It is 30 years since I started working in Hospitality, and so I thought I would document the ten year stages here. In one way, it is a lovely way for me to write about it, but I also hope that perhaps it may inspire some of the younger generation, if they need it, to see that a career path in hospitality can be a really very rewarding and happy one.
1985 – 16 years old
I remember I wanted to be a chef, because I enjoyed cooking in High School. But then I remember deciding cheffing was too hard, and I could not remember recipes anyway. Somehow I decided that being front of house was the right choice and that I wanted to be ‘a manager’. My mum tells the story that once around the dinner table my brothers and I were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. I wanted to ‘look after people’, my middle brother ‘wanted to draw’ and my little brother wanted to be a ‘funny man’.
So I did school work experience at the local Dorset Gardens Hotel Croydon, in the outer easter suburbs of Melbourne. It was known as a beer barn. Motel rooms, function rooms, drive through bottle shop, 2 public bars, 200 seat bistro and a really bad nightclub.