Passionate, positive, focused and friendly are just some of the adjectives used to describe former Star Weekly sub-editor and renowned food blogger, Kenny Weir, who died on New Year’s Day after a 17-month battle with cancer.
He was 69.
Born in New Zealand, Weir moved to Melbourne as a young man and spent more than 40 years in journalism, most notably at the Sunday Herald Sun where he served as entertainment editor in the 1990’s.
It was through this role that he met a young jazz singer called Deborah Robertson who’d just moved to Melbourne from Brisbane.
“He came and reviewed a show I was in and the next day it was “Deborah Robertson is star material,” Robertson recalled of her first encounter with Weir who she described as “extremely focused and ambitious.”
Robertson soon realised this extended to Weir’s personal life too.
“He pursued me relentlessly and like anything he pursued, he got,” Robertson said of how their relationship began in 1999.
By 2001, Robertson had given birth to their son Bennie and they’d moved to the western suburbs, settling in Yarraville where Weir lived for the rest of his life.
After five years together, Robertson and Weir separated but remained close as they shared custody of Bennie.
Robertson said Weir was just as passionate about his son as he was about music and food.
“A fantastic father, devoted, completely devoted,” she said.
After leaving the Sunday Herald Sun in the early 2000’s, Weir shifted from entertainment to food writing, starting his well known blog, Consider The Sauce, while also working as a sub-editor and occasional restaurant reviewer with the Weekly, a predecessor to Star Weekly..
His former editor at the Weekly, David Bonnici, said Weir was not only a very good sub-editor, but a colourful and positive presence in the newsroom.
“He was really good with the younger journalists and just had a really good friendly manner,” Bonnici said.
“Kenny was just a very positive person and that really showed in his food reviews. He did some for us in the paper and then he just took that further with his own blog which was very well received.
“He’ll be sadly missed in the west.”
