Melbourne's Shanaka Fernando was named Australia's Local Hero for his work founding not-for-profit restaurant chain Lentil as Anything.

The group of four restaurants, which employs about 80 young people and provides space for artists and writers, does not set prices for dishes.

Instead, diners are encouraged to pay what they can afford or what they think the meal was worth.

Mr Fernando sunk his personal capital into the first restaurant and turned it into a co-operative and youth training enterprise. Lentil as Anything has shown that it is possible for a business to be run on a socially responsible, idealistic basis and still be financially successful and popular.

The 38-year-old restaurateur, who was born in Sri Lanka and arrived in Australia in 1989, said the award meant a great deal to him.

"Hopefully it means the nature of what is happening through our organisation is important and will spill out to the greater society.

"I hope this award will inspire other migrants and anyone in the community who may have ideas that might not seem normal and which have no prior format to go ahead and try these ideas and follow your heart."

And on the eve of Australia Day, Mr Fernando said he thought to be Australian was to be "welcoming of others … to be encouraging of each other".

Reproduced from The Age newspaper.

Shanaka, your concept - Lentil as Anything is fascinating - can you tell our readers a little about the idea behind it and the aims of the restaurants.

It was started by a philosophy that born of the concept of embracing by abandoning.

To achieve maximum inclusivity and diversity I realised that I had to get to a point where I was bankrupted by the fiscal mechanisms that continue to haunt the sleeping sage within us. So "no prices" was the most potent weapon that showed a commitment to lowering standards. Other avenues of agitation would grow as a matter of course from this point onwards.

Obviously you rely on the good nature of your customers. What is the average amount someone pays to eat at Lentil as Anything and have you ever been shocked by a patron's generosity?

Confusion. The good natured folk of our planet live in forests and don't need Lentil as Anything for their good nature to proceed. We want to find the average person but haven't been successful and therefore there is no average amount, luckily, because everyone hopefully is unique in their way of thinking and will stand by the decisions they make. I have often been shocked by the generosity of people who haven't paid, because Lentil as Anything exists for them and their abstract notions of self-representation.

You've recently expanded with more restaurants opening - what are your future goals for the company.

The expansion has been despite our aims at nihilism. If through this award and this interview etc the message of openness, trust and respect permeates the solariums and converts botox into life-saving anti-malnutrition injections for starving babies in Africa then we are getting somewhere.

What 5 tips or pieces of advice would you give to someone wanting to start their own business?

1. Remove all safety nets
2. Ignore all formats
3. Turn off your computer
4. Examine your expectations
5. Abandon expectations

I often bid goodbye to people at the restaurant, with the quip "It's a business doing pleasure with you." I don't separate life and business.