When vegan rock stars come to Melbourne, they count on Shannon Martinez to plate up their plant-based meals. Whether it’s Billie Eilish, Cyndi Lauper or high-profile It-couple Blink 182 drummer Travis Baker and Kourtney Kardashian, the Collingwood-based chef and cookbook author has turned the backstage rider into an elevated meat-free experience.

She’s made her name bringing Spanish flavours to a vegan audience via her restaurants (Smith & Daughters in Collingwood and Lona Misa at Ovolo South Yarra). But for her latest cookbook, Vegan Italian Food, Martinez is leaning into Italy’s peasant roots for plant-based ideas.

“At Smith & Daughters, we did Italian for years and it was very popular. It’s a universally loved cuisine,” Martinez says. “It made sense I’d revisit this in a cookbook. I haven’t met a person who doesn’t love Italian food, and probably couldn’t trust anybody who says they don’t like Italian food.”

Unlike Spanish food, Italian lends itself naturally to vegan cooking. “Italian peasant-style cooking was vegan out of necessity,” Martinez says.

Martinez has just returned from a foodie holiday in Korea with her friend Jung Eun Chae, chef and founder of Korean restaurant Chae. They went into the forest to meet celebrated Seon Buddhist nun and chef Jeong Kwan at her temple.

Kwan, the subject of an episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table, received the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Icon Award in 2022. There are plans to bring Kwan to Melbourne for a collaboration in 2026 – think dining in the Gembrook forest, not in a restaurant, and Martinez is already prepping for it.

Signature dish at home

My go-to dish is a vegan broth with chickpeas, greens and pasta. I always have greens in the garden and chickpeas in the pantry. I throw in silverbeet or cavolo nero and use loads of olive oil, garlic and parmesan. The parmesan emulsifies the broth and makes it thicker, which is delicious.

Guilty pleasure

It has to be a packet of After Eight Dinner Mints. They’ve started to appear on shelves again, and I buy 10 packets and eat them in the lead-up to Christmas and the end of the year.

Kitchen wisdom

Observing my paternal grandmother, Rosa Martinez, in her commission house kitchen is where I learnt a lot about cooking. I would plant myself with her in the kitchen whenever she was by the stove. It’s where she spent most of her time. We would talk, and I would observe her gentle style of cooking. As a young chef, you see a lot of aggression in the kitchen, but I liked her passion with a gentle approach. I want to get back to simpler times as a chef who cooks for a smaller number of guests. That simple connection to food is what makes it memorable.

Favourite Melbourne restaurants

Because I work most nights, I tend to eat out during the days, which means yum cha. My local, Golden Dragon Palace in Templestowe, is where you’ll find me. The ginger prawn dumplings are great and black bean ribs are too. I am also a huge dessert fan – I order their steamed sponge cake and mango pudding.

Another favourite is Tina’s Noodle Kitchen in Preston. This location is the best of all her spots. There are options for vegan and non-vegan, which I love. I always order the pickled chilli broth here. I have it with a lion’s head meatball.

I also love Vinoshis in East Ivanhoe; it’s a neighbourhood bottle shop and wine bar. They have incredible wines and a great spirit selection. They offer snacks and often put them together for share plates using the bread from All Are Welcome next door and local providore items. I always order a cheese plate when I am here.

On the run between Smith & Daughters and Lona Misa at Ovolo, I stop by to get a takeaway banh mi from Phuoc Thanh Bakery in Victoria Street, Richmond.

Another favourite takeaway spot at the moment is Adana Co. food truck in Coburg – I get the Chilli Habits (chilli-marinated and grilled minced lamb) in lavas flatbread.

For cocktails, I go to Caretaker’s Cottage earlier in the week only. The staff are incredible. I usually order a martini; they’re so good.

Favourite Sydney restaurants

I always go to Bar Louise in Enmore, owned by the Porteño Group, and they make beautiful Spanish tapas food. I always order the chorizo and chickpeas.

Literally the entire menu at Cantina OK! hits the spot for me. I’ve never had a drink I am not obsessed with here.

My favourite pasta spot in Sydney is Paski Sopra in Darlinghurst. Some standout veg-forward dishes have been the gnocchetti tirolesi with nettle, fondue and garlic buds, and roasted romanesco broccoli with maccu (broad bean puree) and pumpkin seed oil.

I also never go to Sydney without visiting Continental Deli. I go for the meatball subs and Pina Coladas every time.

I also like eating at Gumshara Ramen in Haymarket and order tonkatsu ramen.

And my favourite takeaway spot is Cairo in Newtown. The falafel plate is elite, and I get it whenever I’m in the area.

Favourite Australian dining destination

My favourite dining experience has to be Chae in Melbourne. If you’re talking about special experiences, nothing gets more special than this place. You literally have a private chef cooking for you in her home.

No one does what she does. Everything on your plate is made by Jung Eun Chae herself – from the sesame oil to the soy sauce. Even the things you can’t see, she makes.

In a world where everyone is hustling to make things faster, bigger, cheaper, Chae is upholding traditions that not even the Koreans do much any more.

Chae’s food isn’t necessarily the way I usually eat – it’s very clean, and I love big flavours with punch. But it’s amazing to experience that purity in ingredients and appreciate the singular things in life.

Favourite food destination

I feel right at home in Andalusia in Spain. It’s where my family is from, and I’d love to live there one day. It’s the home of flamenco, olive oil and jamon. They have great wines and make great sherries – it’s the cornerstone of Spanish food. I recommend Restaurante Antonio – a famous seaside restaurant in Jerez de la Frontera known for the best grilled tuna – and Casa Balbino for tapas, specifically tortillitas de camarones (prawn fritters) and salmorejo (tomato soup). Other favourite spots on my travels in Spain include Casa Lola in Malaga, a cute tapas bar. The food on the coastline here in the south is heavily influenced by the Arabs, so you see lots of spice being used. Casa Pepe de La Juderia in Córdoba is where I ate the best tortilla of my life. It’s all in the amount of olive oil used that made it perfect. The tortilla is barely set and wet in the middle and heavily salted.