Friday, 22 November 2019

Luke Mangan OAM announced today that The Inspired Series, a program of inspirational and motivational talks for the industry by the industry, will host its very first international event in New York City, in collaboration with the Australian Consulate-General this December.

The Inspired Series talk will showcase the successes of Australian hospitality entrepreneurs Eddy Buckingham from Chinese Tuxedo, Dan Churchill from Charley St and Justin Giuffrida from Citizens Café Group.

Formerly Justin Timberlake’s personal mixologist and award-winning bar director, Eddy co-founded the Chinese fusion restaurant Chinese Tuxedo and experiential cocktail bar Peachy’s – both establishments in New York City. Celebrity chef and best-selling author Dan Churchill is the Executive Chef at Charley St, a fast casual restaurant in Nolita and regularly appears on ABC’s Good Morning America and the TODAY show, and hosts his own series on the Discovery Network, Feast with Friends. In three short years, Justin Giuffrida, alongside his business partner Andrew Geisel, has propelled the Citizens Cafe group to state-wide stardom, with soon-to-be five stores by Q1 2020 with a goal to build a vertically integrated food & coffee company, from supply chain to production, differentiating the brand from others in the industry and bringing innovation to the market.

In a Q&A style session, Mangan will chat to the trio about the inspiration behind their concepts and how their Australian hospitality training and perspectives have contributed to establishing their hugely successful hospitality businesses in NYC.

The event will be a collaboration with the Australian Consulate-General in New York to celebrate all things Australian with samples of great Aussie restaurants and cafes available on the night, along with Aussie wines to taste, including major sponsors Penfolds as well as some of the finest wines from Wine Australia and the Great Australian Wine Company. Other Australians mixing things up on the night include sponsors include Four Pillars Gin and Mr Black Coffee Liquor. Some of city’s best Australian food will be on offer from Hutch + Waldo, Two Hands, Bluestone Lane, Bourke St Bakery, Good Thanks, Wattle Café as well as food from the featured panelists.

The Inspired Series was launched by Luke Mangan in 2015 to provide inspiration, motivation and insider-tips for the next generation of hospitality workers through one-on-one talks with the world’s most successful chefs and restaurateurs on how they have got to where they are today – how they started out, who mentored them, the challenges they’ve faced along the way and their insights and advice on how to build a successful career in today’s fast moving food industry.

Since its launch in Sydney, Australia in 2015 Mangan’s Inspired Series has been enthusiastically received by industry leaders and students alike, leading to the program expanding nationwide and featuring Australian and world culinary leaders such as Peter Gilmore, Dan Hunter, Massimo Bottura, Daniel Humm and Brett Graham.

The latest world culinary leader to participate in an The Inspired Series talk was Marco Pierre White, widely considered the godfather of modern cooking, who spoke to 130 young hospitality students and professionals in Perth as part of the hugely successful Western Australia Gourmet Escape’s inaugural The World Gourmet Symposium. You can watch Luke’s chat with Marco here: https://youtu.be/dfH0hoc_HyY

The Inspired Series is currently scheduling its 2020 program. 

For more details on The Inspired Series program as well as past and future events please contact Lucy Allon: lucy@lukemangan.com / +61 419 299 862.