Jess Ho on the Celebrity Chef Culture and Being Too Opinionated for TV

If you’re into the food and wine scene, especially in Melbourne, there’s a good chance you’ve met Jess Ho. Either whilst you're trying to get into a fancy restaurant… or being looked after inside.

Fine dining is a glitzy, showy, Instagram-worthy world, where people love to be seen, but in their new memoir, ‘Raised by Wolves’, Jess lifts the lid on what is often a toxic and messy workplace. Jess says hospitality staff are overworked, underpaid, dealing with rude customers with ridiculous requests and crazy food trends. And then of course, there are the celebrity chefs.

In the memoir, Jess also tells the story of growing up Cantonese in the outer suburbs of Melbourne; bullied, facing ongoing racism and living in a dysfunctional family, who only made peace over food. At 15 Jess won the right to move out on their own, and from there find their own community and forge a career.

Along with running restaurants and owning a wine bar, Jess has been a restaurant brand strategist, a food and drink editor, worked on podcasts for BBC and SBS and as a judge on a TV food show, which Jess says didn’t go to plan - at all.

SHOW NOTES

Raised by Wolves: a memoir with bite by Jess Ho (Affirm Press $29.99)

PODCAST: Bad Taste on SBS Food.

Find Jess on Twitter @thatjessho & Instagram @thatdamnjessho