Congrats on your new cookbook! What can you tell us about Mr Wilkinson’s Simply Dressed Salads?
Well, put simply, it’s just a different way to look at what salads could be – rather than some leaves or the classics we all know. The front cover is based around my grandfather who was always simply dressed: he was always in a three-piece suit wearing a handkerchief and a passionfruit flower. The thought process of the book is about one being simply dressed and a salad being simply dressed too.

Which is your personal favourite recipe in the book, and why?
I’d have to say the watermelon, prawn vinaigrette and fetta salad. It’s different but a delight to eat and I enjoy the expression on a person’s face before and after they eat it!

For those who have heeded the warning ‘not to make friends with salad’, how would you change their minds?
Easy! Get them around to my place and cook up some tasty meat on the barbecue with two or three salads in the middle to share. Salads get a bad rap purely because either they’re seen in a different light or not that important, a bit like a sandwich, but they’re both probably what we eat the most.

You were granted the title of World’s Best Sandwich Maker in 2011 – go on, impress us with your best sanga combination …
Anything in a jaffle … and certainly anything without bloody Vegemite!

What can you tell us about your Nanna Rita and her influence on your cooking?
Chiefly, I learnt how to add salt and how to not over-cook things. But what it really made me realise about food is the importance of eating together at the table to discuss things and catch up. I truly loved my Nan’s Sunday roast lunch – it was a special time for me and one I cherish dearly.

We’ve heard wonderful things about Pope Joan and Hams & Bacon. What was your biggest challenge in launching the business?
To be honest, it’s been the biggest rollercoaster ever. I’m sure every business owner will tell you that. The hardest challenge is keeping our amazing staff engaged and feeling needed, and to keep pushing them so that we can all be better. Apart from that, there’s always the financial side, but it’s been the best five years of my life and I couldn’t be prouder of myself, my business partner, key staff and my family.

Ben Foster is your business sweetheart and soulmate – what’s your advice for choosing a business partner?
Honesty, integrity, an ability to roll with the punches but most importantly someone who will pick you up when you’re down and vice versa. You must also be able to have a laugh with each other. He’s like my big brother – sometimes I want to fight, but most of the time I love him dearly and we get along amazingly.

What’s one of the most memorable meals you’ve ever eaten?
Three places, all in the US. A delightful pizza place in Brooklyn called Roberta’s, which does amazing salads and pizza, Blue Hill at Stone Barns in upstate New York, which is really breaking ground with its food beliefs and what it’s cooking and Bar Tartine in San Francisco, amazing delicious food from the heart.

Now you’re a dad of two, can you share any advice for getting little hooligans to eat their vegies?
At the moment, Finn (Hooligan #1) won’t eat greens – he did last week, but this week he’s on to carrots. Just keep trying!

What’s one of the best lessons you’ve learnt since you’ve become a parent?
I like this question, life is really all about it. As much as you fight it, having children is something so amazing, I feel privileged to have them, knowing that others can’t. Somehow life is really only a cycle. People have been and done this before, so how to make a difference … I try to be as loving as my mother, not make the same mistakes as my father, show how much I love them but simply just be proud of them now and whatever they want to be in the future. As long as they have good work ethics and beautiful manners, I’ll be proud.

What’s the best thing in your kitchen garden right now?
Basil! I have a recipe in the book called ‘I hate pesto salad’ and really, I do, but I love stockpiling it up in the freezer at this time of year. My two hooligans Finn and Jay help me cut and wash the basil and make the pesto. It’s a dish they eat when I work nights, so they generally have it on something like twice a week.

You’re passionate about sourcing fresh, seasonal produce. What should we be putting into our grocery baskets this month?
If you don’t know what’s in season, then find out for yourselves – ask the grocer, visit the farmers market or there’s this amazing thing now called Google, so if you type in ‘what’s in season’ in the area you are, it will tell you. Self-change is the best and most rewarding. Obviously, there are things in season most of the time but my belief is that the area I live in is where I buy from, so as daft as it sounds, I truly eat seasonally both at home and at work – so no tomatoes for me or my family when they don’t grow naturally in Victoria. It’s hard, believe me, but I think there are many joyful ways to celebrate all foods that are seasonal and I love it.

If you could convey one key message about the importance of farmers and food to the Australian public, what would it be?
Imagine yourselves every day at the will of Mother Nature. You work bloody hard and then your season’s crop or price falls out of the market and you’re left without money. Most 9–5 people would go mad, it would be heartbreaking for all, and this is just a day-in, day-out lifestyle for farmers. We should all remember it’s the soil that will feed us – water and food come from that, so we should look after those who look after the soil and not just think of our house as the most important.

If you could prepare a meal for anyone in the world right now, who would you choose and what would you cook?
At the moment, the Liberal cabinet and policy makers. I’d make them eat a tube of ‘harden up and get on with the job’ on toast with a clip around the ear before bed!

How do you personally define ‘success’?
Good question again. I asked a gent whom I look up to immensely about when he’ll stop and when he’ll know he’s ‘made it’ – he couldn’t tell me, but for me I guess I hope when I’m dead there’ll be many people to celebrate my life, but that I will never know …

You’ve worked with some of the world’s best chefs, launched your own venues, authored cookbooks and become a dad, but what life achievement are you most proud of so far?
Continually growing with my partner Sharlee, as a family and personally together. It’s not easy but I’m proud of her, me and what we’re achieving together through family and our work.