I went in to chat to Adrian Richardson at La Luna Bistro on a rainy Saturday afternoon when a wedding lunch was winding up in the downstairs dining room and the staff were prepping for evening service. Longstanding restaurant manager, Linda thrust a glass of wine into my hand and Adrian and I went for a tour of the cool room where they dry age ALL the meat. I don’t think I have seen so much meat in one place, but of course that is what La Luna is known for and for good reason. When you have had a dedicated butcher on staff for 16 years – Angelo Marchetti – you know a restaurant is serious about its meat. We then climbed the narrow stairs to the second floor where the salami, lardo and prosciutto hangs and sat in the office as the printer churned out the menus for the night. Photos hang on the wall of Adrian at various stages of his career and of his grandfather, also a chef, who graduated in 1936 from Westminster College in London and was the founding chef of Balzac, the iconic restaurant in Melbourne owned by Mirka and Georges Mora. There was so much to talk to Adrian about. La Luna is about to celebrate its 25-year anniversary, no mean feat with all that has happened in recent years and even right at opening when the 1998 Victorian gas crisis happened, and La Luna had only been open a few weeks. Adrian had to cook using a BBQ to keep the restaurant going. Then there was the C word time we don’t like to mention when the restaurant was closed for two years, but even that marked a turning point for Adrian where he realised he didn’t need to and didn’t want to work all the hours he was working. Having said that, he had just arrived back from Brisbane where he co-owns a restaurant and he has all sorts of projects and collaborations and events that he does. Then there’s his television career, Ready, Steady, Cook in the nineties, Boys Weekend, Good Chef, Bad Chef and he appeared on Iron Chef USA. It is clear that Adrian lives and breathes food and hospitality and it was such a pleasure to talk to him.