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

Margie Harris - A true independent

·30 min·1 clip

Margie Harris says hospitality discipline helped her become a personal trainer, and then she stopped drinking for 22 years.

Anthony Huckstep opens by framing Margie Harris as someone whose influence has run through Australian culinary life for years. Margie responds in a direct way and starts tracing the path that took her from Adelaide into restaurants, then on to Sydney, and later to the Northern Rivers in New South Wales. The conversation stays close to hospitality as a lived craft rather than an abstract idea. She talks about the work of making a room feel alive. She talks about the people who came through it. Paramount becomes a major touchpoint in the discussion. Margie remembers the venue warmly and speaks about the friendships that grew from it. Local regulars mattered. Travellers mattered too. The famous names did not define the place, but they are part of the story she tells. She recalls a list of visitors that kept growing until it numbered well over fifty. The names span movie stars and musicians. What stays with her is not celebrity itself but the way those moments settled into the daily life of the restaurant. She jokes about running home to fetch a camera before the era of phones made that necessary. Anthony follows that thread into a larger question about how young operators create that same sense of energy today. Margie answers with something practical. You need personality. You need to believe in the product. You need to like people. The conversation circles back to the emotional texture of a busy venue. It is about work, but also about atmosphere, confidence, and care. Anthony and Margie treat the restaurant floor as a social world as much as a business one. When the discussion turns to Paramount's closure in 2001, the story opens into another chapter rather than ending on loss. The tone stays generous and reflective throughout. It is a portrait of a hospitality life built from rooms, relationships, and memory. It also leaves room for the next conversation, which both host and guest clearly want to have.

As heard by us

A warm hospitality story about influence, restaurants, and the people who make a room work.

Margie Harris comes across as someone who helped shape rooms where food, service, and personality all mattered. The story moves from Adelaide to Sydney and then to the Northern Rivers, and the point is not just the travel but the reach of her work.

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Why you'd press play

For a behind-the-scenes look at Australian hospitality and the culinary evolution of the country, this one has room to breathe.

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