How do you compete in a Chef of the Year culinary competition when you can't taste a single thing on the plate? For chef Naomi Lowry, the answer is muscle memory, decades of instinct, and an industry that showed up for her in ways she never expected.

In this candid conversation, Naomi joins Tawnya and Lucy to trace a career built on anything but a straight line, from a pub kitchen in the UK to Sydney's finest restaurants, a breast cancer diagnosis three months after opening her own venue, a stint working in TV, and a second life she's found sixty metres underwater.

This is an episode about what happens when the roadmap disappears, and what you build in its place.

What You'll Hear in This Episode

• Growing up around food - Naomi recalls her grandmother's legendary home cooking, her mother's 1980s Connecticut dinner parties, and being the eldest of five kids who helped out in the kitchen by necessity
• How she stumbled into chefing - Managing a pub at university with an unused kitchen, Naomi started cooking and never looked back
• The leap to Australia - At 21, she sold her car and boarded a flight to Sydney just days after 9/11, much to her mother's horror. That decision shaped the next 26 years of her life
• Breast cancer at 38 - Diagnosed just three months after opening her own venue, Naomi speaks candidly about late detection, the support of the hospitality community, and why she posts a "check your boobies" reminder on Instagram every first of the month
• Competing through chemo - How she made it to the finals of a major chef of the year competition while unable to taste, and what it meant to have her mum there to witness it
• Losing her best friend to cancer - The spiral that followed, and how therapy and scuba diving helped her find a healthier path forward
• The dive that changed everything - Naomi's other great passion: scuba diving as her form of meditation, complete with a self-imposed tattoo rule that keeps her exploring the world's oceans
• Cicci, Balmain - The Italian wine bar where she's found her home, cooking pasta for loyal regulars who've named themselves "colony director" and claimed their favourite tables
• The secret menu - Carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana and zabaglione: dishes not on the menu but always available for those who know how to ask
• Mentoring the next generation - Naomi's involvement in the Tasting Success Mentoring Programme, and her concerns about the craft skills - like breaking down whole animals - that are quietly disappearing from kitchens
• The chefs who shaped her - Danny Russo, Colin Fassnidge, Giovanni Pilu, James Viles, Jeremy Strode, and meeting Michel Roux Sr (she had to hide in the walk-in freezer to collect herself)

About Naomi Lowry

Naomi Lowry is a British-born, Sydney-based chef with over two decades of experience in the Australian hospitality industry. French-trained and Italian-inspired, she has worked alongside some of Australia's most respected chefs, including Colin Fassnidge, Giovanni Pilu, Danny Russo and James Viles at Biota.

Naomi competed in the Chef of the Year competition. She is a mentor for emerging talent for Lyndey Milan's Tasting Success Mentoring Program, an advocate for breast cancer awareness, and the head chef at Cicci, an Italian wine bar in Balmain, Sydney.

You can find Naomi on Instagram, where she posts monthly breast cancer check reminders and updates from the kitchen and the ocean floor.

Follow Naomi Lowry:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chef_naomi_lowry/ 
• https://www.instagram.com/chef_vs_cancer/ 
• https://www.instagram.com/cicci.balmain/ 

About Straight to the Source

Straight To The Source brings you closer to the chefs, producers, growers and makers across the entire food chain, the people shaping where food is headed and why it matters. Hosted by food experts Tawnya Bahr and Lucy Allon. 

Reach out, leave a review, and share this episode with someone in the industry who needs to hear it.

You can find us: 

• Straight To The Source Food Podcast: https://lnk.to/jBCTBE
• Straight To The Source Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/straight_to_the_source/ 
• Straight To The Source Website: http://straighttothesource.com.au

Tawnya Bahr: 

• LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tawnyabahr/ 
• Instagram: @tawnyabahr  
• Email: tbahr@straighttothesource.com.au

Lucy Allon:

• LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucyallon/ 
• Instagram: @lucy_allon 
• Email: lucy@straighttothesource.com.au

Keywords: Naomi Lowry, Women in Food, straight to the source podcast, Australian chef, Sydney restaurant, breast cancer,  hospitality industry, kitchen culture, sustainability, Sydney, foodpodcast,  Australian food producers, chef sobriety, chef career advice, diving, breast cancer, culinary competitions  

Resources & Links

• Check your breasts - follow Naomi on Instagram for monthly reminders
• National Breast Cancer Foundation - nbcf.org.au
• Tasting Success Mentoring Programme - Lyndey Milan's program for emerging chefs in Australia - tafensw.edu.au/programs/tasting-success