Podcasts

Australia's Culinary Olympics Teams: Taking on the World Senior Squad Captain Andrew Ballard, Youth Squad Captain Amber Heaton and Team Manager Pat O'Brien gives us an insight into the challenges our competitors are set to face head-on.

Now that lockdowns are thankfully just a bad memory, we caught up with three chefs working in the venue catering space to find out what changes Covid has wrought and how customer expectations are being met in the current operational environment of staff and skills shortages.

One way of tackling the current staffing shortages in the hospitality sector is to encourage older people to come out of retirement and back into the workforce, if only for a few shifts per week.

In this latest instalment of our Frontier Chefs series, we look at Sodexo’s industry-first apprenticeship program, Art of Food, which gives participants the chance to attain a Certificate III in Cookery through practical training on Sodexo remote sites across Western Australia’s energy and resources sector.

In this episode we speak to 3 industry professionals about the big hangover from covid; the on-going labour shortage crisis.

Adaptability has been the key to survival during Covid, and in this post-Covid environment more changes are having to be made to ensure ongoing profitability. To find out more about planning the post-Covid menu we spoke to Gary Johnson, National Executive Chef for ALH Group.

To find out more about how the events of the past two years have raised awareness of the importance of food hygiene and safety, we spoke to food safety consultant, trainer and auditor Gary Kennedy from Correct Food Systems.

In this episode we speak with Belinda Clarke, Chief Operating Officer of the Restaurant & Catering Association.

In the second part of our series we talk to two young women who both have extensive experience in the competitive arena - Amber Heaton from the Star Gold Coast and Sarah Jones from the National Wine Centre, Adelaide.

The on-going covid lockdowns, and the prospect of them continuing for months to come, has underscored the uncertainty facing many in the foodservice sector. We spoke to two young chefs to get their perspective — Billy Fox, The Australian Culinary Youth Team captain, and also the Youth Chef Ambassador to the World Association of Chef Societies, and Jarrod Everett, the President of The Australian Culinary Federation’s Young Chefs Club.

Setting up a kitchen in a foodservice business is an expensive and complicated process. We speak with John Walther Thomas from Sangster designs about what to think about, the pitfalls and background knowledge behind deciding what works best for your foodservice business.

Producing high-end food for large numbers, Delaware North Executive Chef, Markus Werner relies on his staff. With skill shortages a massive issue the industry, Markus speaks about the issues and how he retains the skill in his kitchens.

Centralised Kitchens: We speak to National Executive Chef for ALH, Gary Johnson about the many benefits including time saving, portion control, food safety, 100% yield, as well as quality & consistency across multiple outlets.

Gary Johnson, National Executive Chef for ALH Group speaks about the changing face of pub dining being driven by Millennials.

In this episode, we speak to Annette Fear, who has made the huge transition from cheffing in the balmy, cosmopolitan lifestyle of Noosa on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, to the icy depths of Casey Station on Antartica. We catch her just as they are preparing to face a "big blow".

In the second part of episode 5 Frontier Chef we hear from Malcolm Burbidge of Compass Group and his experiences working on oil rigs, shipyards and remote sites.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to work and live in the Antarctic? We talk to Noel Tennant, who has made three trips to Antarctica as a chef with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), a Federal Government body which undertakes scientific research in the region.

Now that we’ve closed the door on one of the industry’s most turbulent years of recent times, it seems an appropriate moment to take stock and consider how the industry is set to evolve and what it will be like for the chefs of tomorrow.