By Deborah Ong
Last month we said farewell to a proud Inner-westie and one of the strongest supporters of our local dining scene. Many will remember Kenny Weir for his colourful personality, his love for jazz, and his insatiable curiosity when it came to good nosh.
Kenny’s food blog ‘Consider the Sauce’ – which was also occasionally published by the Star Weekly and The Westsider – is a repository of fantastic local eats in the west, spanning over 15 years. No hole-in-the-wall was too small to explore, and his enthusiasm in finding new places to try was palpable. In fact, after I got to know him, he would sporadically text me photos of Singaporean/Malaysian food that he had just tried. He’d ask questions about some of the items, and we’d have lovely conversations about the regionality of food or about some new exciting place that had popped up in the West.
Kenny’s food blog, along with Lauren Wambach’s ‘Footscray Food Blog’, were the two staples that inducted many into the wonderful and diverse local food scene back in the 2010s. Long before social media influencers and content creators would monetise their content, these two food warriors pioneered an intimate look at what eateries in Melbourne’s west had to offer, fuelled purely by their desire to spread the word about the rich food culture of Footscray and surrounds.
I first got to know Kenny Weir when he and his son Benny (like intrepid explorers), visited our then-new café in Maidstone. Kenny was instantly recognisable with his signature moustache. He ate, we chatted, and he subsequently wrote about us on his blog. He had visited when we were relatively new and still working out the kinks. The menu was small and still somewhat experimental. He was so incredibly kind in his review and was overwhelmingly positive. As first-time business owners, his words really helped to boost our confidence to do more.
His reviews were always honest, but they were never negative. I once asked Kenny what happens to the places that left him less-than-impressed. His reply – he just didn’t write about them. His mission had always been to support local businesses, not tear them down. They have enough stacked against them, he said, and I have always respected him for that.
As I was thinking of how to write this piece and what to include in it, I had a scroll through our texts and communications over the years. I couldn’t help but smile reading one of our last conversations. It was about the use of spice in desserts and how the classification of ‘desserts’ is very much a Western concept because of the way meals are split into progressive ‘courses’. In Southeast Asia we have lots of snacks that are both sweet and savoury, that can be simultaneously an entrée, part of a main, or even a dessert.
Kenny teased me about using this as a new business idea. He had also suggested diversifying with merchandise, t-shirts and foot massages. (I’m just being honest Kenny. It’s the journalistic integrity that I know you would have expected). I laughed, citing rising costs and wages as disincentives to start a new business. Maybe he was a visionary, or maybe he believed in me more than I believed in myself, but he must be laughing where he is now, while my husband and I discuss our plans to increase our dinner offerings centred around snacky, sharing dishes – sweet and savoury.
Kenny was warm, earnest, unabashed and fully embraced life with all its different flavours, colours and textures. The Westie food scene was lucky to have him while we did, and his voice will be sorely missed. Vale Kenny Weir.
