A Chefs Life..

How I got to where i am today

Pictured ~ Tuna Belly Bacon, Fermented Cherry Tomatoes, Aged Soy and Pea Blossom.

It all started back in 2004 in grade 10, 15 years old when the only class I seemed to do really well at school was cooking or otherwise known as hospitality.

Growing up in a small beachside town Noosa, Australia. Famous for beautiful beaches, a surf break and its restaurant scene. Back then it didn't really click that I was living in food heaven. Restaurants strived to use local produce and were proud of it displaying on the menu where they could. It was almost like a competition between the restaurants here and boy was there competition! Over my years I saw restaurants come and go. It never seemed easy to run a successful restaurant and make money. So it never really interested me to run my own restaurant at that time in my life.

So back to school I hated almost every other class and dreaded having to go everyday. So I was given an ultimatum by my mum. She said you either get a job or stay in school. So my obvious response was to get a job. My mum had friends within the industry who owned restaurants and bars and she managed to wrangle me a position as dishy/prep chef at a small bar/restaurant. The first prep job I was given and I remember way too clearly to this very day was to chop massive bunches of curly parsley. I chopped and chopped and chopped till I thought it would be enough and it wasn't even close. It honestly took me hours to chop this parsley. I still remember looking out the back door of the kitchen watching the chefs sit on their ass laughing at me. Not the greatest start!

The same guy owned a resort and said I could go and try work there to see how it is. I can remember how sore my legs were literally standing up for 12 hours. The longest period of time i had ever spent on my feet at that point as a 15 year old. This didn't seem like it was going to work and It wasn't as fun as I had pictured.

I think another few months went by and another opportunity popped up at a place called Sails Beach Restaurant. I started taking shifts there while I was still at school and it got to a point where the head chef Paul basically said you either finish school full time or take an apprenticeship here at Sails. I'm pretty sure I jumped at the chance. Anything to get out of school. Back then I think I started on around $4.20/hour as a 1st year apprentice. The shifts were long, the prep jobs weren't the best and the abuse certainly didn't help. But Sails taught me a lot and it's made me into the chef I am today. It was incredible fine dining food and the chefs were very talented there.

The chef industry was wild back then. Swearing, yelling, abuse physically and mentally. Today that shit wouldn't fly and we definitely weren't like the celebrity chefs you see today. We were kept literally underground below the restaurant and never to be seen by the customers. I lasted almost a year at Sails before a turn of events had me calling for my mum to get me out of there. First was being picked up by the scruff of the neck and dragged out the back by a chef who had had a big night out and short fuse. The second and final was getting held and branded on the arm by a chef with one of the big kitchen spoons that I had left on the gas. That was the final straw, I needed a break and couldn't do it anymore. I had a few months of before being encouraged by my mum to get back into the industry and finish my apprenticeship. My neighbour Daniel mentioned they were looking for chefs at the restaurant he worked called Cafe Le Monde.

Le Monde as we called it wasn't anywhere near the standard of Sails. But the chefs were genuinely nice people and never treated me like shit. I felt like apart of a family here and I had made friends for life. This place taught me many things like moving my ass and having no one else to fall back on. It was a busy face paced restaurant that could easily do several hundred covers a night. The amount of food coming in and prep being done was insane and still blows my mind! This is still one of the few restaurants that has stood the test of time on the infamous Hastings Street known for restaurants coming and going.

After almost 4 years within the industry while also doing a 6 week block each year I was finally a fully qualified chef and man was that a great feeling. I felt accomplished, I felt all the shit I went through was for something but I wasn't sure what that something was untill this day...

Click HERE for how my chef career literally took me around the world!