map dreamers

LOCAL DREAMERS - john ronchi

To the Italians, coffee is life. It’s community; it’s laughter; it’s connection; it’s beauty. The cafe is a meeting place for friends, family and strangers. A place where friendships are born, love blossoms, ideas come to life and community spirit flows freely. It was in Vicenza, Italy, that John Ronchi first fell in love with coffee. Upon graduating from university, John spent four months in the Northern Italian town working in his cousin’s cafe, surrounded every...

NATIONAL DREAMER - james miller

After blowing out to 120kg while working in New York, James Miller returned to Australia inspired by one of the few healthy lunch options he could find in the Big Apple – a salad deli tacked on to the local sandwich shop attracting queues even in winter. Of a range of business ideas James discussed with friend Luke Baylis, who’d developed similarly poor eating habits in the US, this was the one that just seemed to stick. Now, amidst the bright-lights marketing jungle of fast-food...

INTERNATIONAL DREAMER - mark bittman

Growing up in New York City, roaming the streets in search of childhood adventure and fuelled by the exotic ethnic foods of the metropolis’ street vendors, Mark Bittman developed his appreciation for food early in life. His passion for cooking, however, was born out of necessity, when he headed off to college in Massachusetts and found that any access to good food had vanished completely. Realising that if he wanted to eat well, he had to make it himself, Mark soon began to explore his...