AT JUST 17-years-old Austin Anthony is well on his way to a successful career as a chef and business owner.
The Tamborine Mountain State High School student has won the prestigious Department of Employment Small Business and Training (DESBT) Southeast Region School-based Apprentice of the Year Award for his Cert III in Commercial Cookery.
Aussie competed against over 700 other students from the southeast region with his dedication to his apprenticeship standing out.
Following his success, Aussie will compete at the state Level DESBT Awards with winners to be announced on September 7th.
His outstanding acceptance speech led to an invitation from his trainer to speak at the Aurora Training Institute Southeast Queensland Graduation Ceremony.
The year 12 student’s passion for becoming a chef evolved from his love of his food.
“Two years ago, I could only cook scrambled eggs and pasta. I watched videos by Marco Pierre White, my favourite chef, and after working as a dishy at Ginja Ninja I put it out there that I wanted to learn cookery and it led to this,” he explained.
“My dream was to start my food truck business, Fangin For a Feed, and we have done three events so far, including the Canungra Show.”
“My overall dream is to run my own café and bakery. I hope to franchise the food truck and move on to a restaurant or café.”
Fangin For a Feed is a family business with his mum and dad, but Austin created the menu, with a focus on quality local ingredients, ensured health and safety procedures were followed and did the council documents thanks to the skills learnt during his apprenticeship.
“At 17 years old to own my own business, is pretty amazing; there aren’t many people at 17 who can say that. I’ve done a lot of hard work to achieve it,” he said.
“As someone who doesn’t want to go to university and just wants to get into full time work as soon as possible, being able to have a qualification after leaving school and use for my entrepreneurial ambitions is priceless to me and I’m forever grateful for the opportunity.”
Aussie is working at The ArtiZEN café on Gallery Walk where he will continue his apprenticeship full-time once he finishes school.
