Whatare the highlights of your career?
Working at the Dorchester Hotel in London was a greatlearning experience. Coming to South Africa in 1973 was an excellent career move.From joining the five-star Elizabeth Hotel in Port Elizabeth as sous chef, I was promoted to head chef.Two years later I was moved to the Landdrost Hotel in Johannesburg, then the premier hotel in thecity. In 1979 I opened Sun City, which was atruly unique experience. I then joined head office as group chef and had manyopportunities to open five-star properties. In 1984
I became involved with the South African Chef’s Association which enabled me topromote the science of cooking. In 1988 we hosted the World Congress of ChefsSocieties, which brought in 650 delegates from 450 countries.
Howdid you manage the transition from chef to management?
As a chef, you learn discipline, team work,and planning. The move into management was a natural progression. I chose tostay within my core comfort zone and that allowed me to focus on what I do bestand to continue to grow my knowledge.
Whatis your approach to people management?
It requires a huge amount of patience. It’sa highly pressurised industry, but some people are quick starters and othersare slow. You have to accommodate all types. This industry attracts people whohave had little education. My first year in South Africa was an eye-opener.There was little depth of knowledge in the kitchen, and a massive need fortraining. It is possible to make an enormous difference to people’s lives bycontributing to the development of their skills.
Whatdoes leadership mean to you?
It’s about being able to spot talent, tocoach, mentor, and not be afraid to be brutally truthful. I do not believe inannual appraisals – every day is an appraisal. I also believe that people areallowed a point of view, but that the good thing about leadership is that youcan be firm when you have to be.
Yousurvived an attempted hijacking in 2000 which left you a quadriplegic and youthen headed up public relations and communication for the group. How did youkeep yourself motivated?
While I was in rehab, I had to adjust to mynew body. The hardest part for me to accept was not that I could not walk, butthat I could no longer use my hands. As a lifelong workaholic, I questionedwhether I would ever again be able to add value. I returned to a workplace thathad been modified for me and learnt that I could still play a very valuablerole. I also had the most incredible support from my colleagues who dideverything they could to ease my return to work. The turning point came when Ipresented a paper in Kyoto– the experience of travelling and participating in a conference helped torebuild my confidence. I then moved into PR because it wasdifficult for me to be onsite. Part of my role has been to build the company’scorporate social investment portfolio and to focus on BEE projects. That hasbeen extremely rewarding. In 2005 Southern Sun launched Adopt a Guesthouse, aprogramme to support emerging entrepreneurs in the industry. It’s been mostgratifying to assist in building the professionalism of these businesses and tohelp create a platform for them to build a sustainable business stream. I havealso kept myself motivated by continuing to be involved in many of the chef trainingand development programmes that I have contributed to over the years.