Lucy Ridge embarked on her culinary journey as a passionate 15-year-old in Canberra, inspired by television chefs like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. She eagerly pursued an apprenticeship, spending her days off cooking elaborate meals for friends. However, over a 12-year career, her enthusiasm was eroded by a series of toxic workplaces, bullying bosses, and exhausting hours. Cooking at home became a chore, often replaced by simple meals eaten on the kitchen floor.
The Breaking Point and a Pandemic Reset
Ridge describes her exit from professional kitchens not as a single event but as a death by a thousand cuts. The hospitality industry, she notes, can be anything but hospitable to its workers, draining their time, energy, and passion. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a hard reset, allowing her to step back and reassess her life. She realised she was deeply unhappy but still loved food, believing that happiness lay in reconnecting with her culinary roots.
Seeking a New Path in Regional Victoria
Determined to rediscover her passion, Ridge sought internships outside traditional kitchens, focusing on women-led ventures in food production. Her journey began with an artisan cheese maker in New South Wales, but she yearned for more immersive experiences. In 2021, she moved to Jonai Farms and Meatsmiths, a pastured pig farm in regional Victoria, where pigs are raised outdoors and butchered on-site.
Accommodated in a converted shipping container, Ridge found the farmhouse kitchen a stark contrast to the sterile, stainless-steel environments of her past. It featured a large stove, butcher’s block island, and cast iron pans, fostering a warm, communal atmosphere. Meals were organised by rota among the farm’s residents, including owners Tammi and Stuart, their teenager, another intern, and farm hands.
Rediscovering Joy Through Community and Produce
Despite being a pig farm, meals were often vegetable-based, emphasising a philosophy of eating better meat less often. Dishes included local pine mushrooms in buttered pasta, lentil soups, and roast potatoes cooked in pork fat, served family-style with homemade condiments like kimchi and fermented garlic. Ridge highlights how eating together became a cherished ritual, unlike the hurried staff meals in restaurants where she felt overworked and disconnected.
She felt connected and nourished by tracing produce from paddock to plate, picking fresh vegetables from the garden, and cooking with enthusiasm. Tasks like making puff pastry from scratch became meditative, and she relished serving dishes like an onion tart to friends, recapturing the joy she felt as a teenage apprentice. This experience, she says, felt like a homecoming, restoring her love for cooking through community and sustainable practices.
Lucy Ridge’s story is detailed in her book Fed Up, published by Monash University Press, offering insights into overcoming burnout in the hospitality industry.
