Hospitality is built on a bedrock of committed professionals, each with a fire burning deep inside them. These are individuals who have worked hard and maintained a laser focus on their careers to reach the top of their game. In this field, the key to success lies in maintaining self discipline while also keeping an open mind, open ears and an open heart. For this edition of appetiser. magazine, we spoke to three of the hardest working chefs in the country so they could share their stories and insights.
When Graham Krueger walks into a room, there’s a palpable shift in the air – a calm energy that belies a tough exterior, combined with genuine care for others. As Executive Chef at Dubbo RSL Memorial Club Group, Graham oversees six venues and leads a team of 85 chefs. His nearly four decade long career is a masterclass in passion and progression, beginning in Qantas’ catering kitchens at Mascot, Sydney.
“I was 18, working under 75 different chefs and learning foundational skills from each,” he recalls of his apprenticeship. “It was a classic brigade system under great chefs like Rudy Shearer and Adrian Fetherston.” Graham values paying respect to mentors and elders. “We prepped food in a group of 20 young chefs – peeling, slicing, dicing and perfecting knife skills through repetition. Some days were spent turning hundreds of potatoes by hand or cutting oranges into perfect slices.” He remains immensely proud of having cooked for Queen Elizabeth II and the King of Thailand during his time with the flying kangaroo.
After four years with Qantas, Graham became a sous chef at a rugby league club before moving on to The Log Cabin, a historic hotel in Penrith overlooking the Nepean River. At just 22, after six months of cooking for up to 1,000 covers a week across two function rooms and two dining areas, Graham became head chef. “I learned early on that leading by example was essential,” he says. “I also realised I didn’t know everything and needed to learn from those more experienced. Two older chefs, casual staff with years of skill, became my mentors. They’d give me generous feedback at the end of a shift, advising me to ‘keep cool, keep calm, keep direction.’ Their patience and respect were invaluable.”
By 27, Graham owned two restaurants in Sutherland Shire, where the transition from chef to owner was a major learning curve. “As an owner, you have to look at every cost, beyond just food costs. You consider superannuation, WorkSafe, rent, energy, insurance and more.”
For the past two years, Graham has led the kitchens at Dubbo RSL, one of the busiest hospitality businesses in regional New South Wales. “Building trust between kitchen and front of house is crucial. The pass isn’t a barrier,” he explains. “I get chefs and front-of-house to understand each other’s roles, solve problems together and move forward to give guests the best experience.
Graham is also passionate about creating career pathways for chefs to progress. “You need someone pushing you forward and leaving space for the next role. I’ve trained 38 apprentices over my career, and all have qualified. Just this month, three messaged me to say they’ve become sous or head chefs. Progression is essential and at the heart of it is leadership.”
Reflecting on his career, Graham emphasises the importance of mentorship. “I wouldn’t have succeeded without my mentors. Now, we must become mentors ourselves, leading by example. We need to ensure those around us do their best and help them get even better,” he adds. “After 36 years, I still wake up eager to go to work. I still love my job.”
That passion for looking after people fuels many in this industry. Sometimes, like in the case of Graham Krueger, it involves guiding young chefs through successful careers. For others, it’s about making people happy by serving great food. One such person is a quietly enthusiastic chef, working at one of the nation’s most popular sports and entertainment venues.
Princess Anne Uy walks us around Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium. Footy’s over for the year and the backstage crew is bumping in a K-pop band. She is the Executive Sous Chef at the 53,000-capacity stadium, responsible not only for the high-end à la carte menu served to members but also for the ordering and logistics of more than 16 different quick-service retail food outlets inside the grounds. “We can turn over more than half a million dollars on a game day,” says the chef, a woman who never ceases to smile. “But when it comes to other events – like this one,” she says, pointing to the stage being erected, “we cater to the market. We need to be flexible. It’s part of my DNA to make sure people are looked after.”
That DNA comes from a long line of women in Princess’s family who have dedicated themselves to feeding others. While she was born in the Philippines, Princess’s mother and grandmother were both from Pampanga, the culinary capital of the nation. Both were exceptional cooks, preparing specialities like Philippine paella or bringhe and lechon or suckling pig.
Princess keeps close to those cultural roots with her side gig, a small catering business/private chef service called Marcez, which focuses on Filipino food and caters to friends and the community with the dishes they know and love. She finds her inspiration at Footscray Market – a lively, colourful and exotically fragrant wet market. “I go to the Vietnamese butcher and buy pork to make pork adobo and sisig,” she says, referring to the rich pork dish seasoned with onions, chilli and sour citrus. She also cooks dishes like lechon or suckling pig and palabok, a dish featuring smoked fish sauce used to dress rice noodles.
Princess worked at Nobu for eight years, eventually taking on the head chef position at the Melbourne outpost of the global Japanese/Peruvian fusion restaurant. That role saw her travel around Japan to learn the dishes and complex culinary traditions. “I love Japanese cuisine,” she says. “There is a simplicity to the food underlined by a complexity of technique; the food looks so pure, but behind the scenes, there is so much work, so much tradition.” Her work took her to Japan, where she watched a soba master hand-pull delicate buckwheat noodles. And to Hida Prefecture to observe wagyu farmers tending their cattle. “It’s true! They do massage the cows,” says Princess. “Especially around the shoulders where those delicious blade muscles lie.”
One of Princess’s significant responsibilities is cooking high-end dishes and creating menus for VIP members and their guests. “Part of my family’s culture is hospitality,” she says. “Being in hospitality means you need to be hospitable. It’s something I teach my staff. It’s as important in the kitchen as it is in front-of-house. When you’re smiling with your guests and making them happy, they leave the dining room still smiling,” she says. “Happiness is also essential. When you are in a happy mood, with a good heart, you can imagine so much more when it comes to cooking. As my grandmother said, cook when you are happy and always cook with your heart.”
While Princess forged a successful career by following a family passion to cook and care for others, another top Australian chef found a different route to make his mark. Samuel Burke is energetic, effusive and ebullient – an unstoppable force. And his favourite subject is meat. In his role as Meat & Livestock Australia’s Corporate Executive Chef, he lives, works, sleeps and eats lamb, beef and goat. And his passion for ensuring Australians and people around the world enjoy Australian-grown steak, lamb koftas and goat curries is unparalleled.
The hardworking meat expert began his career as a milk boy in Sydney’s inner west at the age of ten, later working at McDonald’s at 16. In his later teens, he worked after school at a butcher shop before starting a culinary apprenticeship with a commercial caterer. “I had this tough Yorkshire-born chef, Phil Gilroy, who worked us hard,” remembers Sam. “We learned to make terrine, breads, pastries — all aspects of à la carte fine dining. Then, after a solid day’s work, he’d make me do office work. But that gave me the confidence and ability to become a business unit operator. “You need to be good on the tools, but you also need to understand a spreadsheet, a roster and a menu plan suitable for the audience,” he says, before adding, “I used to flip burgers at Maccas; now I travel the world helping companies grow demand, from great burgers to show-stopping steaks with Aussie beef.”
There is no exaggerating the passion Sam has for cooking, eating and promoting Australian meat. “Last week, we cooked over half a tonne of steak in Toowoomba at the TSBE Darling Downs Beef Battle,” he says. He and four other chefs cooked 540 kilograms of sirloin steaks on flat grills for 500 attendees, who assessed them on taste, appearance, juiciness and tenderness. He followed this with masterclasses for TAFE QLD students studying commercial cookery. “If we are going to process animals, then we need to know exactly how to get the very most yield from each carcass using the right cut for the cooking method. This is about sustainability and respecting the animal.”
Sam speaks with great pride about putting Australian beef and lamb in the sky through his work with an airline catering company, which produced four out of five of the 64 million meals served on planes departing Australian cities each year. “While passengers up the front enjoy a great beef eye fillet, the real volume is in economy,” says Sam. “There’s only 9% eye fillet, scotch, sirloin and tenderloin. The rest are non-prime cuts like blade, chuck, shin, skirt and brisket – we call them ‘masterpiece cuts.’” Working with development chefs and culinary directors to explore cooking methods for these cuts, like stir-frying, grilling, roasting and braising, they create dishes like tagines and beef rendang, each bite brimming with the team’s passion. “The lower and slower you cook meat, the less moisture is lost and the higher the yield,” adds Sam. In doing so, he not only creates delicious inflight meals but also provides value for the business and broader markets for Australian producers.
One of those producers is Sam’s mate Macka (Robert Mackenzie), who has a large farm in Gloucester raising Aberdeen Angus. “I love spending time in the country and seeing how well Australian red meat is raised,” he says. “And it gives me a chance to pack the chainsaw and collect firewood for the barbecues.” Sam has 15 barbecues, from a small Japanese charcoal burning hibachi to a massive two tonne Argentine-style parrilla. His latest favourite is an Italian gutter-style Ferraboli long skewer grill. “I love cooking rump caps on churrasco skewers – with heaps of char-grilled peppers, field mushrooms, roast kipfler potatoes and chimichurri. There’s something special about cooking over fire.”
You’d expect that after 50 – 60 hours a week cooking and working with food, Sam’s downtime would involve pans down. This is not the case. “I love cooking for my family because it’s an opportunity to bring conversation to the table, to communicate over good food. For me, cooking at home is about quiet flames – entertaining people and not necessarily eating the food but watching others’ enjoyment.”
Ultimately, Sam shares the same reason, passion and motivation that Graham and Princess hold dear. “Why do we do it? We do it to make other people happy.”
