Recently, Hastings People partnered with a leading regional hospitality and events business to appoint an Executive Catering Chef.
With a portfolio of premium wedding and event venues and plans for continued growth, the business was looking for an experienced culinary leader to take ownership of its catering operation and help shape its next phase.
The brief required a strong combination of large-scale operational experience, commercial capability and people leadership, alongside a contemporary approach to event catering.
The Challenge
The scale of the operation made this a highly specific appointment.
From one central production kitchen, the culinary team supports five venues, more than 500 weddings and approximately 2,500 catering events each year.
The successful chef needed to understand the complexities of delivering multiple events across different locations while maintaining consistency and quality across every experience.
They would lead a permanent brigade of approximately 12–14 chefs, manage labour and food costs, coordinate production and logistics and work closely with venue, sales and operational teams.
At the same time, the client wanted someone who could help evolve the culinary offering, bringing a more contemporary approach to event catering as the business continued to grow.
The regional location added another consideration to the search, requiring Hastings People to look beyond the immediate market for someone with the right experience who was also genuinely open to relocating for the opportunity.
The Search
Given the combination of scale, complexity and location, Lee Thompson knew the search needed to extend beyond the immediate regional market.
Rather than looking only for chefs already working in traditional event catering, the search focused on leaders from high-volume hotels, resorts, banqueting and other complex hospitality environments where logistics, workforce planning and consistency at scale were fundamental.
Relocation also became an important part of the conversation.
The opportunity needed to appeal to someone who could see the longer-term potential of the business and was genuinely prepared to make a move for the right role.
The search ultimately identified an experienced culinary leader based in Melbourne who was open to relocating and whose career had already taken them through major hospitality operations across Australia and internationally.
The Hire
The candidate brought extensive experience managing complex, high-volume culinary operations.
Most recently, they had held a senior culinary leadership position with one of the world's most recognised hospitality brands, overseeing multiple dining concepts within anoperation serving more than 4,200 guests each day. Their responsibilities included labour deployment, operational performance, food safety, team development and large-scale logistics.
Prior to this, they had held Executive Chef positions across luxury hotels and destination resorts, including responsibility for eight restaurants, bars, banqueting and resort dining venues and a team of more than 60 people at one property.
Their experience also demonstrated strong commercial capability. In that same operation, they reduced food costs from 38% to 32% and labour costs from 47% to 35%, while maintaining service delivery.
Importantly, they understood the realities of destination hospitality. Their career had included island resorts, regional hotels and other environments where recruitment, logistics and operational planning require a different approach from a metropolitan restaurant.
That combination of scale, commercial discipline and adaptability made them particularly well suited to the brief.
The Outcome
The result was the appointment of an Executive Catering Chef who relocated from Melbourne to regional NSW to take on the opportunity.
For the client, the search delivered a leader with experience operating at a scale that closely matched the complexity of the business, while bringing broader experience from luxury hotels, resorts and international hospitality operations.
For the candidate, the move provided the opportunity to take ownership of a substantial catering operation and play a role in the next stage of a growing hospitality business.
The placement also highlights the value of looking beyond the immediate market when recruiting for senior roles.
By focusing first on capability and then understanding what would make the opportunity compelling enough to relocate for, the potential candidate pool becomes considerably broader.
In this case, that approach connected an ambitious regional hospitality business with an experienced culinary leader ready to make the move for their next opportunity.