When Ellie Marin needs inspiration or wants to brainstorm an idea, she visits her two mothers. Three years ago, they thrashed out the idea of Cornutopia, one of the pioneering food trucks that have become a vital (and increasingly competitive) fixture of Melbourne street life.
"When it started, before I had any staff, they helped with the cooking and cleaning," said Marin, whose mother 13 years ago fell in love with another woman. "I'm very close to both of them."
Now she's named her new business My Two Mums, another food truck. Where Cornutopia specialises in tacos, My Two Mums brings New York-style ice-cream sandwiches to her home town.
The women were proud to hear they were being honoured in this way, but alarmed when Ellie asked if they'd be in a newspaper story. "Man, they don't even want their first names used. So I'm conscious of not talking about them too much. But with the new truck I do want to start a conversation about the diversity of families in Melbourne and how beautiful they are."
That was the story a week ago. Since then two things have happened. The ice-cream sandwiches have been so successful that Marin has decided to open a pop-up store in Richmond. On the downside, she's been harangued by a small number of conservative Christians who suggest that she and her two mothers will be going to hell for their sins. Which means it's a good thing they have plenty of cool treats to eat.
"It wasn't a big surprise to get that kind of response, I suppose, but it still caught me out," she said.
Ellie Marin, 31, reckons she was born for retail. She has a fashion and business degree, but her real work began when she was kid. "I was working in fruit shops, clothes shops and hairdressers ... way under age like at 14. But I've always been a people person. My ideal life is sales and chatting."
