Eat It - 29 July 2012

We started off today's show discussing this week's rumours about The Age's Tuesday foody insert Epicure; Crikey have reported that planned changes would potentially reduce the local reporting and Victorian focus each week, and increase the number of stories shared with the Sydney Morning Herald. Check out #SaveEpicure on Twitter for more, and read Fairfax's response here.

Next up we spoke to Ken Burgin from Profitable Hospitality about some high profile restaurant closures in Sydney over the last few months. Justin North's restaurants, including fine diner Becasse, are the latest to close due to their financial position. We chatted about high Sydney rents, the dangers of fixed costs when running a restaurant, and why financial pressures in the hospitality industry and treated differently than those in other industries.

Joost Bakker and Danny Colls joined us in Studio 2 to discuss their new cafe, Silo by Joost. One of their core business principles is "zero waste" - all byproducts of running the cafe are re-used in some way. This has involved engagement with suppliers to come up with better ways to source ingredients, for example eschewing milk in cartons / bottles and using large quantity re-usable tins instead. Could we look forward to a day where cafes and restaurants proudly display a "no waste" symbol on their doors as part of a sustainable business strategy?

We finished up today's show chatting to John at the Vic Market.