Gerald Diffey has spent four decades immersed in the world of food, wine and hospitality, from early days waiting tables in old English hotels to establishing two of the best places in the world to drink and eat: the award-winning Geralds Bar in North CarltonHeston Blumenthal described it as a proper, proper oldfashioned sort of bar and Geralds Bar in San Sebastian. Beggars Belief is a collection of funny, poignant, insightful and just plain ludicrous stories from Geralds life in kitchens and behind bars: his formative years in the UK, memories of food and family; tales and tips from forty years of service; journeys and meals, people and places, from lunch on the side of a volcano in Sicily to dinner on a beach in East Timor; stories and recipes and drinks suggestions from North Carlton and San Sebastian; vignettes, slices of life, observations. Romance, writes Gerald in the introduction. Thats what I sell. Sensual pleasures. Sights, sounds, smells, touch, taste. Cyrano de Bergerac said: I have tried to live my whole life with panache. If I said that, Id sound like a twat. But you get the drift. Im off to bone some quails.
Max Allen has been writing about wine and drinking at Geralds bars and restaurants for almost 30 years. Max is the wine and drinks columnist for the Australian Financial Review, Australian correspondent for JancisRobinson.com, and two-time winner of the prestigious André Simon Memorial Award: in 1998 with his first book, Red and White, Wine Made Simple, and again in 2020 for his latest book, Intoxicating, Ten drinks that shaped Australia. In 2011 The Future Makers: Australian Wines for the 21st Century was named Best International Wine Book at the Louis Roederer Wine Writers Awards; in 2013 Max was awarded a State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship; in 2016, he was inducted as a Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival; in 2018, he was named Wine Communicator of the Year. Max is currently an honorary fellow in history and teaches wine studies at the University of Melbourne.
"Sunday was the night we went to Geralds Bar in Carlton. What a lovely thing to do: youve got all these trendy new bars everywhere, and then youve got this proper, proper old-fashioned sort of bar."
Heston Blumenthal
"(Gerald) displays what distinguishes every exceptional restaurateur: a great eye for detail."
Nick Lander, author of The Art of the Restaurateur and On the Menu
