Restaurant: Black Cow
Craig developed an interest in cooking at home early on baking cakes, biscuits and slices with my brother ...because they liked to eat them.
His father had a large veggie and fruit garden so the family did a lot of preserving, jamming and chutney production in the autumn. A massive walnut tree in their backyard also provided the nuts for Craig's great grandmother’s prize walnut cake recipe, one he still bakes to this day.
At High School an ex chef and teacher inspired him to pursue a career in the kitchen and not being an academic he was excited to have something to put his energy into.
Craig left school in grade 11 looking for a restaurant that would take him on as an apprentice, after eight months the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Hobart offered him that apprenticeship. He says he will always value his training there, with such a large operation he gained experience in everything from butchery to pastry and buffet to fine dining with everything else in between. Gaining his qualifications four years later Craig met his wife, Monica, also working as an apprentice.
She was subsequently offered a patisserie apprenticeship in Adelaide and he followed, quickly finding himself a job running the kitchen of a busy bistro and working in a fish and chip operation for the two years they were there. On return to Hobart Paul Foreman of Marque IV Crag on as a Chef de Partie but quickly promoted him to Second Chef where he worked for three years before being approached by Rod Ascui for not only a head chef position but part ownership of a new business the Stillwater team were setting up in Launceston, Black Cow Bistro. Craig took on the position of Head Chef and Part Owner and Black Cow opened in 2008 and he haven’t looked back.
The opportunity arose in 2009 to buy into the Stillwater operation and take on the Executive Chef position over both operations, he was delighted to accept. With the team awarded Best Tasmanian Restaurant with the THA Awards of Excellence this year he knows he made the right decision.