Why I love Adelaide: Callum Hann

Adelaide's own Callum Hann first graced our TV screens in 2010, as the youngest competitor in the second season of Masterchef Australia. He ended up finishing runner-up that year and went on to do bigger and better things after the competition, opening Sprout cooking school with his business partner Themis Chryssidis. Recently, Callum and Themis have opened their latest offering right in the heart of the Adelaide CBD – eleven bar and restaurant on Waymouth Street. Earlier this year, Callum and Themis were a part of Rundle Mall's Urban Kitchen and in October they will be hosting nutrition and cooking demonstrations at Wellness Squared events as part of the brand new WellFest. Get your free tickets here!

We’ve got our cooking school Sprout which is just outside of the CBD but we've recently opened eleven bar last December, as well as eleven restaurant only three weeks ago. It's brand new still so I'm loving spending more time in the CBD.

I've always spent a reasonable amount of time and CBD as a customer you know going to retail shops or you know going to the beautiful cafes and restaurants and things here in the city, but certainly since we've had eleven in the last sort of year or so, we've gone from, you know, being here once or twice a week to now being near every day basically. It's nice to be amongst it.

I've got an almost two-year-old daughter, and she bloody loves animals, so my wife got us a membership to Adelaide Zoo and we get there very often. There's lots of places I love it but in terms of the place we go most often, it would be the Zoo for sure. I also love the Central Market. I love going in there and I grab a coffee and a bite to eat and have a wander around. I always love that kind of thing because then rather than shopping feeling like a chore, it sort of feels like experiences, it’s like an outing and a reason to go do something fun. And I'd rather my shopping take an hour and a half or two hours but I get brunch and have coffee and have fun along the way, rather than trying to ram it into a chore.

The Adelaide Fringe. Pretty much since I left high school and I was 18 years old, it was almost like a little competition between me and my mates of how many things you could go to at the Fringe. It was for bragging rights – alright well I've been to like five comedy shows, a magician and this dancing thing. Usually I would tip in a lot of my disposable income towards Fringe shows, because I just love those experiences and there's always that sense of, with any event not just Fringe, if I don't do it I'm going to miss out. So, I love partaking in that kind of stuff.

We saw a bit of a gap for that area, there's all these big skyscrapers around there and they all walk a bit further afield. We thought if we can offer something that's delicious and fun and good value and brings a new experience to people in that area and people who come from further afield as well, there’s every chance they're going to want to support us and in turn we can support them.

Over the last 12 to 18 months, we've probably been trapped inside a little bit more and maybe restricted in our movements more than we’ve ever been before in any of our lives. And I think in the city as well, whether you are potentially coming in a lot for work or living in apartments, I think you really have to put that proactive effort into it, to make sure you're looking after not just your social life or your work life, but actually yourself as well. I think that our business Sprout is all about showing people just how easy it can be to look after yourself, we try and take away the mystique of it and we try and bring down the barriers for people and just show them how easy it can be.

100 per cent Crows, I'm actually ambassador for them. I don't care where they are on the ladder, I always will be Crows.