Q&A: Mr Mirabella’s twinkling lights

Monday 6 December 2010, 1:20 PM
By The Team | Posted in Things

This year marks the ten year anniversary of Mirabella International’s support for our beloved Christmas tree in the City Square. Hot on the heels of Friday’s spectacular Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, we talk to Paul Mirabella (aka Mr Mirabella), founder and managing director about Christmas, being energy efficient and taking inspiration from the Griswolds.

What do you love about Christmas in Melbourne?

The things I love about Christmas in Melbourne are all the festive events; the city seems to come alive. The Myer Christmas Windows always put a huge smile on my face, seeing families together and enjoying the colourful displays.

Do you decorate your own home with Christmas lights?

Very much so, I like to display my wares! Come Christmas time, people in my local area and friends always relate my home to the film ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’ starring Chevy Chase and the famous Griswold family!

We understand you have a large family - ten grandchildren and one great grandchild – what does the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony mean to them (and you)?

My grandchildren are very proud that the Mirabella brand features so prominently in the Melbourne community, and so am I.

The meaning to them is about having memorable moments filled with joy, laughter, enjoyment with family and friends.

Mirabella is known for its sustainable practices, how did you incorporate these into the brand? And the tree lighting ceremony?

Incorporating sustainable practices is very challenging in today’s business world. We are doing this through developing products that use resources efficiently and effectively, as well as considering green alternatives that will ensure a good future for the environment.

The city’s Christmas tree lighting only uses LED systems and timing devices which activate when desired, so energy consumption is reduced.

What are your tips for making sure that we save energy this Christmas?

• When purchasing festive lighting, explore LED Low Voltage options rather than 240 volt light sets.
• Make sure you use a timer with your Christmas lights to ensure they are displayed when appropriate.
• Remember to turn off all your Christmas lights before you go to bed or before you leave for holidays.
• Spend less on energy costs and more on presents – energy efficient compact fluorescent globes last up to ten times longer than incandescent globes.

9/12 We asked our readers to tell us what lights up their lives at Christmas time and loved reading their responses below. Christmas is a wonderful time of year, don’t you think? Ten lucky people won a pack of Mirabella Fairy Lights to add a little Christmas sparkle to their home. Thanks everyone for entering!

Please please me, Melbourne: Let It Be

Tuesday 3 August 2010, 11:14 AM
By The Team | Posted in Events

Get your dancing shoes on, Beatles fans! Next week, the Let It Be Tour hits Melbourne as a very special ‘Fab Four’ – Jon Stevens, John Waters, Doug Parkinson and Jack Jones – put in a hard day’s night at the Regent Theatre.

These four stars of Australian rock are set to honour the awesome Lennon–McCartney songwriting duo with a little help from their friends, the Day Tripper Band. Lennon and McCartney co-wrote an amazing 23 chart-topping singles during The Beatles’ 10-year career.

As we found out when we spoke with John Waters this week, the Let It Be performers are honoured to use what they describe as the ‘best catalogue of all time’ to prepare a playlist that’s guaranteed to keep you satisfied.

John, are you an early Beatles fan, or do you prefer their later work?

I’m a real 60s person – that decade was my teens and early adulthood, so The Beatles meant everything to me, right from the first single to the last gasp.

So which Beatles song do you crank up when you feel like dancing?

‘She Was Just Seventeen’.

We know what you mean! Fans can list their favourite Beatles tracks on the Let It Be website,  helping shape the tour’s playlist. Have you been online late into the night trying to skew the vote? 

I haven’t interfered in any way! I just said, ‘tell me what you’d like me to sing, and I’ll sing it.’ It’s an honour to sing anything from the best catalogue of all time.

How are you divvying up the playlist? Has it come down to duelling guitars yet?

The four of us do some solos each; there’s a duet or two, and there’s an ‘ensemble’ vibe on a few of the big anthems. In fact, that’s what all of these songs are to me: anthems of the great sociological change that coincided with my youth – maybe the biggest shake up of the human mindset ever.

It wasn’t all achieved by a couple of lads from Liverpool – but they wrote the score!

Can you tell us what you’re looking forward to most about next week’s Melbourne shows?

Working with great singers like Jon, Jack and Doug is a real blast. We all know each other and get on well and, I think, complement each other with our varying styles. I’m looking forward to the camaraderie that is the great thing about performing beautiful music.

We, and the band, are all there to serve the songs, and in doing that we strike up a real relationship with the audience.

The people who come to see and hear us are ultimately what it’s all about. I can’t wait! Neither can we.

Let It Be is on Tuesday 10 August and Wednesday 11 August at the Regent Theatre. A limited number of tickets are still available, so if you want one, you’d better be quick!

LINK:

Let It Be Tour

In the Raw with Guy Grossi and Luke Mangan

Friday 2 July 2010, 4:32 PM
By The Team | Posted in Events

Joining the ranks of Laurel and Hardy, Fred and Ginger and Bill and Ted…. now you can add Luke and Guy to your list. Two chefs, Guy Grossi of Grossi Florentino and Luke Mangan of Salt, Sydney and newly opened The Palace in Melbourne, will join forces for two nights of pure food theatre.

In the Raw combines humour, cooking demonstrations, an inspired degustation dinner and a rare opportunity to see these chefs treading the boards. We talk to Guy and Luke about their 20-year friendship and here’s some of things they shared about each other.

You left school in Year 10 and met at the prestigious Two Faces restaurant during your apprenticeships, can you share his most embarrassing kitchen moment there?

Luke: There was one occasion when Herman Schneider, the head chef gathered all the chefs around and started giving Guy a huge dressing down for leaving some food on the bench. Everyone was in the kitchen listening intently.  At the end Guy just turned around, shrugged and whispered ‘it wasn’t me’ to everyone behind him. Well we couldn’t help ourselves, we all just fell about laughing and Herman was not impressed!

Guy: We had a dish on the menu which was a trout filled with scallop mousse and one night when Luke was on the fish section he mistakenly filled the fish with semi-whipped cream instead. When Mr. Schneider went to serve the trout and took it out of the poaching liquid, the fish was completely empty … his glasses tipped down to his nose, he looked at Luke and said, “Oh Christ”.

What is he most likely to sing in a Tokyo karaoke bar and what song do you think you could possible duet together?

Luke: Guy will sing some Pavarotti any chance he gets and he does a mean That’s Amore number. We have in fact actually sung a song together in a karaoke bar in Tokyo and it was My Way.

Guy: Luke’s partial to Frank, I would have to encourage him but it’d have to be a Frank Sinatra song. We’ve often sung, “New York, New York” together when Luke has needed no encouragement … needless to say that tune is not our sharpest.

You both work in the same game – what skills do you secretly covet from each other?

Luke: Guy’s passion for drinking wine. And the fact that he always has an unending supply of paracetamol you can borrow off him in the morning.

Guy: His gift of the gab. Luke’s an incredible talker and even when he’s wrong, I find myself apologising to him.

With your busy schedules and various side projects, how has your close friendship managed to last the distance amongst these distractions?

Luke: We always make time for our yearly jaunt away together for a week or two at a time.  We go to enjoy and learn about different cultures together. It helps bring us back to earth about how lucky we are; from where we have come from to where we are today, getting to do what we love to do, every day.

Guy: Luke and I like to have a lot of fun when we are together. I believe that we inspire each other and we enjoy learning about food, wine and business. Luke understands his responsibilities and after all the fun, he knows it’s back to work.

Lastly can you tell us a bit about your upcoming show, In the Raw, how did the idea come about? What can the audience expect?

Luke: We have always done corporate cooking demonstrations together and they’ve always been a big success. We are fans of the old cabaret-style night out where you went out for dinner and a show – it used to be so popular. We wanted to reinvent that style of night out.

Guy: We came up with the idea over good Chablis.  People are fascinated by great food, culture and lifestyle and their excitement fuels our passion. We called it In The Raw because we hope to bring to the stage, our unscripted personalities and bare passion for what we do.

Tickets are still available for In the Raw – dinner and live show at the Regent Theatre on 9 and 10 July at 7pm. Tickets are $275 and include French champagne and canapes on arrival and a four-course degustation dinner with matched wines.