Cairns is home to two of the world’s greatest and most beautiful natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef and the world’s oldest rainforest, the Daintree. People travel from far and wide for the place where rainforest meets the reef including businesses and industry professionals.
Amidst natures pristine playground lies the Cairns Convention Centre, a venue that can cater for thousands of visitors and locals to North Queensland. With its arena, auditorium, outdoor plaza, and ballroom, the Convention Centre ensures that each of its guests is getting the most out of each event showcased.
Most would argue that a key part of what makes any event worth going to is the food. No one would agree with this sentiment more than Stephan, one of the star chefs working in the Cairns Convention Centre kitchen. He handles it all: entrée’s, mains, desserts, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“You name it. Whatever you want me to do I can do it,” Stephan said self-assuredly.
Stephan works under Cairns Convention Centre executive chef David Hart. They utilise Cairns’ abundance of local ingredients to deliver that signature taste of North Queensland. Stephan has been able to flourish thanks to the guidance of David, but truth be told he was more than qualified for the kitchen job going in!
“I did my apprenticeship back in 1975 till 1978 in Switzerland, so I’m an old timer!” said Stephan with a laugh.
Stephan’s time in the kitchen over the years
Stephan explained that in Switzerland he’d worked for years in hotel kitchens. With the work being seasonal he’d work at ski lodges in the winter and at resorts in the summertime. After some time travelling the world and seeing the sights he returned to Switzerland, settled down and started a family. Fast forward to 1995 and Stephan decided to come to Australia for a few years. 30 odd years later and Stephan’s still living down under, now applying his well-honed cooking skills to delivering the signature taste of North Queensland to the Cairns Convention Centre guests.
During his stay in Australia, Stephan told us about some health complications that ended up affecting his personal and work life.
“I don’t want to go too deep into it but in the last 13 years I’ve been through a lot of surgeries,” explained Stephan.
Most of the surgeries were related to Stephan’s spine and making replacements. This meant that he was having a lot of breaks in his work to allow for appropriate rest and recovery time. Just when he was ready to go back, he got told that he needed to go back into surgery for more operations for something else unrelated. With all these breaks it became harder for Stephan to get fulfillment out of his work and felt like he was losing the feeling of constantly perfecting his craft in the kitchen.
“Things got worse after that. I learnt that my wife had developed a neurological condition, which would only get worse over time – so I took another break to care for her,” Stephan said gravely.
Tourism Taster serves Stephan a career opportunity
All the waiting to jump back into full time work did have one benefit for Stephan though – he knew exactly what he wanted. Stephan prefers the environment of a large-scale kitchen. He felt that he had paid his dues in his work in small-scale restaurants and cafes. As Stephan put it, it’s simply not where most of his cooking background comes from. So instead, he looked for a place that housed the large commercial kitchen he needed with the help of the Tourism Taster program.
Tourism Taster was a 12-month pilot program delivered by EPIC Assist from July 2023 to June 2024, headed by Trudy Nagle from our Cairns team in a dedicated Tourism Taster Coordinator role. The program aimed to connect Cairns’ tourism businesses to employees with disability. They would work with employers to break down barriers around hiring people with disability and build an accessible and inclusive business. Trudy had a list of participants and was determined to find them employment opportunities that would suit and fulfill them. For Stephan, she found the Cairns Convention Centre and was certain that this was the setup that would work for him. She brought him in for a trial shift and it was love at first sight for Stephan!
Once you’ve secured a job, there’s a good chance you’ll be spending a good amount of your time in the workplace. Making sure that your workplace is a good fit for you is essential.
It was thanks to the hard work of Trudy through Tourism Taster that Stephan was able to find a position (and kitchen) that suited him so well.
A meal at Cairns Convention Centre with some gratitude on the side
Since becoming a chef at Cairns Convention Centre, Stephan has explained his life has turned right around.
“My work means everything to me. Especially after my prolonged breaks after the unforeseen life situations. They were all very large setbacks, but because I was in an environment that worked for me, I was able to recover,” said Stephan earnestly.
After all that time ‘out of action’, the part of the job that Stephan appreciates the most as a chef in the Cairns Convention Centre is the endless variety. Thanks to the variety of guests the menu is always different and if you’re in the kitchen you get to do a little bit of everything. As Stephan puts it: “it’s one of the hardest places I’ve ever been to get bored.”
Stephan went on to cook the food that was served at the Tourism Taster: Diversity and Inclusion in the Tourism Industry event. The event was an opportunity for members of the Cairns community to come together to learn more about the benefits of hiring people with disability, hear from employers who have participated in the project, and learn how to overcome stigma and barriers to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
As one of Tourism Taster’s many success stories, Stephan catering for the event was a great way for him to express gratitude towards Tourism Taster and Trudy for playing such a key role in getting him back in the kitchen.
If you, like Stephan, are living with a disability, injury, health condition, or mental health condition and looking to find meaningful employment, contact EPIC Assist today.
