HTN Blog

After months of heat and humidity here in the sub tropics of the Sunshine Coast, we are getting the first glimpses of Autumn. It is cooling down at last.

If we didn’t know it from our weather, we are reminded that the cooler times are on their way just by shopping and seeing the pears and apples on sale that herald a new season and eventually Winter. Oh, and don’t forget the importance of Easter in signaling the change too.

Although it is hard to recognise seasonality these days as we can buy any fruit and vegetables all year round, it is very noticeable in supermarkets as the displays of seasonal items increases. You will also see there is an increased emphasis on seasonal dishes in food and associated magazines.

On TV, different meals and dishes are offered by food advertising and on TV cooking shows – all steaming and inviting; traditional stews and casseroles, soups that brim with enticing flavours and nutrition. Nutrition is something we sometimes forget about as Chefs, but we do have a responsibility to serve the most nutritious dishes we can while appeasing our customer’s needs for flavor and fashion.

One more point of note on seasonal foods/dishes is that they are generally more profitable which makes them more appealing to operators.

I was very happy to see Chef Karen Doyle come into the Presidency of the National Australian Culinary Federation (ACF). I know that she is a great industry person and she supports apprentices and HTN. She steps into some big shoes that Chef Neil Abrahams left when he retired. Thanks Neil for all you did for the ACF National and all you do for Industry.

Congratulations Karen and well done ACF.

I am in the middle of moving house and I think everyone dislikes this process as much as I do. However, there is no way around it. Soon it will be just another move.

On the upside, I have seen the benefit of the many services available when you move and couldn’t help but think or compare the services that are used with the services we provide in our business of cooking. We service the needs of our customers.

Indeed, when we were homeless for a couple of days, we found the local pub to be excellent for down to earth meals and service that made us feel at home. So many other services that we take for granted, just like we are taken for granted in what we do.

The guys who moved our furniture were amazing – they were four brawny guys who took so much care of our precious personal stuff; their service was brilliant. Same for the guys who came to take away the excess rubbish – again another excellent service. Nothing was too much trouble. And then there is the changing over of services for the new home…the electricity supplier, water provider and so on.

I guess the main thing I got from this whole adventure is that we are in the hands of people who provide services and that reminded me of all the years I cooked and worked in the industry, I was providing a service that my customers were there for. Just as you are now.

And if you want to know if your service is appreciated how about the fact that Luke Mangan has just received his OAM for recognition to all the service he has and does provide to the industry. Well done Luke and congratulations.

Getting older does a few things for you. As an old chef/cook who has worked in kitchens for over four decades, I am lucky to have very good health and no back-aches. I appreciate my good health and realize that it is one of the best wishes I can give and so I wish you good health for this oncoming New Year.

Naturally when I talked good health that also means good mental health; in our industry we see an un-proportional amount of mental issues. I have spoken about this before in my blogs and have acknowledged my mental illness, PTSD; although my disorder did not come from the kitchens but from my days in the Vietnam War, fifty years ago this year. As we, at HTN, are involved with the R U OK? group I join the cry to encourage you to ask your mates at work if they are OK? It is a very good thing to do.

Another thing I have noticed through my many years in and around the industry is just how well accepted multiculturalism is by we cooks, chefs and workers in the Hospitality Industry. I think that is because we work with people from all over the world. We have come to accept the different cooking styles and flavor combinations and techniques that make us global in our attitude to food; it is also that global attitude our customers have come to expect with foods of the world.

The way we serve multi-ethnic foods has made us so well known in the world. For example, just look at the international success of Maeve O’Meara’s Food Safari and all the different ethnic cuisines featured in that fantastic TV series. It is truly a melting pot of cuisines which we love as much as our customers do.

But then, you work with people from around the world and just think how well we work with each other regardless of our origins. If we can mix and work so well in the kitchens and on the floor, why can’t we extend that behavior, that philosophy, into our society?

Along with wishing you good health for the New Year, I wish you and everyone Peace.

By Peter Howard

Once you’re a cook, you’re always a cook. No matter how much distance you want to put between you and your job, or former job, it is very hard to escape the cooking scene and appreciation of it..

I am a cruising fanatic and I love it for lots of reasons. However, each time I am on the open seas, I am amazed at how the food just keeps coming – not only one or two dishes but multiple dishes on menus that change every day and for each meal period.

On my latest cruise from Tilbury, London to Sydney via the Caribbean and Panama Canal, the ship was at sea for 30 days which means there’s not a corner shop to drop into just in case.  All the time I am kept wondering how the chefs do what they do it as there is not ever a shortage of fresh fruits, salads, vegetables, meats in fact, all parts of the expansive menu were covered.

On the ship, MV Astor for the CMV, the crew in the galley was mostly Indian plus a couple of other nationalities. One of the many aspects of the ship I found so delightful is that it was an older ship and a classic liner. The wait staff was a delight to watch as they were European trained and truly excellent. Oh and the curries were sensational needless to say.

What I am saying it that it makes an old cook, like me, really proud and humble to see these guys, with their skills well and truly on show. Their pride was on show and rightfully so.

Thanks guys.

Happy Christmas to everyone and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

– Peter Howard AM

Spring is well and truly here and soon we will be heralding Summer and I will be thinking about ways of eating for the hot months of the year. So I start with looking at ways to eat more healthier to achieve weight loss. I always think of food in this country as being healthy and it is – until we start cooking and examining what we add to it.

As people who have to feed other people, let’s think about the amount of fat we add to the dishes we are cooking and let’s think about the balance of the dishes we serve up. Let’s think more about salads with complex protein and good dressings. What about using the variations of protein we can cook with? – sure I love meat as much as the next person and have spent much of my career in promoting it. However, more and more our clientele is requesting meatless meals.

When I wrote my first book on diabetic cooking (2006), I discovered Tempeh, an Indonesian fermented soy product which is high in protein and a good way to go for less fat. I was fascinated to see the use of this product in a recipe from the hands of one Sassy Chef, Alison Taafe called “Eat for you Life” an extraordinary book on really healthy eating.

Recently I was in Brisbane and was watching Alison cook at a trade show – I have watched and admired her for over 2 decades – she is an amazing Chef and presenter. She now heads up the Institute of Culinary Excellence and she is dedicated to making young people cook brilliantly – and she does. But back to her book and healthy eating, it is what I need to get myself geared up for a long holiday – by the way you can contact Alison and get her book on www.theice.com.au – do have a look.

Talking of young Chefs – how good it was to see Jessica York win the Peter Howard Culinary Scholarship for this year. The team of HTN provided another exciting dinner and the whole night, with Michael Bennett at the controls with Mina doing his magic as ever, was just brilliant.

Soon, I will take a break and go to London and while there, I will meet up with an old friend, restaurateur Caroline Taylor who runs the very fashionable Novikov Restaurant. I am hoping that Jessica will spend some time at this exciting restaurant in Mayfair. Caroline is a real adventurer in that her first restaurant was in London many years ago and called Sydney – some may know as she was GM at OXO for many years.

So while I am looking to eat healthier and watch my weight, I know I will up against it as I cruise back to Australia for 47 days. Oh well, I can but try. In the meantime, you can think about healthy alternatives for your customers.

By Peter Howard AM

Stress, tension – being under the hammer! Recognise these terms? They are all a part of our being cooks and Chefs. There is nothing like a very busy service period to bring on those three pressures. Somehow we learn to deal with these pressures and sometimes that pressure takes its toll on us – it can be called burnout, it can be called many other things but basically it means we sometimes do not cope.

HTN is committed to looking after its apprentices with their mental health and their well being. There has long been a stigma attached to the term mental health but now days it is a term that we hear so often. And for people suffering with a mental health issue, it can be a very serious, debilitating issue.

For me, I have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and I have been able to learn to understand it this dreadful affliction which started for me in the Vietnam War in 1968; I did not know I had PTSD until 1998 when it was diagnosed and I started the long road to partial recovery. I soon learnt that there was plenty of ways by which I could be aided/advised to help me face up to what learnt is a mental illness – a term I have come to accept.

Given that the symptoms of PTSD can be confused with what we recognise as everyday parts of the cooking business – such as hitting the booze too much, drug abuse, mood swings and negative reactions to stress and tension, I did not recognise the symptoms of PTSD. Certainly, I was always drinking way too much alcohol, I was always overreacting to stress (my nick name was Peter Panic) and my mood swings made me not nice to be around.

After all this, I have come to realise that so many of my mates were there for me and long before the marvelous institution of R U Ok? We mates did stick together as they became just that – supportive mates and after all the people we work with become our mates. As such we need to look at the people we work with and ask them if they are OK? it is what we do as decent everyday Aussies.

R U OK?

By Peter Howard AM 

It is only 5 days since I returned from one of the most exciting and interesting cities in the world – New York City. It is a crazily busy city that never sleeps, and neither do its multitudinous visitors.

In amongst all the madness of a huge city, you can find extremely good food and wines in numerous ethnic restaurants and eateries – some seating 200 hundred and more and others seating just 12; needless to say, that in this tiny Cuban eatery on 10^th avenue, there is a long line of people waiting to get in for their chance to try the very different fare that is Cuban. Around the corner on 52^nd is a Ramen noodle bar that is even smaller than the Cuban place.

For fine dining, you need to look at Jean Georges near Central Park at Columbus; traditional French cuisine, the dishes served are immaculately presented and sublimely cooked – what an experience. Just brilliant and so good to see fine dining alive and living and well in this bustling city.

The takeout, for me, after a week in this exciting city is that the restaurant scene is as vibrant as ever in New York City and yet the business operators face the same issues as we do here, in Australia, like getting the right produce they need, finding suitable culinary staff (read cooks and Chefs), satisfying very savvy customers, battling high rents and finding wait staff that can handle the pressure of non-stop service.

Interesting really because even though that extraordinary city is thousands of kilometres away and the culture is so different to ours, the same issues apply and like always, Chefs and cooks are the ones who are asked to deliver professionally all the time…and that is what we do all around the world.

Late last month I was at Government House in Brisbane to receive my official AM – two medals and a pin and the citation. My AM is ‘for services to the food and wine tourism industry and to education and to institutions like the ACF’ In handing me the awards the Governor of Qld., Paul de Jersey, congratulated me on my contributions to industry and then went on to say, “I am so happy to see your industry getting well-deserved recognition.” And indeed that is correct – while I was awarded the honour of being named in the Order of Australia – General Division, I am very aware that I would not have been named without being in the Hospitality Industry. It is an Industry that has given me all and that should be awarded.

Somehow it feels strange to thank an industry but I do and I also acknowledge the depths of experiences I have had in the vast conglomerate have delivered me a very happy and satisfied man. So thanks to the Hospitality Industry. These sentiments are extended to the marvellous event delivered by HTN Board and friends who gathered to celebrate the award last Tuesday. Again echoing my thoughts on the last blog, all my friends are in and from the Hospitality Industry and so I was overjoyed to see so many people turn up to enjoy the HTN friendship. Thanks, HTN.

My great joy and privilege was to be involved in the Australian Professional Chef of the Year Competition at Foodservice Australia, Sydney at the ICC. How amazing to see these young Chefs cook and present such outstanding dishes in 1 hour. They had to produce an entrée and a main course (for 4 persons – so 8 plates in all) and so of the most brilliant food around. If you want to see the dishes, they are on FaceBook and Instagram for the Australian Professional Chef of the Year 2018.

This competition has been running since 2008 and has had several very well known Chefs have won – including Neil Abrahams the current President of the ACF National. Over three days, the Chefs worked with pork products from Murray Valley Pork (sponsored by Australian Pork) Chobani yoghurt and ovens and grills from Unox; PFD were also sponsors along with Robot Coupe (and their Robot Cook) and Alsco. It was one big celebration of sponsors products and Chefs – what a time. The competition demonstrates the sublime ability of your Chefs from all around Australia and their passion and technical know-how was very much on show. The winner was Chef Jack Lee from Victoria.

Thanks so much to Specialised Events (Tim Collett) and the crew for having me in attendance at the Competition. A great time!

The Industry, at large, has lost a very important man as Bill Galvin OAM – William R Galvin OAM – passed away a couple of weeks ago; he’d had an enormous input into the Industry in so many ways that it is impossible to separate out which part of the business he influenced mostly.

I first met Bill in 1970 at East Sydney Food School where I went to study catering in a three- year certificate course – it was there I met so many other people that became mates and my great mentor Grahame Latham OAM.

Back to Bill, I then worked with him at Ryde College of TAFE in the 1980ies and it made me think that so many, if not all, of my many friends and mates, have come from being in contact with them by working with them in some part of the Hospitality Industry. It is a truism that we form such good relationships with people with whom we work.

To me, Bill was always a mate and was very supportive of me in my early career both in teaching and in the media. Thank you, Bill, for all you have done for the Industry, for HTN and for me personally. With HTN, Bill has organized the return flight tickets with QANTAS for the winner of the Peter Howard Culinary Scholarship since its inception. There is only one Bill Galvin OAM – we will miss you, old mate.

Before I started writing this, I sent off a number of emails to mates and friends I have met throughout the years. The only schoolmate I know from 1960 is in New York City and so I will stay with him while I am there in the upcoming visit in June. Other mates there include so many people from when I worked the G’Day USA promotion – buddies from the catering company we used there called Food for Thought; Marlene Poynder from the Park Hyatt on the Harbour who is now the GM in an international Hotel there and then, from my days in the 1990ies of promoting Australian Lamb at the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago for 5 years, my boss -Frances Cassidy.

And so, I could go on but it only reminds me that our mates, our friends and associates mostly come from the places we have worked in and do work in during our journey in this marvellous world of cooking. Somehow, we have so much to talk about as we stop working and that is the fascinating part of being involved in the Industry.

By Peter Howard AM

Just recently I have been to New Caledonia and its capital, Noumea, the Paris of the Pacific as it was once known. There be no doubting that the French influence in this Island paradise is still so very strong from the ever attractive accent in their speaking to the many ways they enjoy themselves. It is so odd to be so close to Australia (only 2 hours from Brisbane) and yes to have such vibrant French culture – which I love.

Naturally, I had to observe the food and the drinking habits – and so a beer (Number 1 is the local brand and damn fine beer at that) at mid-afternoon was crucial before settling into one of the many eateries on Anse Vata, the beach and tourist part of Noumea. The dining at the Hilton was first class with excellent food and very French service at The Terrasse. I was trained in French cooking and have loved the French forever and so, I am overjoyed to have had such an experience so recently.

It would seem that I could not get away from the French as I travelled to Western Australia and to the Margaret River where I stayed one night at the exclusive and stunning Cape Lodge on Caves Road in Yallingup.The General Manager is Drew Bernhardt and the staff, including restaurant manager and sommelier, were both French. Boy, the service was excellent. However, it was the food from the hands of Executive Chef Tony Howell and his dedicated team that was outstanding. Heavily featured was Margaret River produce and seafood.

No matter where I went with my host, Ian Parmenter (famous for his TV cooking shows called Consuming Passions on ABC TV for 9 years and for having kicked off Tasting Australia and subsequently, G’day USA) and his partner Ann, the emphasis was on local produce and all restaurants and pubs featured MR produce. The apprentice Chefs at the local TAFE have an exercise where they design the menu and cook the dishes for 30 people at the Harvest Lunch, held monthly at the small dining room in the campus.

As Drew Bernhardt pointed out to me, the array of produce in the MR is second to none – a proud boast and certainly proven at the Cape Lodge Restaurant. That regional attitude is alive and living and well in Perth too where excellent restaurants and loads of fun abound.

I came away from WA thinking just how brilliant a destination it is and with so many varied dining experiences showcasing the excellent produce of the WA and also the very fine cooking skills of the people who use them. Long may regional foods and attitudes reign.

By Peter Howard AM