Ben Ashby

As the head chef of breakfast in this modern gastro pub it was my job to create a menu desirable for our customer demographic. The role consisted of being responsible for menu design, costing, ordering, hiring staff, rosters, invoicing and executing the best possible dishes for our cliental while being present leading my team through service. I had to follow strict food and wage cost targets set my the owners with following KPI's.

• My dream has always been to own a café and I was offered the role of head chef at the little mermaid. Within a couple of months of working there I redesigned the whole kitchen and crockery. I created an entire new menu for the café contacting new suppliers with new products and making sure I was meeting the correct costing and budgets. My tasks as a head chef consisted of training all cooks and making sure they were capable of cooking at the highest standard, guiding my team through extremely busy services, ordering all food for the café, writing rosters for my team and helping with social media and photography for the café.

I was responsible for all of the seafood preparation throughout the hotel.

Fresh seafood was delivered daily at the highest quality and it was my job then break it all down throughout each outlet in the hotel. My duties consisted of filleting whole fish from snapper to whole yellow fin tuna, slicing sashimi, sushi, curing, smoking, cooking and cleaning shellfish all enough to be served on buffets throughout that day. I created and designed new dishes and recipes for each outlet being a la crate or buffet. I was in control of stock ordering for the entire hotel and prepared and served all seafood at live stations for events and banquets.

Opening the Langham as one of the sous chefs I was running the breakfast buffet with a team of 7 chefs under me. My tasks when opening the hotel consisted of designing and creating the entire breakfast buffet and sourcing the best products to for fill the vision on unrivaled luxury.

I was in charge of making sure my team were serving the best quality food and service to the guests they possibly could and ensuring that the buffet was always at the standard that the guests expected from a 5 star hotel.

I was in charge of creating recipes and menus, costing the menus and buffet,, ordering the stock daily and writing the roster for my team.

Working in high paced popular a la carte kitchens with a small team of 3 chefs producing high quality dishes which is fully booked throughout the entire year. As the sous chef I would run the kitchen when the head chef was not present, this included running the pass, plating up, being capable of preparing all menu items and also creating desirable daily changing fish of the day from the produce we had to hand. I would work within budgets and help with the daily ordering for the kitchen and keep up with health and hygiene regulations.

As the Sous chef of the Beach club resort I would run the kitchen when the head chef was absent, this would include leading a large team of chefs through a busy 5 star a la carte breakfast, lunch and dinner service. Working within a rotating roster I was required to cook in all sections throughout the kitchen. I would help guide my team to create a daily changing lunch and dinner menu with locally sourced seasonal produce. On top of this we ran an eight course tasting menu every evening. I was also required to maintain excellent guest interaction including discussing dietary requirements and preferences.

Arriving to Hamilton Island I began working as chef de partie at Mariners seafood restaurant serving some of the islands finest contemporary Australian cuisine specializing in seafood locally sourced from the Whitsundays. After 2 months I was then promoted to Junior Sous chef where I became the acting Head chef of the kitchen and was given the opportunity to create my own menu while being guided by my Executive chef who was running his own separate restaurant. I was in charge of all ordering, stock control and helped with recruitment. All seafood was delivered fresh and prepared by the team. I was required to create an exciting daily changing reef fish and market fish main course using what seasonal produce we had. The venue was capable of dining up to 100 guest and was also booked for events.

Within this hotel I worked full time as a Commis chef throughout the busy dry season. My team and I prepared food daily for all staff as well as breakfast, lunch and dinner for the guests. Everyday 5 chefs would prepare a continental and hot buffet breakfast for guests, as well as a cold buffet lunch, while also running an a la carte menu throughout the day. We would cook for between 1000-1500 customers a day and some nights we catered for private functions of up to 70 people, which was prepped and cooked by one of our chefs.

I worked full time in this busy seafood restaurant cooking up to 400-500 customers a day. The restaurant owned their own oyster beds and each day we would collect and prepare them for service. The seafood was delivered daily by local fisherman for us to clean, fillet and prepare ready for service, this would include a variety of seafood such as whole fish, shellfish and molluscs. I would then set up my individual sections of the kitchen. I worked as the entrée chef and I would prepare and cook dishes such as scallops, squid, mussels, clams, prawns, oysters, and sardines, which I would cook and plate up while also being in charge of my own pass and orders coming in.

I was in charge of a small team cooking in a high-pressure kitchen for a busy cafe in the city. I would work all sections throughout the kitchen and manage it when the head chef was absent. weekdays we would serve an la carte breakfast and lunch, then on weekends we served a dinner menu with weekly changing specials. My responsibilities were to train new staff and place orders with local suppliers.

• I worked here initially as a part time commis chef while studying to be a qualified chef. I worked mostly weekends where I prepared the fresh oyster and shellfish bar. Each day I would drive to collect the fresh oysters from our own oyster farm facilities and begin to clean and prepare them. I would also collect live crabs and lobsters from billingsgate fish market in London and be in charge of cooking them. I prepared things such as mignonette and a Bloody Mary sauce while making 15 litres of fresh mayonnaise for the entire kitchen daily. During the busy season I would open up to 2000 oysters a day from varieties of rock oysters, native oysters and Irish oysters as well as preparing shellfish to order for the customers. I would be in charge of all my own orders coming in for the oyster and shellfish bar.