his favourite American rap artist who was shot dead in Los Angeles in 1997. He’s wearing a jacket bearing the face of the rapper that he bought in New York and couldn’t resist slipping into his suitcase. Delia discovered Biggie Smalls when he was 14 during a family trip to Detroit to see relatives. “I saw hip-hop culture for the first time and I immersed myself in this music that was so powerful but so wrong, too, then. You were a ratbag if you listened to that music,” he laughs. “But I related to the messages in the stories. I didn’t live in a ghetto but I was a kid who was under-achieving and the music gives you a voice. I heard Biggie Smalls and thought he was an amazing lyricist and many of his songs were uplifting. There’s a song called Juicy – he talks about the dreams he had of being something else and of achieving that. It’s the anthem for me.” Delia is a self-confessed perfectionist and creating Biggie Smalls became all-consuming. He spent $800,000 just on the fit-out and soon launched the Biggie Smalls Food Truck, and in September last year, another Biggie Smalls at the Windsor end of Chapel Street. “I didn’t want another kebab shop. I got excited with it and wanted it to be special. Rap has an element of bling and glamour and I wanted Biggie Smalls to feel authentic to the last detail. My favourite kebab on the menu is the Juicy kebab. It’s tasty as hell! Have it old school with hot sauce – rocket fuel!” he grins. “If I do something it has to be 100 per cent. We re-fitted Maha 12 months ago and spent a million bucks but I still wasn’t happy, so two months ago I put another $200,000 in to it.”
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think it’s the pressure I put on myself. When I was a cook it was just me. Now I have millions of dollars of debt and 80 employees with families to think about so I have to stay focused. “I hate the term ‘celebrity chef’ with a passion. I am at the businesses all the time. I take food out to people – I’m not peeling the carrots – but I’m there and I write every dish with my team.” That focus led Delia to Biggie Smalls Kbabs – a kebab shop with a difference on Smith Street in Collingwood. Delia named the flagship venue after
elia’s Spice Journey series on SBS brought his passion for food to a national audience and he credits the show with enhancing his culinary capabilities. It took him from Iran and Morocco to the foothills of Mount Lebanon. “I am 10 times the cook I was before I did the show,” he stresses. “I landed in Lebanon in season one with a backpack and heap of notes. I never did any training and it was hard work. There was conflict in Syria and at one point we were filming in a market in Morocco and I was p****d on by a donkey. “I’ve been told by SBS there won’t be another Spice Journey, although I’d love to do something similar in southern India where the spice trade began. And I’d like to do a Spice Journey in New York – the biggest melting pot in the world.” His success and popularity have attracted some high-profile partnerships. Delia is a proud Western Bulldogs ambassador and a supporter of Melbourne City. But one of his most rewarding partnerships is with Mercedes-Benz.
For a motorsport lover, taking part in a Celebrity Grand Prix and driving a car he never dreamed he’d own is still a bit of a surprise. “When I was young I built cars with an uncle,” Delia says. “He re-built old Holdens and he and Dad loved motorsport. My first car was a $600 piece of s**t that was in my uncle’s paddock with grass growing through the floor. I spent a year working on it – a Nissan/Datsun Pulsar. My other uncle sprayed cars as a hobby and he said he’d paint it for me. I had no money so he told me to collect his halfempty tins and mix them and that’s what colour my car would be. It was pink and he put all these metallic flakes in it – so much in that my car was all glitter. But I drove it for three years. “I still don’t understand why Mercedes-Benz wanted me. Think about that boy with ADD getting expelled from school – did you ever think he’d be a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz? Every morning I get up and there’s a Mercedes C63 sitting in my garage. How good’s that?” Delia has swapped the Sunbury home he’d lived in since his 20s for a larger family home – but he stayed true to his roots, choosing Moonee Ponds over swankier options south of the river. “We looked in South Yarra and Toorak but they’re not my home. I have to stay true to who I am,” he says. And Delia looks forward to being his true self on Sundays when he gets to spend time with Maha, his young children, son, Jude, and daughter, Jayda. “Monday nights we have dinner at Mum’s house – my brother, sister, our kids and cousins. I work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Saturday my daughter goes to Arabic school and I pick her up and we have lunch and then I go to work. “I love Sundays. I take my daughter to Vic Market early. We have a look at what to buy, have a burek, come home and I cook brunch or late lunch. Then I’m on the couch, chilling out and holding my kids.” Away from the kitchen, Delia keeps fit and focused by boxing. He trains three mornings a week, spending another two mornings lifting weights in the gym. “I box to keep fit and manage my weight and it makes you stand up straight and confident,” he says. “I’m a bit of a recluse and like being around home or going to the supermarket in my trackies and a T-shirt. “Last night I got home about five o’clock and there was nothing in the pantry so I ran down to the shop in a dodgy pair of trackies given to me for a charity cricket match last year. I don’t care.” ● BIGGIE SMALLS \ 86 Smith Street, Collingwood; 36 Chapel Street, Windsor; check the website for food truck locations. ● biggiesmalls.com.au
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