Lunch with … Madeleine West

This is Madeleine West’s first visit to Hare & Grace, but she already feels a connection to the Collins Street eatery. Housed in a charming bluestone building, its chef is Raymond Capaldi – who worked at Fenix back in 2000, where she met her now-partner, Shannon Bennett.

”We named our first child Phoenix,” West says. ”And Ray’s become a great friend.”

Though Hare & Grace is at the base of the Rialto – which houses Bennett’s world-renowned Vue De Monde – the two chefs do not frequent each other’s restaurants.

But back to that fateful encounter at Fenix. West was a young actor on Neighbours and Bennett would soon be crowned Gourmet Traveller‘s ”Best New Talent”. They bonded, of all things, over him trying to turn the vegan into a carnivore.

”He espoused to me why he disagrees with vegetarianism; why he feels it’s a flawed philosophy for human beings,” she says. ”Something about it struck a chord with me and I ordered the quail. It was wonderful, and the next day I felt bright and sharp and I haven’t looked back.”

”Before Shannon, I never appreciated the intricacies of meat,” she says. ”It can be wonderfully presented. You can choose high-quality farming and culling practices to make sure the stock is comfortable and loved; to ensure it doesn’t destroy the flavour and the texture.”

We share sides of peas with smoky butter and pink grapefruit, and a tangy salad of tomato, pineapple and salted grapes. This follows our seafood entrees: cured ocean trout for her and rice flour-coated crispy calamari for me.

West is a lively lunch companion, her eyes flashing whenever her passions are aroused. No matter the topic – criminal law, the craft of acting, the institution of marriage – her attitude is the same. Must we accept the status quo? How can this be better? What are the obstacles to change – and how can we beat them?

Achieving top marks at school, she enrolled in law at Melbourne University, determined to improve the way our criminal justice system deals with sex crimes.

”The fact you’re able to take into account what a person is wearing, their sexual history, how much alcohol they had on the night – the vast majority of judicial law, case law and common law, relied on that. But let’s think about it for a moment – you’re a bloke walking to a cab rank at night and you get mugged. Would you feel the fact you had a few drinks or weren’t wearing a jacket precluded you from justice? I just thought, ‘I’m going to make a change’.”

Then came an 11-week stint on Neighbours, which evolved into a four-year role. West hopes to return to the law at some point, but it’s unlikely to happen soon, given her flourishing career as an actor.

Having played everything from a high-priced escort (Satisfaction) to an ice addict (City Homicide) and a gangland figure (Underbelly), she rejects the assumption such roles ”glorify” the behaviour they depict.

”Acting is an opportunity to tell stories,” she says. ”Whenever I get a role, I ask myself, ‘Does this story deserve to be told?’. And who am I to say the story of an ice addict does not? I’m not saying that’s what people should do. I’m saying there are always circumstances behind the choices people make. We’re going to be a lot better as a society if we can appreciate what goes on in the background before we pass judgment on the end result.”

Naturally, West was eager to reprise her role of Tony Mokbel’s girlfriend, Danielle McGuire, in Fat Tony & Co, starting February 23 on Channel Nine. The series tracks the early days of Mokbel’s war with the infamous ”Carlton Crew”, through to his dramatic arrest in Greece.

”We’d had shows like Homicide, but Underbelly was uncharted territory for Australian TV,” she says. ”We were a bit nervous revisiting it seven years later. But on day one, bang! Vince [Colosimo] is back on form, Robert [Mammone] is back into Tony and I’m slipping seamlessly into the strategically placed bits of string that Danielle wears.”

Today, however, West is sporting a sleek yellow dress and vivid teal nail polish: the official colour of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. For seven years, she has served as an ambassador for Ovarian Cancer Australia after a friend lost her mother and an aunt to the disease.

While awareness campaigns and research have improved the detection and treatment of breast cancer, there has been little improvement with ovarian cancer. Of the 1400 women who are diagnosed each year in Australia, 1000 will die from it.

”It’s a shockingly high mortality rate,” West says. ”It’s about double that of breast cancer, yet the treatment has not changed much from what they did in the ’70s.”

There is still no early-detection test. The symptoms can be vague and confusing: pelvic or abdominal pain, increased abdominal size or persistent bloating, a desire to urinate frequently, and feeling full after eating a small amount.

”It’s not enough to be told by your doctor, ‘It’s probably just your cycle so let’s see how you are in a couple of months’,” West says. ”If you suspect something’s not right, keep going back until you find someone who’ll listen to you.”

OCA is urging women to host an afternoon tea this month, to promote awareness of the risks and symptoms and raise funds to develop an early detection test.

”A pap smear is not enough,” West says. ”Often an ultrasound can’t distinguish between a benign cyst and a malignant tumour. Many women can’t be diagnosed without major surgery. We need something better.”

Buying an official ribbon, nail polish or making a donation will also help. West hopes these efforts won’t be limited to women.

”Every man I know reckons ovarian cancer deserves just as much attention as, say, prostate cancer,” she says. ”It affects the whole community and it’s our job as a community to tackle it.”

One man she can count on is Bennett, with whom she has four children. While they have no desire to get married, they plan to celebrate their relationship – and the life they’ve already built – with the people they love.

”I don’t want to spend the price of a small apartment on one day,” she says, ”then spend weeks getting stressed and snapping at each other … Why not just celebrate the wonderful life we already have? Our great friends, our great family, our great kids, our life with each other … let’s just throw a party! It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.”