Chef's Gap Year

All has been quiet on the blog front recently, sorry about that. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that 2020 was QUITE A YEAR and I was busy alternating writing opinion pieces about the impact of covid on hospitality workers, being an unemployed hospitality worker, and then pretending to be a pastry chef and eating too many croissants. Like many of us I also spent a little time reevaluating my priorities and sorting out exactly what I wanted to DO and BE. Anyway, all of that led me to the kitchen table of the pig farm where I sit, writing this.

For a long time I’ve been interested in learning the ‘before’ part of hospitality. What happened BEFORE the fruit and veg delivery arrives at the back door of the restaurant? How was this cheese made? Who made it? What was the life of this pig like before it became one half of the iconic B&E duo? 

This led me to think more about the concept of the stage: a French term for a traineeship and a long culinary tradition where chefs would go and work in someone else’s kitchen for a few weeks or months to gain experience in a different setting. I was planning to take this idea of the kitchen internship and apply it to workplaces all across the food and beverage industries. And because, frankly, I’ve had enough of working for mediocre men, I decided to search out workplaces run by women and non-binary producers, distillers, farmers, makers, growers, artisans, and craftspeople.

I also, like many, had some overseas travel plans thwarted by ye olde covide so I figured I’d wrap the whole thing up in a heck of a road trip, splurge those savings, and see some more of Australia.

So that’s what I’ve been doing! I’ve already spent 6 weeks working with a cheesemaker in Orange, and am now living on a sustainable pig farm getting a crash course in agroecology. While simply DOING the thing is a worthwhile endeavour, the end goal of the whole shebang is to write a book about my experiences. Working title: Chef’s Gap Year. It’ll probably take more than a year, so I’m already inaccurate, but that’s the elevator pitch. I’ll post a few blogs and bits and pieces up here as I go, whenever I have time and energy, so those of you following here will get a cheeky preview.

Get ready to live vicariously, we’re going on an adventure.