“ I was born in Penrith. My parents liked to move around a lot when we were young so I was in and out of schools though I never regretted any of that.
I finished school at a very young age. I was 15 and decided that I wanted to become a chef. I did 6 months full time schooling at Tafe and won a couple of scholarships. I then landed an apprenticeship at The Radisson Playford, a 5 star hotel in Adelaide. That was 15 years ago now and I worked there for 2 years. I moved around a lot and tried a lot of different cuisines.
As I went through my career I really wanted to pin point and hone my skills so I did 6 years at Cafe Sydney in Circular Quay. That’s actually where I met Jade, my wife who is now also the co owner of Secret Chef Catering and Secret Chef Deli. The cuisine at Cafe Sydney was modern Australian, Mediterranean. I really liked the idea of Asian Cuisine as well. Jade and I had a few holidays and travelled through Asia.
I decided to go and pursue Martin Boetz, the executive chef at Longrain in Sydney. He is the entrepreneur of Asian cuisine in Australia. I went and presented myself with no Asian knowledge or Asian cookery whatsoever and I said I want to come and manage your restaurant. He thought it was fantastic as I came as a clean slate but with the skills to manage a high volume of staff and customers. It was an amazing experience for 3 1/2 years managing the kitchen with Louis Tikaram who is a Mullumbimby boy. Louis is actually in LA at the moment where he has his own restaurant EPL. He’s doing a brilliant job over there.
Jade and I fell pregnant with our first child and decided we wanted to move away from the city to allow our child / children to grow up in the country. We bought a 5 acre coffee farm in Clunes to raise our family. I scored a Sous Chef job at the Beach Cafe in Byron which was great as I came up here with the intentions of wanting to step back from the responsibility of the whole restaurant on my shoulders. I started there with Paul Wrightson which was fantastic and then Paul decided to leave so I was moved to head chef position at the Beach Cafe. We were turning over 320 for breakfast, straight into lunches of 260 people. It was full on.
Jade and I then fell pregnant with our second child and we saw a real opportunity in the area to start our own catering business. Secret Chef began and over the last 12 months we’ve done about 18 events, all different and all different menus. We design the menu around the event and the customer.
I still work for Northern Rivers Seafood in Ballina so I go down there and basically talk to other chefs. We have about 70 restaurants that we supply daily.
Jades parents house sat for a living all over the world. Since we had our sons they have focussed on this area so they are very supportive. When people go away they know Georgina and Lou Luscombe will look after their homes and pets.
Lismore needed a bit more of the boutiquey food scene. We do all our shopping in Lismore. Jade is a trained Sommelier, a wine connoisseur. That’s what her job title was at Cafe Sydney when we first met. Jade still sells wine as a wholesaler in this region to restaurants. The plan for this deli would be to get a liquor licence further down the track.
We have Toby’s Estate coffee on board with us exclusively in Lismore. Our Baristas, Morgan and Tyler weren’t Baristas until the coffee shop opened. They were trained from a blank palate all the way by Toby’s Estate. It was fascinating to watch and they are awesome.
Everyone’s passionate about local produce in this area which is why we love it here. We have our own smokehouse on the farm and one of our signatures is our Smoked Salmon. We are doing a range of our own smoked cheeses, marinated olives and our house smoked hummus. We do platters of sliced meats you can take away. Our bread is from Bread Social. We are growing with the market. A deli ticks all the boxes for us.”
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