Chef Jeffrey Gear

Where does one begin. Its almost 3 years the devastation of covid 19 hit our country, making the hospitality industry come to its knees, begging for help, tears of businesses closing their doors.

Some innovative entrepreneurs reinvented themselves to stay afloat and alive for their establishment. Well Done / Bien Joue

This virus has seen to sort out the real Chefs from the pretend, cleaned out the overnight, want to be restauranteurs who feast and drinks the profits. The ones that have stayed and accepted the challenge of future change are our leaders, they may be the older generation of certified professional chefs or cooks with a flare.

Now its time for hospitality to stand up strong, it’s a great career, it’s a family, a profession, a way of life.

If you are reading this and you are looking for a great industry to join, hospitality is a place to be, at present there is an abundance of positions. You can travel anywhere in the world and work. Meet people that you may have never thought you would meet. Doors open and doors can slam shut.

There are to many handouts that is ruining your future, and the future for your generation and the next generation. Make a stance like your parents and grandparents, find a career before positions are taken by the influx that is coming of overseas potential. So, what I am saying it is easier now to apply for a position, than in the near future.

I’m looking for at least 10 people that are willing to work, be trained, be proud, and not afraid to give it ago.

You never know that you may learn something about people around you, what they have done in the past, before the pandemic.

This is MY STORY Jeffrey R. Gear

Well!! Coffee Club Caloundra on Bulcock Beach

 Never judge a book by its cover. You don’t know the background of your customers and who they are and how they could make or break a busy. Social media is a tool today that everyone uses.

The Coffee Club Caloundra overlooks the beautiful Bulcock beach, a tourist strip, a busy time of the year any time of the year. The Coffee Club is open with a walkway down the middle and to the side of the restaurant there is a walkway heading to the toilets for the patrons, all open to the elements, so people with dogs can walk through, bugs can crawl, rats at night I would presume can run through along walkway when restaurant is closed. Flies can fly and land anywhere.  

Today I took my mother and a family friend to have lunch at Coffee Club. To fill you all in, my mother had a stoke 2 years ago and her husband, my father had passed away 4 weeks ago. So, a day out overlooking the beach and having lunch would be great. My mother has a cavalier King Charles as a companion dog, she goes everywhere with my mother. So, people let’s get to the meat in the sandwich. I asked if the Coffee Club is dog friendly (this is happening more and more these days to encourage people back to restaurants due to the closure due to covid.) I was told by an Indian man standing at the entrance of Coffee Club, yes. I asked if we could sit over near the walkway looking out at Bulcock beach there was 5 free tables. Our little friend at the door said NO, you can sit over there around the corner where the lane is heading towards the toilet. I mentioned I would like to sit over there where the 5 empty tables are. He said again No you have a dog and dogs bring in FLIES.

I noticed the staff standing around talking, and it wasn’t work related. In notification, widows to the restaurant where filthy, there was a stench we all noticed, was it from this restaurant, next door or the toilets. Tables need to be cleared and wiped down; the floor needed to be cleaned even the walkway needed a scrub. And you are saying dogs bring flies.

As a foodie for 46 years this place is appalling for a tourist area, “a place where we meet”, in this time and climate, you lost a sale of 3 people, but saying this one person use to tell ten people, now 1 person tells the world, via social media. You have lost the WORLD as a customer.

What a shame that hospitality service is DEAD!! And this Coffee Club should be ashamed. Vote with your feet people and walk away – no RUNAWAY.

This is MY STORY Jeffrey Gear

Dear Friends, Colleagues, Chefs

This comes as a note of thanks to you for making my time in this Aged Care company memorable and interesting. Due to being offered an exciting new position, I would be leaving this company, but before that, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for providing me your support throughout the term of my position. I held a responsible position as manager and managed many projects during this period, and through all this, I always felt I had greater guidance from a previous manager and the greatest support from my kitchen brigade.

Life keeps on moving, and so am I. I have received a great offer in a multi-national company, and I would be joining them soon 26^th April 2022. I send my best wishes to you all and respect the same. Before joining them, I have handed my responsibilities to the hospitality team. I would be happy to be of any help to all of you if ever the need arises.

Thank you all once again and all the best for your future endeavours.

This is My Story Jeffrey R. Gear

What does it take to be a Head Chef of an Aged Care Facility?

Preparing meals for Aged Care residents is a rewarding role, yet not without its challenges and learning curves.

 All the menus are prepared by on-site Chefs and Cooks and are nutritionally balanced to meet the needs of residents. Chefs cater for the personal preferences of residents and incorporate local or seasonal produce where possible.

One of the first things I noticed when I started in Aged Care as the Executive Chef was the notes next to residents’ names in the dietary folder. It quickly became evident I need to take note of the particular requirements and request of our residents. All our residents had different diet needs, different likes and dislikes and my position was to ensure every meal met those individual requirements.

I had previously worked for the Royal family, 5-star hotels and catered for many celebrities, so I was accustomed to catering for special unusual dietary request. Although I have never experienced catering to specific individual preferences on a huge scale. It was a challenge and a lot to take onboard.

165 residents, everyone likes to have food prepared exactly the way it was cooked at their home.

Food is very important to people. The role of catering for the elderly is listening to their needs and understanding what’s important. The whole hospitality team is focused on knowing what everyone likes or dislikes when it comes down to food.

Many of the residents know about food themselves and have their favourite recipes. It helps if you learn everyone’s specific needs and tastes. They would be quick to tell you if you haven’t done it the right way

Challenges of meeting quality and time:

Some of the major challenges in an Aged Care kitchen is the responsibility of making quality food with limited time. Food is prepared and served from morning until night and the team needs to work seamlessly from prep to service to keep to schedule.

Working in Aged Care is interesting, and you definitely learn a lot. Managing time restraints and personal preferences can be the biggest challenge, but with a great tea, the work is enjoyable. It gives you a good feeling to serve the residents their favourite foods.

. Communication and time management is crucial in an Aged Care.

Having a great strong team makes all the difference. This really takes the pressure off the Head Chef and makes the whole day more rewarding.

For Chefs who are looking to take on more responsibility and take a head Chef / executive Chef position at an Aged Care facility, there is a lot more than food to master!

Running an Aged Care kitchen can be a complex process, planning menus, keeping multiple stakeholders such as residents, families, dieticians, facility management, and accreditation authorities happy. Head Chefs are also required to manage budgets, as well as hire, manage, motivate, and train staff.

And there are meals to prepare!

There are 5 key areas to master to keep a smooth-running kitchen and happy staff.

1. Kitchen and Food Safety Standard’s

There are understandably many requirements for food safety in Aged Care. Facilities are reviewed regularly, and it is part of the Head Chef’s job to make sure the current standards are being adhered to in the kitchen.

The Head Chef is also responsible for ensuring their staff are also aware of the necessary procedures and following them accordingly.

Catering staff need to know their safety is your priority. Make sure each new team member receives a formal induction into the procedures and safety standards of the kitchen. 

Offer regular training and update, when necessary, place posters to remind staff of the steps they must take to prevent burns, cuts and falls. 

• Resident Led Service

The latest Aged Care Quality Standards (July 2019) has highlighted a change in the way residents are prioritised, bringing them to the forefront of all the services and treating them less as ‘patients’ and more as customers, residents.

As the new standards are implemented, facilities will have developed processes and procedures which fit both their facility and the updated their standards.

For Aged Care Chefs, depending on the current way of providing meals for residents, there may be changes to the dining room, food service and customer interaction.

• Texture Modified Foods

Texture modification requirements are specific to the needs of individuals and are likely to change over time.

The IDDS (International Dysphagia Diet Standards) helps clinicians, Chefs and kitchen staff maintain consistent levels of texture modification. The IDDSI website has free resources which can be printed, easy to understand articles, downloads are free and may be used in the kitchen.

 Texture modification can be a steep learning curve for aspiring Chefs, new to Aged Care. All Chefs need to learn as much as they can about how to prepare a menu for a soft and pureed diet, including how to plate it so it looks appetising. Molded foods.

One of the hardest things I had to learn was to cook food to be extremely soft. Chefs are traditionally trained, not to over cook food to avoid it becoming soft. Crunchy texture is such an important part of the experience of many foods, but if you don’t have teeth or have difficulty swallowing, it must be soft.

I ask my Chefs / cooks to test the food with a completely new perspective. I would ask to do a chew test in preparation. If I could eat and swallow the food easily using only your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then you will know it is safe for the resident.

• Special Diet are a challenge

My new appreciation and empathy for the elderly. Some residents lose their ability to chew, some lose the sense of taste. Chefs and cooks definitely need empathy to work in Aged Care.

In summary:

1. Take time to get to know every resident’s personal likes and dislikes
   1. Be flexible about the menu, and make sure to keep favourite dishes all year round
   1. Be midful of special diets and restrictive diets, while retaining loads of flavour
   1. Learn to food to a very soft and smooth texture
   1. Have empathy, some residents may have lost their sense of taste or struggle to swallow.
   1. Be prepared to work within tight timeframes
   1. Build relationships and have good communication with your hospitality team

• Staff Management

Potentially one of the most time-consuming tasks for Aged Care Head Chef is staff management.

Putting together a strong kitchen team you can rely on day in and day out – and over the weekends requires ‘soft skills’ not often taught.

Scheduling shifts, ensuring a high standard of food quality, consistency of preparation and presentation, and managing staff motivation and teamwork are all part of running an Aged Care kitchen.

Strong planning and people skills are important.

There are cloud-based programs like Shiftboard, Humanity and When I Work available. You can use them to create a roster and set them up to notify your staff when they have a shift coming up. These systems allow staff to swap shifts amongst themselves or put their hand up when there is an extra day’s work available.

• Leadership

Being the Head Chef of an Aged Care kitchen puts you into a leadership role, however, many people working in Aged Care don’t see themselves as leaders.

Surprising!!  Aged Care Chefs who are passionate about creating an amazing dining experience for their residents, who care about their staff, and have pride in their work often already carry the traits of a good leader. 

Knowing how to manage expectations and keep staff motivated are simple yet very effective skills which empower everyone in the kitchen to do the best they can.

This is My Story Jeffrey R. Gear

I was asked the other day by a very well-respected colleague and friend, that he enjoyed MY STORY. I apologise to all why I haven’t continued for a while.

Here is a little bit of history not about me, about my mother’s side of the family.

I may have this wrong my great great grandfather, there may be another great in there somewhere.

Master of the schooner Harriett in which he traded across the Pacific in the 1850s.

Husband of Isabella Jane Forbes

Licensee of the Albion Hotel in Melbourne

Owner of the Wollomai House and much surrounding property on Phillip Island and the adjoining mainland.

Owner of the horse Wollamai which won the Melbourne Cup in 1875

— FROM MAX WALTER\’S HISTORY —
His (William Ford Cleeland\’s) son John Cleeland married Isobel Jane Forbes and:-
* Travelled to the USA to join the Gold Rush in California
* Bought a Schooner and traded in the South Pacific
* Migrated to Australia and purchased 7,000 acres on Phillip Island in
Victoria called ‘Wollamai’
* Won the Melbourne Cup on his horse ‘Wollamai’ in 1875
* Bought the Albion Hotel in Bourke Street Melbourne in 1895 which was the starting point for Cobb and Co Coaches
* Raised 4 children, John Blake, Bine, Dot and Eddie.

— FROM EMELBOURNE.NET.AU —
Albion Hotel

A three-storey hotel with distinctive arched façade, the Albion once stood on the site of the David Jones store on the north side of Bourke Street, across from its rival the Bull and Mouth. Its neighbour to the west was Cobb and Co.\’s stagecoach office, for which the hotel acted as a terminus and depot. The first Albion Hotel was a large shingle-roofed, single-storey timber house built on the site in 1839 by carpenter James Westwood. It was rebuilt around 1851 by brewer Henry Condell, Melbourne\’s first mayor, as a larger hotel with 60 bedrooms. John Cleeland, licensee during the 1860s and 1870s, installed an American ice-cream soda fountain imported by George Coppin. The hotel closed in 1912 and the site was later occupied by Buckley and Nunn where a commemorative plaque was installed in 1946. Albion Lane once provided rear access to the hotel, and its builder is remembered by Westwood Place.

Chrystopher J. Spicer


— Melbourne Argus 25/8/1945 —
One of Melbourne’s most popular hosts was John Clee-land, of the Albion Hotel in Bourke St Melbourne on the north side of Buckley and Nunn’s. It was the coaching house and many of the squatters made it their headquarters. Cleeland, like most Ulstermen, was enterprising and had taken part in the early gold rush to California. He made money there, and having bought a schooner, traded for many years in Sth Pacific, a hazardous calling today but infinitely more so then. After purchasing the Albion, he bought a property ‘Wollamai, ran cattle and a few racehorses, one of which won the Melbourne Cup called Wollamai.

— OVENS AND MURRAY ADVERTISER 28 Jan 1914 —
DEATH OF AN OLD COLONIST.
Mr. John Cleeland, died to-day at Phillip Island, at the age of 87 years. The late Mr. Cleeland, who was a colonist of 73 years, formerly kept the Albion Hotel in Bourke-street, Melbourne, when it was the headquarters of Cobb and Co. coaches. He won the Melbourne Cup in 1875 with Wollomai.

This is MY STORY.(we are not famous, our family are all from hard workers.)

instagram.com/stories/jeffreygear61/2727765761962413024

Me….30 years ago, when I was 30

Christmas Eve 1964 approximately. As most people know, I grew up on a farm 10 miles outside of Mansfield in the high country of Victoria, heading towards Tolmie. This is where my Mum and Dad had their farm.

Anyone who ever grew up on a farm knows how life is, what work is, and the meaning of having nothing…….you worked hard for what you achieve. And that is a lesson instilled in myself and my siblings for the rest of our lives.

That year on Christmas Eve Dad took the family into the bush up towards Tolmie to cut down a pine tree for our Christmas tree. We hung balloons and home streamers. I can still smell in my mind’s eye and very much miss the smell of a pine tree for Christmas

Mum came to us boys, said, we need to leave Christmas cake out for Santa and carrot for his reindeers when they come, and off to bed. Santa comes only when good boys are asleep.

Christmas morning my brother two years older than me said, did you hear last night Santa I heard Santa come, he arrived in a ute! Come on Jeff. We both ran outside and low and behold Santa did come that night he left us both a swing and slide…WOW that was a great Christmas surprise.

Thinking back and speaking with my Mum and Dad they told us how Santa delivered the swing and slide on the back of the milk truck. And Mum and Dad put it together in the dark and it would have been pitch black.

How things are change with the world today. I miss a child growing up with the innocence, hard work of the farm life…the simple life. The fresh vegetables and orchard of fruits, fresh milk, and meat. Know the world believes it comes from a supermarket. Children expected to receive gifts better than their friends, where we had nothing and learnt to be grateful of what we had.

My Story is about a rich and fulfilled childhood of growing up to appreciate the best things in life. I can still see Grandma Gear making the best puff pastry, cakes and biscuits for a woman who never went to school to learn to read or write. And my Grandma Cleeland with her Scottish heritage, I can still see my Grandma cooking for her family at Christmas, the turkey, Ham her Christmas cake and pudding that has been handed down for generations. Both Grandparents where amazing cooks.

This is My Story Merry Christmas to all who read.

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If you are totally interested and genuine in my adorable Shih Tzu puppies, please call for more information on 07 3886 2243

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I can arrange transport to interstate if desired at the owner’s expense.

Thank you for taking the time to read my advert. 28/11/2021

1983 My Story begins catering a large after party on a Saturday night for the one and only flamboyant Peter Allen.

The venue “Belle Vue” restaurant, a two-story grand 100-hundred-year-old mansion. Owned, operated, and converted by Richard Milne. In its glory, this build was transformed into beautiful restaurant of the era “80’s”

The Belle Vue wasn’t well known for great food and service, bookings 3 to 4 weeks in advance.

The Saturday night in 1983, approximately 11.30pm there was to be a after party cocktail party for Peter Allen and his cast. The cast came, ate, drank, and left in a very short time, may be an hour. Mr. Peter Allen never came.

Sunday morning, I received a call from my boss Richard, could I please come into work, the cast wish to have there last after party tonight at 11.30pm. When you are a young chef and trying to make a name for yourself, you don’t refuse.

The function was prepared, the time came for the after party. The cast came and still no star.

Our maître d’ Dale, a very tall man, professional to the core, flung open the “in door” to the kitchen, in walked Peter Allen, a man who stood approximately 5 foot 7 inches tall.

Mr. Allen came over to me and apologised for not attending his after party, he mentioned he stayed back after his show, wasn’t happy with his own performance and believed he needed more of rehearsal to get his performance right.

We chatted for some time, mentioning how small the kitchen I work in and how do you get all this wonderful food out so quickly.

Slowly the restaurant kitchen became the life of the party, Peter Allen stayed in the kitchen introducing me to his manager, cast and etc… this after party didn’t go for an hour, I remember leaving 5.30am in the morning.

To this day Peter Allen would be one of the most humble, professional, and nicest celebrity I have ever met. What I took away from him, is to stay humble, be professional and honest to yourself.

This is My Story, the 80’s was an interesting decade.

Jeffrey R. Gear

My love of art oil painting, the relaxation, lowering of blood pressure after a stressful day working in a hot pressurized boiling point of a kitchen.

Being a chef as chefs know, it’s stressful enough, the pressure is always on demand and striving for perfection, which is art on a plate.

This artistic avenue which I have been playing with for over 50 years. Has been my escape from the reality of work, staff issues of trivia, the global problems of society that only governments can fix.

When I paint, issues abound peel away by layers of the day, nothing is more important than you, at that time.

1996 I was lucky enough to meet and study more professional painting technics under John Myatt, UK artist.

Mr. Myatt is a brilliant artist, who could copy an original paining from Picasso, Rembrandt etc… and sell for millions of pounds.  He was caught in 1995 for forgery, spent time for a crime. Now he teaches art and brush technics.

1997 I had my first art exhibition, this was exciting, stressful, humiliating, fun, ordinary, posh all rolled into one. Criticism, like cooking, you need thick skin and take comments on the chin. “Everyone is an artist” like “everyone is a chef”

People ask “do you sell all your paintings” I guess in reality “NO”

I donate some artwork for charity, raising monies for a cause is more important, to help and benefit others less fortunate. Believe we all have a talent, mine is food and what you can create, eat, and enjoy with friends, painting what you can achieve with colour, my animals they give unconditional love, my garden which gives me joy.

I have been asked what you like to paint. Portraits, landscapes from where I grew up on a dairy / sheep farm central highland of Victoria, man from snowy river country, that is another story to be told.  

I copy from pictures of the internet, photographs, other artists woks, if I am coping from a master artist there is always a flaw placed in the painting to ensure not an original, portraits I enjoy, bring the canvas alive and seeing a face appear.

This is MY STORY Jeffrey Gear