OzHarvest founder Ronni Kahn reflects on her life

By Mark Dapin
Updated October 23 2014 - 6:13pm, first published 5:15pm

Ronni Kahn, founder of the food-rescue charity OzHarvest, exchanges a salvo of air kisses with Mike McEnearney of Kitchen by Mike, an unfeasibly good canteen-style eatery built inside the former Rosella cannery in Roseberry. Kahn and I have reached the front of the queue, and are about to choose our dishes, when McEnearney notices Kahn and looses off the first round of quickfire kisses over his display of wildly colourful salads. Kahn responds in kind, with the same number of kisses (nine). There is an air-kiss standoff, then Kahn introduces me to McEnearney. I've never kissed the air and, until the air kisses me first, I never will. I lean across the counter and shake McEnearney's hand, but feel I've not properly entered into the spirit of the occasion. McEnearney offers to buy us a drink and, out of curiosity, I accept a handmade pineapple, vanilla and lime cordial. Kahn takes a cloudy apple cider. We carry our meals to a table. I've chosen a lamb tagine, Kahn a collection of salads. Kahn has a unit in Alexandria, a block from Kitchen by Mike, and she eats here whenever she can, because McEnearney's food is organic, sustainable and all that sort of thing. It's also delicious. I devour my spicy, tender tagine in about five minutes, while Kahn shares the story of her life's journey, which has brought her from South Africa to Australia via almost 20 years in Israel.

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