Anthony Randello-Jahn, The Donut Daddy

"There’s something in the universe that rewards you for taking crazy risks" - Anthony Randello-Jahn 

On The Donut Daddy's menu: Bisnonna's Zippuli, Rockpool With Mum, Beef Mince & Cheese 

Sides include: Barbeques with mates, Nonno's prickly pears, and Dad's Osso Bucco

Anthony's social cause is concerns with capitalism. 

To find out more about the project and Savva - head to threefoodmemories.com
Insta - @savvasavas @threefoodmemories

Email us at threefoodmemories@plated.com.au, we'd love to hear from you! 

TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the ground we stand on and I thank them for allowing Papa to tell stories on all these glorious lands we share.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

My guest on this episode of Three Food Memories is usually topless, leaning forward into a camera, an erotic performer of sorts. Except for what he's holding in his hands. Yes, it's soft, squishy, and makes you feel good. Especially when you eat it. He knows what you need and how to give it to you. Anthony Randello Yan, also known as the Donut Daddy, welcome to Three Food Memories. Thank you for having me. Now it's good to know that you're as as excited, seemingly as excited to be here as I am to have you on the show. So tell me exactly what it is that you do apart from smacking dough, fingering fruit, and flashing your tits on the screen.

SPEAKER_04 1:10

So basically, I make sexy cooking videos. That's kind of the main thing I do right now, you know, with the social media side of things. All right. That's the donut daddy side of things. And then my, you know, business side of things that I that I run as well is I have a donut shop and a food truck. So they're kind of like the three pillars of things that I spend most of my time doing is the content, which is, you know, sexy uh food cooking videos, and then we have the donut shop and then the food truck. So yeah, they're kind of like the things I spend most of my time doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

So which is chicken or the egg? What came first?

SPEAKER_04 1:48

Oh, the donut shop, yeah. Well, actually, the food truck, which was a food cart, actually originally started, built it by hand in that when I was um super young, and then we were selling it uh selling the donuts at events. And that came first, and then we just then I kind of decided I need a cheeky Instagram name uh for me because Instagram was kind of just starting, starting around that point. So I was like, oh let me jump on here and uh, you know, take some photos of the donuts. And I couldn't think of like a name, and then I think it was maybe me and another friend just kind of like came up with the name. It was like a really random thing, but and then that's kind of where it the donut daddy spawned in the early stages, but yeah, the food cart was first.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

And then these videos, these sexy videos that you call them.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

How did that come?

SPEAKER_04 2:40

Or cringy, you know? It depends.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

And they're not cringy at all. They're really there's a lot of thought that goes into they're actually art if we're if we're to look at them closely.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

Yes, yeah, yeah. So we're like, where did they come from?

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:53

So my like d like my videos that go viral online now, they they started really about three years ago. And I was always kind of posting me a little bit more like doing kind of like cheeky stuff with the donuts on my Instagram, just to, you know, garner attention online. And it was always around Valentine's Day where I'll do a donut giveaway. I just thought of something fun on Instagram. Like I just loved just taking a photo, like me with a rose in the mouth and a six-pack of donuts and promoting that on online. Like I'm doing a Valentine's Day giveaway, just enter your name below and we'll send out free donuts if you win, you know? Uh, and obviously Melbourne only, because we make the donuts fresh there. But that's kind of how it started. It it spawned a little bit there. But then over the years, Instagram reels came out and you could post like the videos, uh, the the short form videos, and they didn't really have that before. Like they just had you could post a video, but it wasn't like it wouldn't show up on the for you page and stuff. And that's where I kind of got the idea to do a full cooking video. But at first I started with like the fun, it was like kind of like a funny kind of idea. I was wearing the apron with no shirt, like flexing, this kind of thing, and then I actually switched it up a bit and kind of chose like a bit more of like a sexy song and started to like darken the room and start to use lighting, and and I kind of got a better camera and it was like trying to figure out how to make a video that looked a bit more artistic and a little bit like try to hit some notes of that like sensuality in it. And so as soon as I posted that video, uh, which took obviously a while to kind of figure out how I was gonna do that, but as soon as I kind of posted that style, it just seemed to like take off, you know?

SPEAKER_02 4:42

And and and who are your audience? Who are you performing to?

SPEAKER_04 4:46

Yeah, so what I noticed is my audience now is about 75 to 80 percent female audience, and and it's it's kind of all over the world. It sh it varies on different platforms, but I got a large uh US audience at the moment, like it's probably around 20 to 30 percent US, and the rest is spread between like we've got Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Brazil, uh yeah, kind of everywhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

And what are you feeding them? What do I feel like? These people that are not in Melbourne who can get your fresh daddy donuts. There's thought, there's lighting, there's ingredients, there's timing, there's those wonderful collaborations. There's some big thinking in them. So what are you giving these people?

SPEAKER_04 5:35

So basically with my videos, what I'm really doing is I'm basing a whole video usually around one, like I'll I'll think I spend most of my time thinking about the next video. The essence of the video. What's the one thing that I want this video to be? I always have one thing, like it might be a color or a fruit, or it might even be the song, really. But I'll start with that. That's like the the theme of the video. And and from there I'll I'll start to think, okay, what dessert would match this fruit? You know? Uh how can I get this fruit and and show it off? And how can I make my outfit match this fruit and then, you know, and then I kind of work backwards from there, and then I figure out, okay, this is the recipe I'm gonna make to match this fruit. This is the shirt I'm gonna wear to have this whole color theme, song theme to match this whole thing. And then I kind of just figure out the video from there, from like a certain theme. But it might not be that might be an ingredient, so it might be something like I usually use dough a lot, you know. So it might be a certain type of dough that I want this to be the theme of the video, and I'll base everything around that. That's kind of where things start, and then I spend a lot of time thinking about this opening scene. How can I make this opening scene scene impactful, you know? How can I grab people's attention and you know, know that I'm not just making something simple here, like I'm I'm making, you know, a a very like fancy, delicious dessert with you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

But then you're overlaying, yeah, like and it isn't an overlay and it's a complete coating of sensuality, yeah. Of freedom. There is sexual freedom in your videos.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

What's that about?

SPEAKER_04 7:14

So I'll be filming like a video, and and then there'll be certain parts where I'm like, how can I spice this up? Just make it something a bit different. And and I kind of do it subconsciously, really. You know, like there'll be a scene where we have I'm needing the dough, and it's like, well, we're gonna change this up a bit. We need to we need to spice this up, you know, a little bit extra.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

So there's a lot of extra in your mind.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

So I'll just like slap it, you know, there's a bit of tongue and cheek.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Does that does that slap come naturally?

SPEAKER_04 7:43

Yeah, it's just it's like a just like a playful thing, you know what I mean? It's and it's like these kind of things, it's it's kind of like a second nature thing where it's like, you know, you're there doing something serious, but you want to have a bit of a cheekiness to it.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

So when you walk past the cornflex box in the morning, you just give it a bit of a slap. Give it a bit of a slap.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

Wake it up in the morning, you know? But um and it also brings it to life, you know? So it's like you're not just there unconsciously, it kind of wakes you up. You're like, whoa, like what's actually going on here?

SPEAKER_02 8:12

So listen, we ask for three food memories from our guests because they're like, you know, Sonic the Hedgehog Portals, you know, three ways into your life. You gave me six. When you gave them to me, they just you gave them to me in a particular order. You gave me three, and then you gave me three backup, as you know. Yeah. And they're all so beautiful and they're all so connected. And I thought these are tell a story in the same way that your videos tell a story. Yeah, yeah. So let's get going one at a time, starting with biz nonna's zupli. What are these? And first of all, what is a biz nonna?

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Yeah, so biznonna, so that's my uh great grandmother. So it's my yeah, my dad's grandmother. Grandmother, yeah. Yeah, it's my dad's grandmother. So it's my great-grandmother. I don't know why tripping up. Um so yes, my biznonna and my bisnonnu, which is my great granddad. Yeah. Right? Uh so they're my Italian great-grandma, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

And it's Ozupli. Tell us about this, why this is number one memory.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Uh, I don't know. It's just so weird. So like we would they have this house, we used it's like this really old Italian house, and it's like super classic looking. In the lounge room, there's like a sunken uh there's like a sunken floor, you know that kind of look? And and like everything is just it it just it smells old fashioned. And now when I used to go there really young, so my dad and my me and my dad and my brother would go there and sh she would always be cooking pasta and making these little like crispy donuts with the sugar on top, and they're like these really long, crispy donuts, and I just loved them. Like I would just eat them and she would always she'd always say manja, like eat, because I was always skinny, and so she's like, you know, you gotta eat. And every time she'd see me, she'd just like force feed me basically. Um what was the flavor of them? It was very fragile. It's very fragile and it was just sweet and crispy, and I just remember, yeah, they kind of like melt in your mouth a little bit. They're not chewy or anything, they're just like they just straight up melt in your mouth. It's really strange that she would make them. You know, it's just so I feel like it's so looking back, I'm like, it's such a random thing to make. Do you use that recipe in any of your No, I I I haven't, I've never made them. I've never seen them like since. I just know because when I when I thought about it, I kind of looked into it and I was like, you're like, it's so like random, and you don't really see them. I mean, sometimes you see them like really randomly in like Italian grocers and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

What part of Italy were they from?

SPEAKER_04 10:49

Um so they're from Sicily, my family.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

So it's an a s it's a Sicilian kind of suite.

SPEAKER_04 10:53

I think so. Yeah, I actually haven't looked into it, but it must be.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

And so this is a time before, I mean, looking at you now, fit as a fiddle, tall, yeah, no longer skinny, no longer a string bean. Um so this is a time before calories, diets, exercising, and you know, and and guilty eating. Here we're looking at a period in your life of pure joy. Like you're going over there and she's making these for you. Yeah. What was it like? What was the do you remember the look on her face when she would watch you munchering?

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Yeah, yeah. Like she was very happy. You know, like sh they just love to see me eat, you know. It would like kind of annoy me. It would make me embarrassed when I was like really young, you know, because you you don't really conceptualize things or understand things, but it makes sense because they want me to get tall and strong, you know, they want me to eat. And because I was like kind of like everything I ate just disappeared, so I could just keep eating. So they probably thought I wasn't eating that much, but I was like, I actually was.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Your mum wasn't wasn't doing a good job. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

But I was just like always so skinny, you know, like I was just uh growing up. But yeah, I think it's like looking back, it's it was kind of like the vibe of the house, and it's a it's like a nice memory.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

What do you think, Bizanorna? I mean, looking look, look, I ask you to look back on her now as as a man, not as a child.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

What do you think her understanding of joy was?

SPEAKER_04 12:16

I think family and tradition and that kind of thing really brings so yeah, my whole Italian side of my family, yeah, really family coming together, eating together, spending Christmas together, those kind of things they keep really close to each other. Like if one of us, for whatever reason, didn't ever come to Christmas, which is like rare, like they get really upset, you know? So like they really want to keep things really close, you know?

SPEAKER_02 12:45

And so I'm I'm kind of guessing she would have come after the war, before the war. What would her understanding of pleasure have been, do you think?

SPEAKER_04 12:55

I think maybe safety, family safety.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Because there's a lot of the reason why I ask this, you've chosen this as your first memory, and there is a lot of joy and pleasure in your work. I wonder how much of that came from the donuts. We're looking at a full circle story here. Like he's just doing these really bizarro donuts that you say, and you've built a business on the donut.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

Yeah. Yeah, it's I mean, it's it is it is strange, you know, like because that memory doesn't come up often, but it is there. Like it's it's obviously actively there. You know, every Christmas that we'd have together, we're always talking about food. We're, you know, it is it because they actually had farms and they were growing vegetables as well. And so food was basically always the topic of conversation. We didn't really talk about it. Is it food and like business? You know, that's kind of like the topic of conversation that I um just remember having like with my my nonnu and and everything like that. But but my Biznonna and Biznonnu only really spoke Italian, you know?

SPEAKER_02 14:05

So How did you communicate?

SPEAKER_04 14:07

W just mind you reckon, what do you reckon? And lots of kisses on the cheek, you know?

SPEAKER_02 14:16

So whether you wanted them or not. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What do you reckon if Biznonna had a phone? Is she still alive, Biznon?

SPEAKER_04 14:23

No, no, sadly they passed away um actually not that long ago, really.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

So did Biznonna and Biznon ever have an opportunity to see this work, the the reels and your your No, they missed it.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

I think they just missed it. What do you think she would have thought of it? I think they would have been proud.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Um even the sexual spicy bits.

SPEAKER_04 14:44

Yes. The the thing about my Italian family that my whole side of my family is Italian is they're super supportive. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, they're very supportive. I think the first time they saw me on TV, like, you know, I came to the Christmas, I was like, the celebrity. They were like over the moon. My car, like everyone was just so excited. You know, because a lot of people ask, you know, what does your family think about this? And it's like, my I think my family enjoys it more than I enjoy it. You know, it's like they just they just love seeing me put myself out there.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

They probably don't see it as sexual as it is, they probably see you just having a great time being entertaining.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

Yes, that's exactly right. They they obviously they they see yeah, exactly. They see it from a different lens. They see it, okay, he's getting himself out there, he's trying something different, it seems to be working, he's he's building this this following, you know, he's building a business. So it's it's quite good. And it actually motivated me a lot. You know, they've they've helped me a lot from um just I guess positive reinforcement with any kind of entrepreneurial or creative thing I do, you know?

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Let's go to the second memory. Yep so from one great woman in your life to another. This is a memory um about your mother, and it's the time she took you and your brother to Rockpool.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

Yes. So yeah, we were really young, and um my mum was really getting into like different celebrity chefs, and she was really into Neil Perry at the time, and we didn't really go out for dinner much, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Like we Was she a cook, your mum?

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Yes, right. Yes, she cooked a lot, okay?

SPEAKER_02 16:18

So And she but she wasn't Italian?

SPEAKER_04 16:20

No, she no, so my my mum and her family, um, she's half German and Irish. Right. She's super into cooking, you know. Her mum was like would cook all these curries and stuff, and so my mum was like super into cooking, you know, she'd always cook different cuisines, like one week would be Indian, the next she'll be doing like English food and or Italian food, and she'll just change it up all the time. You know, as a teen growing up, you you kind of think to yourself, I just want the most basic thing. Like I I always just wanted like really basic things, but it was actually really good that she did all that. I know I'm getting a bit sidetracked, but the reason why I appreciate her doing all this cooking from scratch is because it made me appreciate taste in a different way.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

She gave you another lens, yeah. Another way to look at the world.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Yeah. And I had a more appreciation for those things. So now it's easy for me to eat healthy because it developed my uh taste buds for those things earlier in life. So we went to this Rockpool restaurant and we're waiting ages for this table, like so long. But it stuck out to me because first of all, like the restaurant was like amazing in that, and we'd never really been to we'd never been to a fancy restaurant. We we got some steaks and um yeah, and we just I just remember waiting ages, but it was it was a like awesome experience. It's a different memory because like I always think like my parents are split, so we didn't have like a whole heap of money growing up and that, and so her taking me there was like a bit of a special memory, you know.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

It's like a it's like a yeah, it's a different thing there's some tears in your eyes now reflecting on it.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Yeah, a little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Um this is a moment that you connect love and food.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

And it's a it's a transformative moment. I want to know a little bit more about your mum. Tell us about your mum while I've got you in a tearful face.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

She's a very creative person, but she was a teacher, and then she was a teacher for deaf kids. And then growing up, she was she was always actually really small. So like when she when she was teaching when she was really young, I think she was like 20 or something, she sh they thought she was a student because she was so like small and petite. But she's like very book smart, done a lot of study her whole life, and she was she was teaching um you know to deaf kids and stuff like that, specialty teaching. And then she also has her own uh So can I just interrupt there?

SPEAKER_02 18:43

She's quite she's really then quite in tune into sensory yes, isn't she? So this is where you get all that sensory stuff from.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

It could be, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Sorry, keep going.

SPEAKER_04 18:53

I just wanted to No, yeah, d definitely, you know, and um growing up, it was very interesting. So my parents split when we were quite young, and my mum would all she like so she had she's always had like a side business. So at the mo so she's had it for almost I think 10 to 15 years, a crystal business. She sells like crystals and she has like a Facebook page and all this kind of stuff. But she's always had like a little side hustle, you know, she'd do the teaching, and then she'll do the the crystals. But there was always kind of like a hobby she was super passionate about, and she would like just put all her attention into it. It went from, you know, like teaching and and teaching sign language and this and that to then she got on to um the crystal business, and then she has a partner that's a musician, so she was like managing him. So I think growing up with like being close to my mum or you know, advisor on my mum, I think that gives me like a a softer edge.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

So you're back at this restaurant, you're back at Rock Pool. It's a I I imagine it's the Melbourne Rock Pool. Yeah, Melbourne Rock Pool, yeah. Melbourne Rock Pool. As a child, you probably thought she was taking you out somewhere fancy for dinner. As an adult, what do you think she was doing?

SPEAKER_04 20:04

Probably two things. One is she probably like wanted to go there and just be like, Let's, you know, let's let's do something nice for once, right? Let's do something nice. And the other thing is probably also like teaching us about these experiences as well, you know, taking us there and making sure we have these experiences so it gives us a way to think about things or a way to experience different styles of things. So yeah, I'll I'll say those those two things.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Now the next memory is a bit of a bloody downgrade from Rockpool where you had going down the slope. But this is a real turning point for you. Yeah. It's the beef, mints, and cheese. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

This oh, this is rough, man. This is this is the greatest time, but it was rough. Um, yeah, the beef, mints, and cheese. So what we did is I had no money. You know, starting these businesses, you just don't have any money for so long. Like you just try and How old were you when you started? So when I actually quit my job, I think I was 22.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

Yeah. So that's when I like quit my job and like kind of went all in. But I started the business, I started conceptualizing business from the age of 19 or 20. That's when I started thinking, I wanna have I want to be a business owner, I want to be an entrepreneur. I j I cannot envision myself working a normal job. And that's when I decided entrepreneurship. Yeah. And then it was 22 when I finally quit my job because it wasn't because I the businesses were doing super well, but it was only because I I didn't have enough time to sleep and do everything, you know, and I would rather it chose the businesses over um the job I was working. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

And so this beef and cheese story, where did it so the b what happened was for some reason.

SPEAKER_04 21:45

Okay, so it started in my mom's garage. We'll we'll making these donuts for events with the cart. We built this cart, we're selling on weekends. We'll and me and I had a business partner, and we would go on weekends to the events and sell, right? But what Happened was once I quit my job, and we got in we got into another little kitchen, a tiny kitchen, because our mum's like, my mum said to me, She's like, she just couldn't bear it anymore. Us just like up at all hours baking, like and I wasn't there all the time, but it was my business partner who was basically sleeping there to get all this stuff done. And she's like, You guys basically like you gotta find something else, you know. It was it was kind of getting out of hand. So we found this tiny little kitchen in Marabon in Melbourne, and we we set it up as our base. We're meeting a lot of people, and this guy just he was like an Uber driver because we were doing like Uber Uber deliveries out of this kitchen. This kitchen was not like this was not fit for what we're doing. Like we just had to take whatever we could so we can slowly build. Like this was a tiny kitchen, it was just so crammed. But this guy came to us, he said, Hey, I've got these beef beef patties. He's like, and he sold us like hundreds of beef patties, frozen ones, really cheap. And then my me and my business partner were like, you know what? Let's just live off beef patties. Like, let's just live off beef patties and cheese, and we'll save tons of money so we can keep growing the businesses, you know?

SPEAKER_02 23:13

And and so that's a very Italian migrant, isn't it? Let's just let's just go in, buy bowl.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

Yeah, yeah. So we just like, you know what, let's buy all these beef patties. We don't have to go shopping, we don't have to leave the kitchen. We'll just and then we just cook them on a pan, we put cheese, that's it, right? And so they'll it worked out to be like 50 cents or something a beef pad, like super cheap. So we would spend a few dollars a day on food, and that's all we I ate really was these these beef patties, man, they're bad. And I don't know how this guy gave them to us so cheap or where he got them from. Like, I just wouldn't do that to this day, you know?

SPEAKER_02 23:50

But so this is we're looking at here what is the what is the cost of ambition here? Like, you know, yeah, it's really sacrificing, you know, your meals. For sure. This is a very intimate look at the daddy before he became a daddy.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

What did you learn from this time in particular that success hasn't taught you yet?

SPEAKER_04 24:13

So I don't think you need to sacrifice all that, you know? I don't think you need to do all that crazy stuff. We were just being a bit dramatic. But back then you you're so scared because you don't know what's the future.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Right. Okay, you're scared of is this going to be successful?

SPEAKER_04 24:29

Yeah. You're so scared, you know? Really what I think doing all this stuff does is just builds your confidence. Because it's not about the business working, that's great, but it's actually it's the confidence you get from it building it, because then you know, okay, I can do this one thing, then you have this confidence to do other things in your life better. And you know, it's like this confidence building act. It's the weirdest thing ever, but for me, that's that's kind of yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

And then you're beefing it up with these really gross beef patties and cheese.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Yeah, and just don't and you don't need to do that, but for some reason there's always a there's a level of struggle that has to go into some form of entrepreneurship, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Did you ever wobble or kind of think, you know what, we're not gonna make it through?

SPEAKER_04 25:13

No.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

You knew.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

You knew that this was the it's just your track.

SPEAKER_04 25:18

Well, I knew there was no other option because what else am I gonna do, really? You know? And every time that we've taken any sort of risk, once we got the the kitchen, got the lease on the kitchen, you know, that same week we just happened to get 10 times more orders. Any time any level of commitment that's like this is a scary level of commitment has always paid off. And I think there's something in the universe that rewards you for taking some crazy risks. I don't know what it is, or whether or not that's your mind creating those things, I have no idea. But every time I've done something that's kind of ridiculous, but not so ridiculous that's like, you know, it has to be within reason ridiculousness, you know? So, but but I f I find that it you get rewarded.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

I remember when I opened my first commercial kitchen for the catering business, we took over the lease, and then next day, September 11, and then the ass fell out of all of our bookings. Oh, and I was really relying on all the bookings, and very much that it was like I've just got to keep going. There is no other option, you know. And I ate beans, I literally ate 10 beans and was eating in the kitchen, and there was no security, so we slept there, building it up bit by bit, and ended up painting the place. I know that feeling, and then so by the time COVID happened, I was like, bring it on, I've been here on you can't, you didn't take it away from me the first time. Yeah, you're definitely not taking it away the second time. I want to look at Donut Daddy now. There you were, you know, eating those beef patties in the very beginning to make it all work to make sure it had the finances to for the doors to open every day.

SPEAKER_03 26:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Now, Donut Daddy is a really big deal. Let's look at it holistically. We're looking at the product that you sell, the carts, the content.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Do you ever feel that it ever gets bigger than you, Anthony? Does it ever take over you?

SPEAKER_04 27:09

What do you mean, like take over me?

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Like Does that whole that whole everything that you've created, does it take over, does it become bigger than you, the person? Because clearly we're not our businesses, we're not our brands, we are separate entities.

SPEAKER_04 27:23

Yeah. No, I think as soon as you s you really start hiring people that that do things uh when you're not there, then yeah, it's definitely more than you, you know? Like you got and then that those people are managing other people, and that's when it's like the pressure's not all just on you, you know? The my donut daddy content side of things is still pretty is just all like all mentally weighed on me, you know? So that's kind of where uh where it's all weighed on me at the moment. But my other businesses now, because I got a business partner with one of them, and then you know, I've got staff uh in in the shop as well. So they're doing a great job of uh running those things.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

How do you find your way back to life before this success? I mean, do you miss it?

SPEAKER_04 28:10

Yeah, I do. It's like a love-hate relationship because once I started going viral online, it was like this excitement. It was just a it was a pure novelty excitement. But what's weird is your brain starts just changing so much. Like I would say in the three years of doing content, my brain has changed the most.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

How would you explain that the change?

SPEAKER_04 28:32

The change. I think you just you start to see through so much. I never understood the media business, you know. I only understood basically what I knew, which was like catering, festivals, wholesale, hospitality business, you know? Understanding the media business is really interesting because you you start to see uh you start to understand TV, you start to understand like the acting side of things, you start to understand all these different creative mediums, you know, because although the donut shop is somewhat creative, I would say that the content you have to access a whole other level of creativity. You have to start to just think in a completely different way, because I am my content. So it becomes like this thing where it's it's a real mental battle. Getting up to and and and replying to emails and managing staff in the shop to me is soothing. You know, like it's just it's it's it's like clockwork for me. It doesn't really stress me out. The content, it's a mental battle. Because like, let's say you don't have a post that performs well. Well, you know, what do you do? You you you have to push it aside.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Okay, a post that doesn't perform well, you just push that aside. Let's liken that to a day in the shop that didn't do well. What's explain the two feelings there, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 29:51

I'll say Yeah, it's yeah. A day in the shop that doesn't do well. I mean, it's more predictable. Like I'll say the shop is is.

SPEAKER_02 29:59

So you can stomach, you can stomach low takings better than you can handle a post that doesn't do as well.

SPEAKER_04 30:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Yeah?

SPEAKER_04 30:08

Yeah. I would say yes, I can.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

And why?

SPEAKER_04 30:11

A post not doing well is like I'm putting so much creative effort into it. So much effort and creative thought, and you know, you have this level of somewhat expectation, which you need to essentially get rid of because you never know how any post is going to perform. Yeah, I think I just, you know, addicted to the game, you know. Addicted, you know, addicted to the to the feeling. But just I think it's seeing the levels of the media business and seeing behind everything and seeing how, you know, everything you see online is just really not really what it is. Seeing all that and understanding that really changed kind of the way I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Success has arrived. Here we are, we've got the successful space where you're at. Yeah. Now, but behind every successful man is a story about the men and the friends and the relationships. This next memory takes us to barbecues in Ballarat with the mates.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

I like this one. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Um, tell me about it.

SPEAKER_04 31:06

So, yeah, growing up I had three best mates, me, Anthony, and Jason. And how did you differentiate between the Anthony's? But you're like tall Anthony and he was short, Anthony. Have you seen the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? So we were the good, the bad, and the ugly.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Which one were you?

SPEAKER_04 31:24

The bad. Um, so so we have this this mate, Jason. He's he he was really into IT, you know? So he was like the IT guy.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

Um nationalities were they? Let's just get all this right.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

So so Anthony is basically Australian. Right. Right? He's he's similar to me. We've got black hair and you know, we've got similar features and whatnot. He's very loud though. Like he's very, like, he's very outgoing and uh but super like he will get up and go to bed at the same time, you know? Like he's very, like, just on like very mature for his age. Jason, his family's kind of like European background, but Australian. But he's got blonde hair, you know, blonde hair and blue eyes. So he's got this European background. So we're all just like these, you know, Aussie guys, you know, kind of misfits, kind of not, you know, into entrepreneurship, you know. So we're just like such good friends. And you know, when we're 21, we're just life's just simple, man. You know, it's just there's nothing to worry about. You know, it's it's so simple. So we uh yeah, we used to just like get heaps of food and just like cook it and eat it. Like that was just our thing to do. We're just buy heaps of food. Jason, his dad lived in Ballarat, so we went to the park and just did this big cook-up. We just got so much food, like sausages, eggs, um, steaks, not a vegetable in sight. And we just cooked it up super greasy, man, and then we're just sunbaking for like four hours, six hours, like a whole day.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

So these these barbecues, you say you were all misfits, you all kind sort of came together because you didn't fit in. So, I mean, are these barbecues more about are they are they really is this memory about food, or is it more about, you know, finding your tribe and connecting over food?

SPEAKER_04 33:09

Us just hanging out, just being free and just like being all best mates, you know. Obviously we, you know, we get into fights over silly things and stuff like that, but the simplicity of the time was so good.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

As we get older, friendships become, you know, harder to hold on to. But what I learned from your memories was family and the ficky the India have a way of staying with us, you know. So your next memory is quite a prickly one, and I know it as well. It's non no uh prickly pears, fick it the India. They're bastard fruits.

SPEAKER_04 33:45

Yeah, they hurt, man. They're they're they're tough. Um, so yeah, my dad is like obsessed with prickly pears. My dad?

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Your non no?

SPEAKER_04 33:53

Yeah, no, so my dad is Oh your dad is, but my nonu as well. Like they're just my I think my dad got the obsession from my nonu. Right. My nonu would grow their prickly pears, and so my dad, you know, my dad would take us there, would it always tell us the same thing, like, you know, it's prickly, you know, on the outside, like a cactus. It's really strange because my dad's obsessed with fruit. He just he's just obsessed with fruit. He's a very quiet guy, but he's obsessed with fruit. Like, I love desserts, like I just got a real big sweet tooth, but he's like, he's just obsessed with fruit, you know? And so I don't know, growing up, he's just he's just always talking about prickly pears. Would go and would would go to the farm and they kind of grow them in like they could grow in weird spots because it's like a cactus, and he would kind of just like cut it and would eat it. And I was always fascinated by them.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

You've you're simplifying it a bit. You don't just cut a prickly pear and eat it, you've got to get the glove on.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

Oh yeah, yeah. I kind of I kind of picked up.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Sorry, I'm not letting you get away with this one. And then somehow, somewhere, those little tiny invisible fucking pricks just find their way to the side of your neck in your hands.

SPEAKER_04 34:59

They're dangerous, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

And then all for what? This like kind of little seedy fruit. Explain the fruit.

SPEAKER_04 35:05

Uh it's kind of watery. It's kind of watery, but it's it I've had some really refreshing ones.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Good long you.

SPEAKER_04 35:13

Yeah. But I think our dad would do most of the work, you know, and we'd just reap the benefits, you know.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

But um So what would Nordnor do? He would clean them. They were a very big deal for them, weren't they? They were just because they I I think back with my own family, they open at particular times of the year. Yes, yeah. You know, and then it was just this thing that you would go and grab these fruits and then I have the same relationship with figs. Give me a fig any day. I would chase down a fig. I would climb.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

Yeah, I love figs too, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

But the the the prickly pear was something different, it was more intrepid, that whole experience.

SPEAKER_04 35:47

Yeah, uh, it's it's uh we're super young, but I just I remember he would kind of just use a knife and cut it. I think, yeah, he must have been wearing a glove because they must have been really it was so long ago. I mean, I remember they were very prickly and and he had to really like cut them down to so we could eat them. But yeah, so it there's stran they're strange, strange little fruits for sure.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

So if Nono gave you prickly pears, your father gave you something else entirely different. This last memory is your father making osabuco in the back shed.

SPEAKER_04 36:21

So my dad, yeah, so he lived on on the farm, right? And um, so he had like this shed. And so basically, he would always cook like a nice Italian meal. Like he he actually wouldn't eat healthy all the time, but he would for for some reason spend hours making this osso buco. Every time we saw him, he would make this osso buco. He'd spend so long in it, like we it would be like four it would be waiting for dinner. He was born here, wasn't he? Yeah, he was born here, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. He would spend so long making this Osso Buco, and it was so good. Like it was it was just amazing. Uh, but I don't know, he was just he was obsessed with it, you know? He was obsessed with the Osso.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Do you think it was a do you think it was a way that he could privately connect back to a part of him, part of his heritage?

SPEAKER_04 37:11

I think so. Yeah, he he's very like traditional. Anything that's Italian, he instantly loves it.

unknown 37:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

So what were the conversations that would happen when you were we're with him in the shed and the Osabucco?

SPEAKER_04 37:26

Yeah, my dad would talk a lot about entrepreneurship and money. My Italian side of the family talk a lot about working hard. You know, that's really I think where I got my kind of hard working from, you know. They were just always working on the farm, you know, and just seeing that I would be a kid would go there and it's like would just help would just be end up working as well, you know. So, you know, my dad got really I think obsessed with money to a degree. Like I just so many conversations about money and like, you know, this, that, um, build this business, do this thing. So he he talked a lot about these kind of things, you know, and as a kid, you just believe everything you hear, you know?

SPEAKER_02 38:08

And he's your dad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

And so I'll just believe all these things he he would be saying and and then would like, you know, tell our mum. But as I got older, I kind of like started to see, like, you know, where's all these things he's talking about? You know, he's talking about these things. And as I got older, it kind of like changed my thought about things, you know. That that's kind of like how how the conversation would go usually.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

I'm curious, what did masculinity look like in your house?

SPEAKER_04 38:38

Uh that's a tricky one. My dad's a real like old school man's man, but very like quiet and creative at the same time. So, I mean, look, I'd see my dad shave, I would see him put on cologne or like put on a nice shirt. These are the these are the memories I remember about my dad, like, you know, if there was uh kind of like a girl, he'd turn into a real softy, and like me and my brother would like tease him and stuff when we were a kid. You know, like you'd have like a client who needs enemies when you've got sons. You'd have like a client called Claire, and would every time we saw him, we would just say, we'd just like tease him about it and stuff. And um, but no, like I think my granddad's is really, I think, where where I l I learned from because it was really about like working hard, providing for your family.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

Um so that's what men did. Yes, yeah, they worked hard and provided for and they delivered.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:35

What does masculinity look like for you now?

SPEAKER_04 39:38

It's a tricky question, you know, it's a very tricky question, but I have a lot of answers. So it used to be for me just like working hard, right? That that's masculinity, right? It's like don't look after your health, don't look after the way you look. That's not masculinity, you know. That's what I used to think. And then I got older and then I realized masculinity to me is actually being a gentleman, you know, being polite to everyone. That's probably the first thing. Uh respecting yourself and doing what what needs to be done, really, whatever that is. But you know, and I also think that it's grooming, it's it's actually a lot of things right now, I think. You know, for me it's it's basically everything. But different from then, there's a lot more for me now where it's like it's to do with more like, you know, how do you look, how do you feel, talking about your you I used to think it's like you don't talk about your emotions. You don't talk about how you're really feeling. It's actually the opposite of that.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

I'd be curious to see a photo of your dad at your age now and you side by side. Yeah. Because when you talk about your dad putting on a cologne and shirt, yeah, yeah. That's how I see you.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

Yeah, yeah. In your content. Like it's very much so it'd be really interesting to see you side by side. I did that with a photo of my father at my age just recently, and I was like, wow, that apple really doesn't fall far from the trees. But here's another here's another aside here. Do you think your drive comes from inspiration of what you see, feel, know, working hard, or does it come from a fear of becoming someone who never starts anything?

SPEAKER_04 41:27

It is, it's both of those things. It's it's kind of a combination. For me, there's like this this this ticking clock. Since the age of like 19 or 20, I felt the the pressure of time. I'm like, the the time the clock's running out. We need to get working. You know, to to my best mates, I'm like, we've got to stop messing around. Like, we need to do the business.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

We need to- No, that's not a normal conversation for 19-year-olds.

SPEAKER_04 41:53

Yeah, I know. Oh well, I mean, it maybe not, is it not? Probably not. Yeah, not yeah, yeah, not for everyone, you know.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

So uh yeah, that I mean it was for me, and I can hear it, and I'm thinking of you, and I see myself as that 19-year-old, and I'll like to hear you say it, and I think, the fuck did I do?

SPEAKER_04 42:12

Like I mean, my mates probably thought I was a bit crazy. They more wanted to hang out, and where I really wanted to just get things done, I wanted to keep moving, making progress. Uh that's that what I first started to notice about me and my close mates. Uh that I was a little bit heck I was a bit intense.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

No. You?

SPEAKER_04 42:32

Yeah. You know, I was a bit intense when it came to the the working side of things, you know, and but it would have been, you know, good to like kind of grow all in the same thing together. That was like kind of really what I wanted. But you know, things get complicated with close mates and it's like it's very difficult.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

So was this memory about dad, was it difficult to is it difficult to talk about?

SPEAKER_04 42:58

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's difficult to talk about, for sure. It's yeah, it's it's a sensitive topic.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

Because it also forms the backbone of who you are when it comes to a parent, and you know, you know, they are the people that you look up to. And when they make a mistake, the world does cut come crashing down, but we forget that they're humans. And as a dad, as a father, I often find myself falling over and actually bring it to my kids' attention.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Now, you there's been a lot of conversation about entrepreneurialship, doing business and all the rest of it. But your social, so you want to talk about something today as your social cause. It's your relationship with capitalism.

SPEAKER_04 43:39

Yes, yes. So go on down this route. No, so okay, I don't really look at things as entrepreneurship anymore, but I just see them for things as they are, you know, and like this is this is a creative endeavor. So basically, the capitalist system is so flawed. It is so flawed, but it it it it's great, but it's terrible. Like it's great in terms of okay, so this person wants to make money and provide for his family, okay? That's great. But the question is how is that person gonna do that, right? So you go into like a supermarket and you see all this food colorful flashing in your face, boom, boom, boom, buy this, buy this, buy this. But it's like, you know, at the end of the day, realistically, if we want to be as healthy as possible, we probably need to limit our food as much as possible, you know? But it's like you're walking in there and you're bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, buy this, buy that, buy this. And it made me think about the whole system and how no one owes us anything, right? I used to think that the world owed me something, but it doesn't. Where am I going with this? Um, but it doesn't really at all, you know? And so we're we are we are just a infinite consciousness in this space trying to figure out what we're doing. And for some reason, capitalism happens to be the the thing, right? But it's very destructive. It can be very destructive. You know, there's industries that are built off capitalism that are pure evil, that are killing, that are doing so much harm, but because it makes money, it can't go down because we then money needs to be there.

SPEAKER_02 45:29

I'm making a hit prediction that the next phase of your career will be something completely opposite. That's gonna fix the problem. So we're all gonna look out for it, Anthony. It's gonna be the daddy fixer, the daddy doer. Uh proving is a is is a critical part of the doughnut daddy story. But the dough isn't the only thing being asked to prove itself here, is it, Danny? Who are you proving it to?

SPEAKER_04 45:57

I think it's uh just my s my alter ego, really. It's really I actually don't know. I don't know. It's a weird thing.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

I actually don't know. Thank you, Danny. We built a show on Three Food Memory. You've given us six. Anthony the donut daddy, it's been a business doing pleasure with you. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Oh my pleasure. That's it for this episode of Three Food Memories. Be sure to spread the plated love and check out our hundred-plus back episodes. You can catch them on YouTube as well. Just search for Three Food Memories. For all things TFM, head to the socials at Three Food Memories and at SavaSavas. For more info, send us a message, head to threefoodmemories.com. Three Food Memories is produced and edited by Lauren McQuerta with original music by Russell Torrance. Nastika La Philly, and bye for now.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

Thank you for listening to Papa's Podcast. Don't forget to like and subscribe and tell your friends. Stay. Bye.