Deep in the Weeds - A Food Podcast with Anthony Huckstep · A Deep in the Weeds Production

Coskun Uysal (Tulum, Melbourne) - Ten out of ten

·29 min·1 clip

After 23 years together, Uysal had a “big party” with Turkish and Australian rituals.

Anthony Huckstep opens by framing 10 years in business as a proper stretch for any restaurant. The guest from Tulum returns to the show after a previous appearance. He has just come through a big weekend. He and his partner have married after 23 years in a relationship. The celebration was not a formal traditional wedding. It was a mixed Turkish-Australian party. Opera and arias sat alongside belly dancing. The whole thing was meant to feel open and celebratory. Anthony and the guest then turn to Tulum's next stage. The restaurant is about to add another concept at the back. For the past couple of months, they have been testing a simple home-style menu there. It has centred on a few mezzes, bread, cigar borek, tomato salad with cheese, and whole roasted lamb with rice and beans. The idea is built around the kind of food people want on weekdays. He says many diners do not always want a big, creative meal. They often want quick bites and familiar Turkish food they already understand. He sees the new offer as a practical way to meet that appetite. He also frames it as part of a larger pattern of keeping the business moving. That next step matters to him after a decade in the venue. The conversation then shifts back to his mother. He speaks with clear affection about her. She worked extremely hard across two jobs. At home she still found a way to put four or five dishes on the table each night. That memory sits at the centre of how he thinks about food and love.

As heard by us

A restaurant story about love, longevity, and the work of keeping a place alive.

Deep in the Weeds spends this visit with the Tulum restaurateur following a 10-year run and the new ideas still pressing at its edges. The talk moves from the restaurant floor to the private story behind it: a 23-year relationship, a big celebration, a mother whose labor shaped…

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Hear how Tulum has kept evolving after 10 years in business.

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