New Culinary Ambassador to enrich Optus Stadium’s offerings
Innovative celebrity chef, restaurateur and lifelong AFL football fan Shane Delia is introducing his signature Middle Eastern flavour across Optus Stadium with an exciting new retail food outlet and the addition of his menu to premium event spaces.
Shane is an award winning Chef and Owner of Melbourne institutions Maha, Maha East, Maha North and Jayda as well as two Melbourne Airport food outlets.
Pushing the boundaries has been a part of Shane’s success, whether opening new restaurants or food outlets, creating and hosting television series or founding food delivery marketplace Providoor.
Shane’s passion for Middle Eastern food has come from his family heritage.
“VenuesLive is one of the country’s best stadium caterers and Perth has always been a place of amazing produce,” Shane said.
“It’s been a dream of mine to bring my flavour to WA for the first time and it makes perfect sense to go on this journey with one of the best operators in the market.”
Shane has collaborated with the stadium’s Executive Chef Jochen Beranek to develop an exciting new culinary experience for fans and guests to experience. He will initially bring elements of his fresh, unrestricted Middle Eastern menus to premium event spaces and suites during match days and the Stadium’s private functions on non-match days.
Optus Stadium CEO Mike McKenna said Shane was a natural fit with the stadium’s food ethos. The stadium is well recognised as a top-class dining option, with the venue inducted into the Restaurant and Catering Institute of WA’s Hall of Fame for Event Catering after winning the Best Venue Caterer three years in a row.
“Bringing Shane’s flavours to our premium event space menu options will further enhance the range of choice available to our guests whether they’re being hosted in a suite, the Victory Lounge or attending a gala function in the River View Room,” Mr McKenna said.
“Key members of our team have spent considerable time with Shane, both in his Melbourne restaurants and at the stadium to understand his food philosophy. His influence will be seen right across our menus.”
Shane is also partnering with the stadium to open the first Western Australian based Biggie Smalls outlet. Located at aisle 144, Biggie Smalls is a kebab shop with a twist. Named after late rap legend The Notorious B.I.G, the menu has a fun-loving, vibrant style with cheeseburger, fried chicken and falafel kebabs part of the offering as well as spicy chicken dimmies (dim sum).
“Biggie Smalls is not just a Melbourne hotspot, it’s a brand that has international recognition and appeal,” Shane said.
“It is the perfect fit for the Optus Stadium customer, it’s fun, flavoursome and quality focused. I’m hoping that our WA clientele will love Biggie as much as Melbourne has.”
Mr McKenna said the stadium liked to have fun and do things differently with its retail food offerings.
“We have been looking to introduce some new fresh and interesting food concepts.
“Biggie Smalls is the first stage of some exciting changes ahead for fans to enjoy in the retail food space and we know there will be a number of existing loaded chips fans eager to explore the new options at aisle 144.”
Shane is a proud Western Bulldogs Football Club ambassador and says following the Bulldogs was a birth right, not a choice, for his family, after his father discovered the team when he began working at the tyre factory opposite Footscray’s Whitten Oval in 1974 after migrating from Malta a few years earlier.
He is the stadium’s second Culinary Ambassador, alongside fellow world-renowned chef and restaurateur Matt Moran, who partnered with Optus Stadium in August 2022.
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Media contact: Jean Perkins – 0438 886 954
