Late Bloomer Finds Her Station

Chef's Special - Winter 2004

South Australia’s Banrock Station is a complete eco-tourism package, offering food and wine in a glorious setting overlooking wetlands with abundant birdlife. The Hardy Wine Company opened the complex at Kingston-on-Murray in 1999 and in keeping with its philosophy of working in harmony with nature, introduced a menu incorporating native ingredients. It’s been such a success that the Banrock Station label now sells more than two million cases of wine a year to more than 40 countries, while 100,000 people visit the complex each year.

Soon after her husband was transferred to South Australia in December 2002, Catherine O’Donnell Hopgood happened to be driving past and, inspired by what she saw, dropped off her CV. As a result, she was offered a part-time job as food service co-ordinator developing a menu in conjunction with Andrew Fielke, one of Australia’s leading proponents of native ingredients. The position very quickly grew into a full-time job and she was appointed head chef of the 120-seat restaurant. “When I started, a busy day was 50 to 100 people. Nothing was produced on the premises; it was just plated up. Now we do 200 to 300 (covers) a day.”

It’s quite an achievement for Catherine, who grew up in country NSW and struggled to get a start in the hospitality industry. Her fortunes changed in 1991 when she won a scholarship from the Australian Hotels Association allowing her to undertake a one-year diploma course in hotel management. “I had worked for free for a long time until I saw the ad (for the scholarship),” she said. During the course, she did three weeks work experience at the then Renaissance Hotel under executive chef Norbert Heinecke. “I had such a great time in the kitchen and he must have seen something in me, because although I was 21 at the time, he offered me an apprenticeship.” From then on, she says, “Everything just happened for me.” She went on to win numerous awards and was selected to go to Singapore as an apprentice to Australia’s national culinary team.

While she was at the Renaissance, she was apprentice director of the Australian Culinary Foundation and worked tirelessly to put forward the case for apprentices, organising tours to places such as the Sydney Fish Market and encouraging them to enter competitions, which she saw as “a great way of apprentices getting together to talk food and bounce ideas off each other.”

After completing her apprenticeship in 1995, she did work experience at London’s Savoy Hotel and with Michel Roux at his three-Michelin-star Waterside Inn, a“fantastic experience”. “It was so classical and the regime was very strict. We would start at 7am and work till 11pm with a half hour break. The standard was so high. Everything was called in French and it was steeped in hierarchy. You didn’t speak unless you were spoken to. I went there thinking I knew everything but they put me in my place.” Returning to Australia, she worked in the pastry kitchen at Hayman Island, “another great experience”. Positions in Sydney and Melbourne followed, as well as a stint on the national culinary team in 2000.

One of the more pleasurable aspects of Catherine’s current position is the opportunity to cater for Hardy’s VIP guests, either on the banks of the Murray River or cruising on a luxury houseboat. Her menu kicks off with an entrée such as coconut crumbed prawns with sweet lemon myrtle chilli sauce or yabbies in cucumber shells with mango salsa. When catering for overseas guests, she likes to serve lamb which she says is always well-received. Her signature dish of parmesan and rosemary crumbed lamb rack with warm kipfler potato salad drizzled with native basil pesto is beautifully matched by the Banrock Station 2002 Reserve Shiraz. Catherine is delighted to be adding some wine knowledge to her repertoire. “That’s what cheffing is all about. You never stop learning.”

© Christine Salins

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