helping budding chefs begin their own kitchen adventures
As a young chef, Kimbra Lockley travelled the world cooking in high end restaurants in London, Switzerland and Canada, and in rustic Spanish fishing villages with produce plucked straight from the sea. It was the adventure of a lifetime, but now Kimbra gets an equal buzz helping young apprentices begin their own kitchen adventures. As TasTAFE Drysdale (South) Portfolio Manager of Cookery Apprentices, Kimbra looks after around 120 southern apprentices training at Drysdale and employed in businesses from central Hobart to as far away as Ouse, Dover and Coles Bay. And she makes it her business to ensure they are learning all of the skills they need.
“I ensure that every single one of the apprentices has a training plan and I visit them all personally to check on their progress. A big part of apprenticeships is on-the-job training and assessment and I spend a lot of time talking to employers about what they need. It’s a team effort and all of the teachers at Drysdale are part of it,” Kimbra said. A diverse range of businesses send their apprentices to TasTAFE including the Drunken Admiral, Maldini, Salamanca Inn, the Hotel Grand Chancellor, the Mill on Morrison, Mures, Customs House and Cugini. “We’ve really tried to listen to industry over the past few years to accommodate what they want. Some employers like day release for their apprentices and others like block training so it’s about trying to be flexible and it’s a bit of a balancing act.” Kimbra is passionate about seeing the apprentices succeed and says the most rewarding part of her job is running into past students. “It’s great to see what they’re doing now whether it’s working locally, running their own businesses or travelling the world.” For Kimbra being a chef always felt like her vocation. She moved to Melbourne at 16 to take up an apprenticeship with Australian Venue Services working at numerous Melbourne hotels. She then moved to a French restaurant in central Melbourne where she finished her apprenticeship before returning to Hobart to work at a number of restaurants including Wrest Point functions and Revolving Restaurant, Prosser’s and the Drunken Admiral. After a while she got itchy feet and decided to move to Whistler, Canada where
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Hospitality Review
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