David Veal
It has been a real whirlwind since opening the doors here at the harvest in November and to be honest I didn’t expect as many people through the doors as we had over the summer period. My initial plans were for me to do all the cooking with a few local kids to man the sink on the busier days!!! I now have a part time second chef and an apprentice as well as the kids I like to call chef de plunge.
A quick history lesson on my background and how I ended up here at the harvest. My passion for cooking came through a part time job at herbet adams making pies!!! I was in a research and development kithen with and old school baker in his late fifties and a young cocky English chef in his mid twenties, I learnt from the baker the traditions and passions of working with food and from the chef, how to have a good time doing it!!! Before this I had no idea what career I was going to pursue, there was no home ec or cooking at the catholic boys college I attended!
From there I went on to do a diploma of hospitality while gaining kitchen experience in kitchens such as the hyatt and Hilton in Melbourne. Towards the end of the course I found two part time jobs one working in the kitchen of the then very elegant Victoria hotel with a crazy french chef who didn’t believe in using utensils when working on the grill and the second job was at Miro on Lonsdale st with an amazing chef by the name of Glen Evans, who is by far the biggest influence in my cooking career and a major part of why I am where I am today.
With both part time jobs came offers for an apprenticeship and I chose miro with glen because I was thrown into the thick of all aspects of the kitchen from day one and realised I would learn a lot more in a short period of time, I was basically in the second chef position whereas at the vic I would have been right down the bottom of a very large brigade, another factor was this was glens first restaurant after a very successful chef career not only here in Australia but around the world such as claredges in London!!. So not only was I shoulder to shoulder with a very talented chef I was taking in the pressures and challenges of starting a business from scratch with even having to call his mother in law to do dishes, hey Vera. I spent a wonderful almost 3 years with the crew at miro( sorry glen no 3rd year progression payment, but I think I have made up for it with wild turkey and dry over the years!!!)
Wow thought I would run out of things to say in this blog!!!!
The surf called me to Apollo bay and after working in a couple of kitchens with empty promises found myself working for Chris TA…………. At his two reataurants Seagrape in Apollo bay and chris beacon point up the hill. I was fortunate enough to finish my appreticship and be offered the head chef position by chris and his wonderful partner penny. I spent an amazing 5 years working for the couple and proboaly learnt something new every day (good and bad, sorry christo) , they were constantly trying to improve recipes or create something new. Even though they didn’t work full time in the kitchens their involvement and passion was inspiring. It was during this time chris’s was awarded a second chef hat!
One benefit working for chris was when he went back to Greece for 6 weeks in the middle of the year we all got that time off. Durning this time I would head to different surf locations around the world and pick up the odd work in kitchens to help fund my trip. I learnt a lot without all the fan fair of working in big kitchens learning from locals traditional methods of cooking and about ingredients I have never heard of!!!!
It was now I decided to return to Melbourne, I had some part time cooking jobs while I was working out where I wanted my career to go. I decided I wanted to start my own restaurant so iwent and visited my old mate glen and his wife karen at miro which had now moved to hardware lane and asked for some bar work until I found the restaurant of my dreams!!!! The next day glen called said he wasn’t happy with his current chef and offered me the head chef position there. This is where I spent the next 3 years!!!!!!
After tracing up every back alley in the cbd I found a great spot in Kensington which would become Tonik and at the age of 28 my first business. I continued to work lunch at miro and then shoot across town to get tonik ready for its evening service(trading hours were 7 days 4pm til 1am) I continued this for almost 12 months until I didn’t need the income miro to support me while I established tonik. I had found some wonderful staff at tonik which enabled me to spend some time out of the kitchen and more time setting up the direction I wanted tonik to take. This trend continued for the next 2 years and I was now no longer reqired in the kitchen and really enjoying the front of house side of hospitality and a bit of a break from cooking.
5 years on and now living on the surf coast I was told that bellbrae harvest was looking for someone to get the restaurant back up and running. After heading over and taking a closer look I fell in love with the place and thought it was time to put the whites back on!!!
And this started the amazing journey of Bellbrae Harvest Restaurant.
