Key Takeaways
- Why connection matters more than perfection when bringing people together.
- How authenticity became Pasta Please's greatest strength.
- Why memorable hospitality isn't about impressing your guests.
- The power of creating experiences people genuinely remember.
- How showing the messy reality build stronger customer trust.

Topics Covered
Hospitality
Community
Authenticity
Brand Building
Content Creation
Entrepreneurship
Food & Lifestyle
Founder Stories

Transcript

Courtney: Hello everyone, and welcome to Flower Press. I'm Courtney, the founder and CEO of Daily Blooms. In this episode we chat with the very talented Lizzie Moss, lifestyle and food content creator at Pasta Please. So Lizzie, you are a very busy woman and you wear many, many hats. Can you talk to me a little bit about Pasta Please and what it is?

Lizzie: So I started Pasta Please, God, a few years ago now. I was living in Melbourne, I was working a lot, and I realised I had no hobbies. I was single and I was going on these dates, and people were saying like, "Oh, so what — like, what do you do?" And I was like, "I go to work. I work." And yeah, it's really fun. So I decided I needed a hobby, and my housemates at the time — one of them had taken a pasta class, and you know, it was lockdown, and you were doing like family dinners and things in the share house, and we made pasta one night, and I was like, "Oh, this is easy — why is no one talking about how easy this was?" I just decided, cool, people must make pasta, I will simply assume that as my entire personality. And yeah, sort of five years later, here we are.

Courtney: So I just — and there were worse hobbies to have, because you always have to eat.

Lizzie: Yeah, you always have to eat.

Courtney: But I love that you think pasta was easy. You must just naturally have that, because when I've made pasta I've thought, never again, this is very hard.

Lizzie: See, the thing is, I'm not — like I was saying, I'm not at all crafty. Like, you give me clay, or even Play-Doh, to work with — absolutely not. For some reason, pasta we can hack.

Courtney: So I'm just copying everything you're doing.

Lizzie: Yeah, perfect, perfect, you're nailing it.

Courtney: Fantastic. There are no wrong answers in floristry — you just do what you feel.

Lizzie: Good news, good news.

Courtney: So we met a few years ago now, and we met when you were a journalist for Channel Nine, and you came into Daily Blooms to interview me for Mother's Day. I think we did a live cross, which was terrifying for me, but you were just a delight and made it so easy. And so I guess, from what you were doing previously in your capacity as a journalist to where you are now with Pasta Please — what was that transition like?

Lizzie: Yeah, I remember — I think about that all the time. I was like, Mother's Day stories, Valentine's Day stories — I feel like we did a few of those together, and they were always the best.

Courtney: That's honestly — you were so — you made it so easy for me, because I was having a nervous breakdown and you're like, "It's okay, Courtney." A little bit like me with the vase at the moment.

Lizzie: No, I mean, it's a bit of a hard pivot. I mean, like I said, I loved, loved, loved, loved working as a reporter. It is without a doubt one of the best jobs in the world, definitely, and I really miss it. But you know, the thing is, now I have so much more time to do other things.

Courtney: Yes.

Lizzie: And so I think I dabbled — like, I was sort of cooking pasta and making it as a hobby, and just, you know, as you do, taking a million and one photos of your food and whatnot, and dabbled with it for probably about a year.

Courtney: And I think people assume, like, oh well, you're on TV, so what's the difference between filming yourself and putting yourself on camera?

Lizzie: No, it's still mortifying. I don't know anyone — even people who work in TV, I don't know anyone that likes to watch themselves back. It's still horrible.

Courtney: Yes, or listen.

Lizzie: Or listen. So I think I dabbled with it for about two years.

Courtney: Yeah, a couple of years.

Lizzie: I couldn't think of a name either.

Courtney: And then, yeah, I just — I was like, well, that's it, it shan't be happening.

Lizzie: It shan't be happening, 'cause there's no name. And then one night my partner at the time turned to me and he went, "What are we having for dinner?"

Courtney: Oh no.

Lizzie: I must've asked him — I said, "What do you want for dinner?" And he turned and went, "Pasta please." And I was like, well, there it is.

Courtney: Done. I'm a genius, I'm a millionaire, I'll quit my day job.

Lizzie: And I'm Martha Stewart now.

Courtney: Perfect. So here we are — is that a pretty big transition? Was there a moment — like, was it that moment where you were like, actually, probably I'm going to take the lead?

Lizzie: I mean, I think when I started cooking for other people — having people over for dinner, stuff like that — then it was like, oh well, I might as well. And then started writing little recipes and things, having more people over, and it just became a fun — I don't know — a fun way to share a hobby and to spend time doing something else.

Courtney: And it takes a heck of a long time, let me tell you.

Lizzie: Oh yeah, like it really — you haven't picked an easy one.

Courtney: No, it's not simple.

Lizzie: It's not simple, but it's good.

Courtney: So one of the things that I love about your content is how you connect — I guess your cooking — with occasions and the people in your life. How do you see food and cooking connect with those milestones?

Lizzie: I mean, it does — that's how we all live, it's natural, isn't it? I think too — I mean, food is a great — it's an equalizer, right? Like, even if you are having the worst time of your life, when you're at a really awkward family dinner or something like that, you can always just talk about the food. So that's a good thing. So I figured, well, at least if I'm cooking, it's something for people to talk about. It's also like eating out is so expensive.

Courtney: It is, ridiculous how expensive it's getting — more expensive.

Lizzie: Exactly. So, you know, eating at home is fantastic. But I think for me, what I love is that every now and then you'll get a message from someone who's, you know, cooked one of my recipes or made a dish that they'd seen me make, and they'll tell me about — you know — "Oh, I had someone the other day say, oh, this was the last dish I made for my boyfriend and he proposed, and now he's my fiancé, and it's because of your pasta."

Courtney: You know, and it was a bit of a joke of like, well, that was what got it over the line.

Lizzie: I'm a matchmaker now — just add that to the list. But you know, it's stuff like that, you go, how good is that?

Courtney: Yeah, it is — how good is that? And even, I reckon — I was cooking, I'd had Pasta Please for a couple of years, and my mum is not on social media at all, and then all of a sudden one day I was hanging out with her and she was like, "So apparently you cook — like, apparently you cook pasta."

Lizzie: Your mum didn't know this?

Courtney: "Mum, it's my entire personality."

Lizzie: She's like, "I just didn't know you could do that." And now she's still not on social media, but she's like my number one subscriber to my recipes.

Courtney: That's so nice. And that's a really nice way to — like, talking about, you know, nostalgic meals you had as a kid and then remaking them.

Lizzie: I mean, my brother's the same — like, he'll message me and be like, "Oh my gosh, that Alfredo pasta we had in the packet as a kid," you know, and you kind of bond over that.

Courtney: It's so good. And I love that — I am a hopeless cook, terrible, terrible, terrible. But what do you have, like, for somebody like me who wants to take a baby step into cooking — what do you think would be a good way to dip my toe in? Or something that's really impressive — more impressive than it is difficult.

Lizzie: Yeah, the thing is, you say you can't cook —

Courtney: Well, I can't bake. I cannot bake, I can't bake a cake, all cakes are flat.

Lizzie: Yeah, focaccia is different.

Courtney: But like every cake I make turns out like a Frisbee. It's a nightmare. Don't trust me with baking.

Lizzie: So like measurements and things, no — cooking's easy, because you actually don't need to measure anything.

Courtney: Yeah.

Lizzie: But you can just chuck everything in. So the dish that most of my friends want me to make is pasta al limone, and it's just lemon, butter, and pasta. That's it. So you can just use packet pasta — there is nothing wrong with a good packet pasta. Lemon juice, so much butter — like, enough butter to stop your heart in an instant.

Courtney: I mean, why not, it's so good.

Lizzie: Some parmesan, and that's that.

Courtney: Really? And that's that?

Lizzie: Mix it up, make a creamy sauce — melt the butter, add in the lemon juice before it burns, and lots and lots of cheese in with the pasta. Keep the pasta water in so it's nice and starchy. It's super creamy, it's super fresh.

Courtney: It is, yeah, it's pretty good. Oh my gosh, it's like it's gone to your pasta. It's a showstopper.

Lizzie: That's what I like, and it doesn't sound complicated.

Courtney: So with your content, one of the things that's so great is it does feel very real and very honest and very — like, comfortable, comforting to watch. How did you come up with that content creation style? Did it just sort of naturally evolve, or —

Lizzie: Yeah, I think if you saw my kitchen, there would be no way I could have, like, beautiful aesthetic, lovely sort of trad-wife shots.

Courtney: I mean, it's not trad wife.

Lizzie: No, it's chaos, it's total chaos, it's horrible. I was cooking for my own birthday the other night — I did say that — and like within two seconds there was pasta sauce, it looks like a crime scene.

Courtney: I was stressed.

Lizzie: I was stressed, it was horrific. And I think that's the thing — like, you've just — that's all part of it, right? Like, it's completely unrelatable to think somebody slaves away in the kitchen for three days and doesn't, like, redecorate their walls in the process or lose a couple of fingers, or that sort of thing.

Courtney: Having dinner parties as much — and I love dinner parties, and my husband's a great cook, so —

Lizzie: They're stressful.

Courtney: But they're stressful. Thank you. Is that just like snappiness and intensity right before everyone arrives?

Lizzie: My friends don't — it's not enjoyable. I've tried to chill it down a bit, because it's like if you come into the kitchen and offer to help, you will be yelled at, you will be asked to leave. You will be told you've picked up the wrong tongs.

Courtney: "No, we're using the fancy tongs, not those tongs. No, no, try again."

Lizzie: The fourth set of tongs — they're obviously in the tong drawer. You know, people can't read my mind. It's absolutely astounding to me, honestly.

Courtney: Yeah, but it just — I think the way you engage with your audience online, they do get to see that. And so then it means it's less intimidating, isn't it? It feels like, okay, this is normal, everyone kind of loses their mind a little bit immediately before.

Lizzie: Yeah, if you do it, it's okay if I do it.

Courtney: So, you know, I have been hosting Flower Press for a little while now, and we've had lots of amazing guests, and we had another gardener-slash-cook come and do an episode with us, Connie Cowell, and she's got the most incredible garden of both fruit and veg as well as flowers. She grows all these incredible Asian vegetables. I was speaking to her about where her love of gardening came from, and she spoke about her parents. So what I'd love to know is — so you were a cook —

Lizzie: Yes.

Courtney: — and a host, but you're also a gardener.

Lizzie: Yeah, I dabble, I dabble.

Courtney: I think you do more than dabble.

Lizzie: Yeah, similar.

Courtney: Yeah, I only just washed all the manure off of me from yesterday, so that's good.

Lizzie: Thank you, thank you, while we're gardening, it's the same thing.

Courtney: The crew appreciates that.

Lizzie: No, probably the same — my mum, I mean, growing up we had the most beautiful garden, and I think it's one of those things you take for granted as a kid, and then you grow up, and she was at my place the other day and went, "Oh, these are all the things we had at home," and I was like, "Yeah, I know, I know."

Courtney: So I think I started planting veggies because I wanted more to cook with, and everything was really expensive, and I was having this kind of Beatrix Potter vision, and I was gonna have ducks, and it got a bit carried away for a time, and I should not be trusted with ducks.

Lizzie: I love that, I love that, like suburban ducks.

Courtney: Yeah, suburban ducks — that's exactly what you need. I said to my mum the other day, "I've got olives too, because I eat so many olives, so I've got a big olive tree out the front," and then put more olives down the side of the house. And I said — I was having a big gardening blitz the other day with my parents, and I said, I was like, "You know, Mum, I just —" she's like, "I can't work out — you've got Mediterranean, you've got a cottage garden." I was like, "I sort of want, like, Beatrix Potter, but if she went to Italy." And Mum's like, under the lights of the West Gate — stunning — she was like, "Yeah, it's giving me trick spotter." I was like, "Oh yeah, okay."

Lizzie: I love that, that's so good.

Courtney: So it's so good.

Lizzie: Yeah, it's a little bit of everything, but probably comes from her, and it's good — I mean, being in the garden, it's the only exercise I do sometimes, and it's hard.

Courtney: It's hard.

Lizzie: It's hard, it's hard work.

Courtney: Yeah, yeah, that is hard work.

Lizzie: But I think the garden looks — it probably looks deceptively big when you see photos of it, and it's actually just like four little boxes.

Courtney: I would say too, you know, when you've lived in apartments and things, and you're always growing herbs on the balcony, and everyone's like, "Oh, I kill everything I grow." Herbs in a pot should be illegal — I have never kept a herb in a pot alive, but I can keep a veggie patch alive.

Lizzie: Really? What's that about?

Courtney: Yeah, what is that about? Deceptive.

Lizzie: So if you're someone that kills everything you grow, just, you know, buy a home with a garden — it's not hard.

Courtney: Yeah, it's not hard. Yeah, okay, I'll take your word for that, I'll take your word for that. So is that, like, when you think about planting the garden, or what you're going to grow for the season — is that driven by cooking, or is it driven by what looks like fun?

Lizzie: Mainly cooking, mainly cooking. So, like, summer's great for me, because everything I cook is summer — so zucchinis, tomatoes. I had a terrible tomato season, but the first year I did zucchinis it was gangbusters — like, they were just enormous, like it was not safe for work. You leave them for like two days, they're obscene, they just grow and grow and grow. And I was going through a real hyper-fixation on Stanley Tucci — he describes this spaghetti al Norano, so it's like a fried zucchini basil cheese, and I was like, "Oh, I love this dish."

Courtney: Oh my gosh, that's so good.

Lizzie: "I'll grow a zucchini." And then I was eating it every single night, like, I had so much zucchini, couldn't get rid of them, could not get rid of them. I was doing zucchini cakes, zucchini fritters, like, so much.

Courtney: Oh my gosh. So yeah, you grow what you eat.

Lizzie: Yeah, okay, okay.

Courtney: But what would you grow in winter? What's a winter —

Lizzie: Yeah, at the moment, beets, beetroot.

Courtney: Yeah, lovely, beetroot's great in a salad.

Lizzie: What else have I done — I've just put in my seedlings, sugar snap peas, they're the best.

Courtney: Oh my gosh, just a whole bowl of sugar snap peas.

Lizzie: That's so good, great work snack.

Courtney: And so how long does it take from planting?

Lizzie: I mean, it's all different, isn't it?

Courtney: That's a really good question.

Lizzie: Okay, I sort of just pop it in the ground and hope for the best.

Courtney: Yeah, okay, yeah.

Lizzie: No, it can be like 12 to 16 weeks, and I'm stubborn — so, like, this morning I planted my seeds two days ago and I'm checking, I'm checking on them.

Courtney: Yeah, I'm looking at them like, "Where are you?"

Lizzie: So you plant from seeds?

Courtney: Why, sometimes — yeah, they're sturdier.

Lizzie: Yeah, okay. And so for somebody who's not a gardener —

Courtney: Yeah.

Lizzie: — but can, like, get swept up in the fantasy of having a garden —

Courtney: Yes, yeah.

Lizzie: — where would I start?

Courtney: Yeah, not in a pot.

Lizzie: No, maybe just, like, flowers — grow some nice flowers.

Courtney: Okay.

Lizzie: Yeah, I've got daisies, I've got flowers. Tomatoes are kind of hard. Zucchinis grow like a weed.

Courtney: Do they? Okay.

Lizzie: Yeah, or something like mint or rosemary — they just grow and grow and grow and grow. They're easy, easy ones. And then you always have a garnish for a cocktail, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Courtney: Yeah, everyone needs mint.

Lizzie: But you're always going to use it, you need mint for life, don't you?

Courtney: Exactly.

Lizzie: Yep, 100%.

Courtney: Okay, so with everything that's going on — being a host, being a cook, being a gardener, running your blog effectively, or newsletter, social media — what's next for Lizzie?

Lizzie: It's a great question — probably a nap. Probably a nap, I need to do less. Yeah, no, I think what I really want to do is have, like, a little pop-up pasta restaurant in my house, just for friends and things I want to do. I've got — my kitchen has this glorious little serving window that looks out onto my back deck, and I've got this vision — maybe it's a nightmare, who knows — where I just cook up pasta, and people come around, and they open my gate and they come through, and I serve them pasta, and they stand on my deck, and the sun is shining, and it's never winter, and yeah, then that's that. So I think that's going to be the next project — and more dinner parties.

Courtney: Yeah, okay, more, more, more dinner parties. Yeah, I love that, I love that. This is looking good, it's looking good — I told you, if you just put flowers in a vase, they will look great.

Lizzie: It's looking full — is what it's —

Courtney: No, it's ideal. So it's now time for some rapid-fire questions.

Lizzie: Okay, okay, so I'll get my little note cards.

Courtney: Yeah, all right.

Lizzie: Or, Adi, hit me.

Courtney: Mentally prepared? Okay, so just answer with whatever comes to mind. Okay — if you could host a dinner party and invite anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be?

Lizzie: It's Martha Stewart, it has to be. It's the only correct answer.

Courtney: So good, I would love to come to that.

Lizzie: Yeah, I'll invite you, don't worry.

Courtney: Dream place to eat in the world?

Lizzie: Oh, anywhere in Italy, right?

Courtney: Yeah, anywhere.

Lizzie: Yep, yep.

Courtney: One thing you're currently obsessed with?

Lizzie: Other than myself?

Courtney: Yeah.

Lizzie: Great answer. Flavoured butter, though — flavoured butter, like any kind of butter, like herb butter, chilli butter.

Courtney: Yeah, that's so good. Any kind of butter — where do you get that from, or do you make it?

Lizzie: Oh, you make it. Or you could buy it from the shop, also, like a normal person.

Courtney: Okay, got it. Most used item in your kitchen?

Lizzie: Wooden spoon.

Courtney: Oh, yep, okay, got one of those. Love to stir. Favourite pasta recipe?

Lizzie: Yeah, it's the al limone.

Courtney: If you could give a bunch of flowers to anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

Lizzie: Other than Martha Stewart — my sister-in-law is the best, and people just stop buying you flowers after a while. You know, it's everything — she wants, for the newborn, a bunch of flowers, definitely.

Courtney: That's so sweet, I love that, I love that. Well, thank you so much for coming in.

Lizzie: Thank you for having me. I think you need to do a little flip — is there supposed to be a front to it?

Courtney: So you've got a front.

Lizzie: Yeah, I've got a front. Mine's sort of more of a —

Courtney: Oh, yours is a wrap.

Lizzie: Yeah, it's kind of a 3D installation.

Courtney: You can just keep spinning it like it's on a Lazy Susan. There you go, beautiful.

Lizzie: Thank you.

Courtney: Thanks so much for coming in.