot more
information, but I haven't heardbad things.
I haven't heard the things sofull, but they're definitely

(55:18):
back to normal.
They've cleared out and stayclear.

Ella Magers (55:22):
So adopt everybody.

Simon Toohey (55:24):
Yeah, that's right , but we'll get another mental
any day, you know.

Ella Magers (55:29):
Final thing oh, Simon, you are incredible.
Is there anything you want toend with this?
Yeah, I know, it's been likealmost an hour and I'm just
trying to think like kind ofcoming from the perspective of
the people listening, andthey're like, okay, now what?
Like I'm so inspired.
I, this food waste thing.
This is phenomenal, thissustainability.

(55:50):
Where can I get started to nowup level where I'm at now,
wherever that yeah, all right,we'll jump on.

Simon Toohey (55:56):
I mean, always, social media is always a leading
part.
So, simon, two years me.
I'm on Instagram, I'm trying towork out TikTok, but I just
cannot.
I mean, it's fine, it's just,you know, it's the same videos
and Instagram is even ticked off.
But I've also got a look at thechannel, which I'm jumping back
on, called sustainable earthnetwork, and that is a network
that focuses on all the thingsbasically we've been talking
about the last hour and so we'reworking with local farmers now

(56:20):
and producers and Victoriangovernment and stuff, trying to
jump towards a sustainable,plant-based food world without
screaming down people's throat.
So, if you like a softlistening, a bit more of a laugh
, a little bit more of a funtime.
So, simon, two years me, you'llfind my day to day recipes run
in the kitchen in our beautifulugly house that we bought that
is so ugly that we're going todo it.
The camera can only face thisone way, because everything else

(56:42):
is atrocious.
So come and have a laugh andwatch some recipes and get
inspired.
Or, hopefully, over the comingyear, sustainable earth network
will be back up and running.
We've got 11,000 polls, I think, on that and that will bring
some more in depth, more insightinto producers, farmers,
tourism and recipes like that,so that hopefully will be a

(57:03):
little bit more all-encompassing.
Freshly picked, which is my TVshow.
That's on channel 10, but thatis on National Geographic
channel.
So Fox tell, I don't know whatyou call it over there, star,
whatever your channels are, itis in America, but it's all over
the world at the moment 140countries, I think.
So you find yourself waking upat 6am or something.
Get to go to the airport foryour seven o'clock flight and

(57:24):
it's on then.
Or you go to the doctors andit's on the GP.
It's in the doctors waitingroom.
There's always a TV with myshow.
On some random reason they puton channel 10.
And every weekend I getmessages from friends saying, oh
, I'm at the hospital, I'm atthe doctors or I'm at the
dentist.
It is you.

Ella Magers (57:38):
I'm like honey how do you do?

Simon Toohey (57:41):
it.
That's me in a nutshell, in aone hour nutshell.

Ella Magers (57:45):
Well, you might just, speaking of that just
funny little thought my friendtraveled to India, so next time
you're in India you might see mein an ab infomercial.
Okay infomercials from like 10,15 years ago, me doing like
stupid little, like stupid agmachine, like they're ridiculous
, anyway.
But you might see me on an abinfomercial, but before we

(58:08):
finish up as well.

Simon Toohey (58:08):
The world of sustainability is doesn't
sustain you financially as well,and sometimes it's a yes.
Sometimes you have to bite thebad bullet and say, look, I need
to pay rent, buy food, whatever.
I did an episode the other daywhich is 99 cents.
I bought 99 cents was to buy asbar no brussel sprouts in a
packet and I had polystyrenebase and I was like, is it
sustainable to buy this?

(58:28):
Do I buy it for 99 centsbecause it's cheap and it's
going to go to landfill?
But is it bad because it'splastic?
And sometimes you just got togo.
You know what, at this stage ofmy time, with this amount of
income and this raising expensesof everything we're looking for
, I'm actually going to takethat role, and I know this is
ages ago, 15 years ago, but infairness, at that time you
probably wanted it, you probablyneeded it, it was, it was worth
your, your, your work.

(58:49):
So, anyway, big ups to you.

Ella Magers (58:52):
Thank you, thank you, oh, simon, you're just so
much fun to talk to and thankyou for everything you're doing
for people, for animals, for theplanet.
I appreciate you.
Thanks for being on.

Simon Toohey (59:02):
Thanks so much, and hopefully we get to hang out
in person sometimes.

Ella Magers (59:05):
Yeah, so too, thanks.
Thanks for listening to thisweek's episode of Rise and
Thrive with me, ella Majors.
I truly hope you found itinspiring and, if you did,
please help me spread the wordby leaving a rating and review
on your favorite podcast playerand by sharing the show with

(59:26):
your friends.
As you probably know by now, mylife's purpose is to use my
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place, and your reviews andshares make a huge impact.
And last, I'm getting a ton ofinsanely positive feedback about
my short and sweet monthlynewsletter called the Way.
Short for the way out is through.

(59:47):
I give my top five latestbadass discoveries, insights and
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I'm obsessed with books andshows I'm loving and workouts
that have me fired up.
Head on over to my website,ellamajorscom, to sign up and
check out all the other awesomeresources I have for you and

(01:00:08):
projects I'm involved with,including Hogs and Kisses Farm
Sanctuary, where our mission isto create the best life for farm
animals while inspiringcompassion for all living beings
.
Thanks a lot, and I'll see youon the next one.