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The Food Mentor

The Food Mentor

By: David J Burns
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About this listen

For those of you who know me, you would know I love working in this wonderful food industry, but I also love talking about it!The Food Mentor Podcast unravels innovative, insightful and insprirational stories from individuals and businesses from the food industry. If you are interested in developing or growing a food or beverage brand/business or you are a retail, food service, hospitality, distribution company or even a food industry service provider, then we have you covered. One thing is for sure when listening to The Food Mentor podcast, you will always meet someone interesting (virtually) and learn something new - guaranteed!© 2025 The Food Mentor Art Cooking Economics Food & Wine Leadership Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Episode #36 - Meet Matt Demicoli Co founder and Managing Director of Health Lab
    Nov 7 2025

    Today I’m chatting with Matt Demicoli the Co Founder and Managing Director of Health Lab. This year the team celebrate their 10th birthday.

    Health Lab burst on to the scene back in 2015 with delicious plant based, gluten free protein snacks.

    You can find the health lab, Indulgent Balls, slices and bars in just about every supermarket and convenience store across Australia.

    Matt and the team have done a fabulous job over the last decade positioning themselves as one of the leading indulgent healthier snacking brands.

    This is a fabulous story for anyone on their entrepreneurial journey.

    I hope you enjoy this episode of the Food Mentor podcast.




    Meet David J Burns

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZKvu9FOjMw

    David is the founder of DJB Food Group and Creme design helping manufacturers, brands and entrepreneurs develop innovative new products and brands and then distribute into retail. In 2025 David’s clients will have achieved $200 mil in retail sales from brands and product ranges we have developed in the prior 24 months. Reach out for a chat anytime!

    https://www.djbfoodgroup.com/

    David also conducts strategy workshops as well as key note speaking engagements.

    Would you like to be a guest on our show or sponsor an episode to reach your target audience? We have enjoyed 60,000 podcast downloads with listeners in 370 cities across 68 countries.


    Connect with us anytime david@djbfoodgroup.com

    +61427034412
























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    27 mins
  • Episode #35 Sugira Rubasha chats with David about personal brand and entrepreneurship from humble beginnings.
    Oct 10 2025

    Today I’m chatting with Sugira Rubasha from ETS Rubasha media.

    We’re talking about my personal and professional journey, from humble beginnings growing up on the South Coast of England to now partnering with businesses to develop multi million dollar brands world wide.

    We chat though my views on the importance of your personal brand, creating the career path that YOU want and how I shifted from the corporate world as an employee to a food entrepreneur enjoying the freedom that comes from working for myself.

    And of course much more.

    This is a great fireside chat with Sugira where you will gain an insight into David’s mind and how he has created a fabulous personal and professional story.

    I hope you enjoy this episode of the Food Mentor podcast.






    Meet David J Burns

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZKvu9FOjMw

    David is the founder of DJB Food Group and Creme design helping manufacturers, brands and entrepreneurs develop innovative new products and brands and then distribute into retail. In 2025 David’s clients will have achieved $200 mil in retail sales from brands and product ranges we have developed in the prior 24 months. Reach out for a chat anytime!

    https://www.djbfoodgroup.com/

    David also conducts strategy workshops as well as key note speaking engagements.

    Would you like to be a guest on our show or sponsor an episode to reach your target audience? We have enjoyed 60,000 podcast downloads with listeners in 370 cities across 68 countries.


    Connect with us anytime david@djbfoodgroup.com

    +61427034412
























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    46 mins
  • Episode #34 - Meet Fuad and Mehmet the baby faced founders of Pistabella Pistachio Spread.
    Sep 23 2025

    Welcome back to the Food Mentor podcast my name is David Burns your host and today we’re chatting with Fuad and Mehmet the founders of Pistabella Pistachio spread.

    It would be no secret that anything pistachio is in vogue in a big way right now, so in this episode we chat with the boys to understand how they saw this opportunity and more importantly how they’re going with the supply to Coles Nationally after only trading for just over 12 months.

    This is a fantastic inspirational story for young entrepreneurs as well as large organisations. Proving that 1.. “anything is possible” – 2..age is no barrier…. and most importantly 3.. it is absolutely all about the timing!

    I hope you enjoy this episode of the food mentor podcast.



    David Burns is also the founder of DJB Food Group and Creme design helping manufacturers, brands and entrepreneurs develop innovative new products and brands and then distribute into retail. In 2025 David’s clients will have achieved $60mil in sales from brands and product ranges we have developed in the prior 24 months. Reach out for a chat anytime!

    David also conducts strategy workshops as well as key note speaking engagements.

    Would you like to be a guest on our show or sponsor an episode to reach your target audience? We have enjoyed 60,000 podcast downloads with listeners in 370 cities across 68 countries.


    Connect with us anytime david@djbfoodgroup.com

    +61427034412
























    Show More Show Less
    31 mins
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