Venessa Barnes, Australian Pork, Co-hosts Talking Pork and All Things Foodservice with Adam Moore, Corporate Chef and Foodservice Industry Ambassador, with guest Chef Rick Stephen, Director of Kitchens- SATS Catering and Continental Director of Asia World Chefs.

In this episode, Chef Rick Stephen’s shares his culinary journey with us which began at the age of 6 in his father’s upmarket Fish & Chip shop. Rick would come to work with his father before school and peel the potatoes for the hand made chips. Deciding it was time to try something different he later joined his uncle in the bakery. Rick became the third-generation in the kitchen and he speaks of how working with his family instilled a lifelong work ethic.

Rick shares with us stories from his early career including his apprenticeship with Claudio Magris, his study at the William Anglis school and how he travelled the world only to return home to open Raphael’s which won every major award there was to win.

Currently, Chef Rick Stephen resides in Singapore as the Director of Kitchen for SATS, one of the world’s largest airline catering services which produces 90,000 – 100,000 meals per day in a kitchen that he describes as 12 football fields in size taking him an hour and a half to walk around. With COVID-19 the airline business was down by 90% and Rick shares with us how he had to respond and change the business with 48 hours notice and what it is like to pack 22,000 dates a day individually.

Despite his busy schedule Chef Rick Stephen still contributes his time to teaching and spends a lot of his time doing training sessions in various Asian countries including Nepal and continues to inspire the next generation of chefs.

This year, adding to his long list of achievements, Rick has been announced via the The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List as a Member of the Order of Australia. He has been recognised for his significant service to the tourism and hospitality’s sectors, particularly as a chef.

Inspired by Australian Pork has created a platform dedicated to the Foodservice market where Industry leaders are invited to discuss the rapidly changing landscape and what these changes mean.