SPEAKER_01 0:00

I used to do a milk run after school. That kind of started off for me, running around Ashfield with a trolley and a big pouch. It was the real first frontier to learn about how to treat customers and how to be passionate about Australian produce. That then morphed into a role at the humble McDonald's. McDonald's was my first occupation to learn the importance of food service, customer quality, managing waste, and making sure that the product excels in every way.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

You can bag them out as much as you want. But at the end of the day, McDonald's is providing a market, a level of service that I love with.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

There was eight jobs and 64 applicants. I was one of the lucky ones to get that apprenticeship. I was there for 20 years. I went from an apprentice to a company car and an office job as a food development manager looking up to 185 sites. They gave me the opportunity from a young apprentice right up to a senior management role. You never stopped learning Wally.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Samuel Burke. What an honor, what a pleasure. And I remember when I first met you in the flesh. It was last year at Fine Food in Sydney. You were running to the Eunok stand. And I begged you for a quick selfie. And I said, mate, I'm a big fan of yours. Thank you, mate. And we took a selfie. Um and I think the rest was history after that day. I I I posted it on my story. I said, This bloke's the best, uh, because you are, and we'll get we'll get into the into the reason why I believe that. Um and then we became pen powers since.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, mate, and and I followed you straight back as soon as I saw the photo. You know, I was inquisitive, and I go, this guy's a top bloke, and and then I started as you do, you look through the feed, and then you get more intrigued, and you get more intrigued, and you start to learn a bit from yourself, and and that's what it's been, mate. I've actually loved being on your journey and being a small partner, jumping on your lives every now and then, and and and reading all the tips and tricks and taking away some learnings to better myself as well. So thank you for what you're doing for Industry Poorly.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

I appreciate it. I appreciate it. For those of you that don't know Sam, uh Sam is a corporate chef for MLA, and I'll get him to explain what he does there. Um, but you know, there is a big part in food service that people don't understand that there are people behind the scenes that aren't that aren't a part of the venues. And there, you know, you can be a part of hospitality without working in the frontline venue. There's a there's a thousand moving parts that go beyond that, and that's something that um when I was in university at at Western Sydney, we we did a program, we actually ran an event to show the students that there is things when you're studying hospitality hospitality management, there's things beyond being a hotel manager. There's hundreds of companies out there that literally survive on the food service industry, and you can work in many different, you know, different angles, different facets. Um I, for one, was a business that was 150% reliant on the food service industry. We were supplying restaurants and cafes, pubs, clubs, hotels all the time. We're the guys that that that assist in building the kitchen and getting stuff going, right? So today's podcast is a little bit different from what I normally do. A lot of the times my pod's about you know how to be a better business owner, um, what are we looking for when when when becoming a better chef? Uh but today I want to take this angle, which is quite a unique angle, is looking from you know a different perspective of the food service industry outside the normal kitchen, outside those four walls of a business premises, and showing people that are in that you know transitional period in their career that you know it doesn't mean you have to go to real estate. Correct. You know, if you want to change a career, you want to you want to stop being a chef or you want to progress from being a barista, what other things are there out there in the market? And I think that you and I, over your years of experience and my level of exposure, I think we can um we can we can we can unpack some of that and maybe guide people on how they could potentially get there, and then obviously I'd love to hear your story, um, how you got to MLA and and your role because I don't you know a lot of people don't don't understand they see you at the show and you cook beautiful beef butt and lamb um and and all other all other meats, but I people don't understand how important your role is on a global scale. Thank you, mate.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Uh that means a lot to hear that from you because um if people like yourself are understanding, we're getting the message through.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Yeah, mate. You you're helping Australian farmers export their product and keeping our GDP alive. Like you're helping us push, you know, it's not just about the ribeye and the iFillet, like it's it's you're pushing the product out into menus globally, getting Australian meat on menus on a global scale. So, Sam Burke, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Mate, honoured to be here. You know, I'm chuffed. I mean, oh mate, when you when you invited me on, I was really excited. So here we are. You have my full attention, that's it, and I'll tell you everything I know.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Thank you, sir. Thank you. So, Sammy, uh, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the food service industry.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Yeah, good Pauly, good question. So it it kind of dates, I'm showing my age now, right back to 1986 when I used to finish school at the tender age of 11. So that makes me 49 today. I used to do a milk run after school, right? So it was always that customer service, knowing the product, being passionate about what you're selling, and uh giving a good customer experience, right? So that kind of started off for me running around Ashfield with a trolley and a big pouch, delivering high-low shape, FM flavoured milk moves, 600 mil bottles, you know, both hundredized and pasteurized to houses and jumping on the back of a truck, you know, cruising down Parramatta Road at 80Ks. And down that day, that those days, no one ever thought about it. You'd saw garbos on the back of garbage trucks, you saw milk boys hanging off the back of a milk truck driving down Parramatta Road. It was the 80s, right? But I guess all dangerous uh occupations aside, it it was the the real kind of first frontier to to learn about how to treat customers, how to learn about the product that you're marketing, and how to be passionate about Australian produce. So there that led in, you know, that was a five-year job.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Who did you used to work for? Was it Paul's milk?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

No, no, back then it was uh United Dairies. Uh yeah, it was it was Peter's Farm back then, and then evolved into dairy farmers. So um they used to have different kinds of uh milk producers in different types of sectors in Sydney. And I worked for a Uruguayan milko by the name of Mario back in the day, me and a few other mates from Ashfield, so we'd you know the the pay was a massive $7.50 a day. But that was big money, mate, considering you could buy a packet of lollies like this for 20 cents, you know, seven bucks, you're a millionaire, right? And and and and I guess it taught me, you know, if I wanted the um added as Rome shoes from payless shoes back in the day that cost 50 bucks, four or five weeks, I'd I'd have it, right? You know, it was it it taught me it taught me how to earn the good things in life, earn my dollar, and learn about customer service and be passionate about Australian agriculture. That then morphed into a role at the humble McDonald's. So I I know we come from around the same area, but I'm not sure if you remember back on Parramatta Road where the Billwood Bus Depot is today, across the roads at Dan Murphy's, that used to be a McDonald's, and it was opposite Concord Oval.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

And um For those that don't know Concord Oval Sydney. In Sydney, um and it's Tigers. Home of the Baumane Tigers, who are unfortunately taken out the wooden spoon. That's my team. West Tigers, bro.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Anyway, anyway, long story short, Mac is there for from about 91 to, you know, it's a bit, this is your life, you know, right up until year 11 at school, you know, so it was actually 90 to 92, two years there, and that was great. McDonald's was my first occupation to learn the importance of food service, working to a high-pressure environment of customer quality, managing waste, and making sure that the products, you know, excels in every way. You know, we were so proud of what we did that we used to try, you know, in the downtimes to make burgers that look like they were in the commercial just at the back, you know. And it was just it was just an opportunity once again to take that milk run knowledge up to another level and learn how, you know, procedures, policy, timing, wastage, cost of goods. Um, it was a real good training ground for what food service operators go through today on a whole higher, higher level. You know, fundamentals are the same, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

One million percent. And I always say like to people, you can bag them out as much as you want. You can talk about their food, you can talk about the product that they're offering, but at the end of the day, McDonald's is providing a market, a level of service that a lot of people cannot. And that's one thing that you've got to understand that we're in a service-based business here. 100%. You know, people come to a particular business, A, to either be a sense of community, they want to feel a sense of community, B, fulfill a sense of service, or C be embraced in an environment that is different to their own, to their norm. So you've got to know where you sit within that market. And the minute that you're confused and you don't know where you sit between those three, that's where you're lost in translation. And unfortunately, you're not going to be able to succeed or or or or play out. So you've got to understand your place, I guess. And and that's where, you know, it's it's when when somebody tells me I had a great experience working at McDonald's because I learned a lot, that shows me that you embraced the system. Everybody has a anybody that works at McDonald's has the exact same opportunity as you did. But it's what level of embracement they take on that would set them apart from the rest. Some people would say, Oh, it's the worst job I ever had. Yeah, because you didn't want to follow the system.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

And you know what, Paul, you're exactly right. You do your eight or nine hours on a Saturday, you get pumped, your hands would smell like pickles from dipping them in with gloves, and you know, you you used to add water to the onions to dehydrate them for the burgers. I'm giving away all the secrets now. You know, you know, you'd have to fill up your station, clean it. There were audits that were done. But it's no different to running a food service establishment today. You have food safety audits, you have environmental health safety officers walk in. We had managers and we had what they call uh, I think it was SOS track checks at the time, you know. And the beautiful thing is, fast forward in 2016, as the corporate chef of MLA, probably my second year into the job, I was in Japan developing burgers with McDonald's.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Water food office.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

And and the amazing thing is our international manager, Andrew Cox, who's based in Singapore, was with me. Guess where he started?

SPEAKER_00 12:02

At McDonald's.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

So, yeah, North Sydney, up the road. So the beautiful thing was we walked into their kitchen, right? You imagine if you're uh if you're the innovation chef at McDonald's and two guys from Australia walk in the kitchen and know how to use their machines, their clamshells, their the guns that shoot out the big max sauce, the the quality procedures to bring burgers, automatically you've got that instant success because you understand their business. So here's something that I learned, and and Coxie did, way back in the 1990s, that we brought into fruition at 2016. Wow. So that's just a fast forward, right? You know, it's and and and I've never said that before on a podcast, but that's a true story. And we got so much respect that they adopted Australian beef onto some of their new burgers, and then as a thank you, you know, the trademats that you get when you're eating there, the paper tray mats, they developed a tray mat with MLA's branding True Aussie Beef and Lamb on it with uh Australian beef story for all the burgers that went around their restaurants. Wow. So that if that's not marketing, because you know when you're at McDonald's, you used to always look at that paper tray mat and read what was on it. 100% because you you're focused on your food and you're and and and you're doing now these days you're probably looking at your phone. But back in those days, you looked at that trademark, right? You know, so I guess yeah, yeah, back to back to my career, finished at McDonald's, then believe it or not, got a job at uh the first kind of hypermarket that hit Australia, which was was kind of similar to IKEA, Franklin's Big Fresh. I'm not sure if you remember that.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

I remember Franklin's. It was like a it was like a uh no frills.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, but they had these gourmet stores, right? They had about four or five of them. And this one was in Licard in Marion Street and Marketplace, and and it was actually like an IKEA. So you walked through, you know, IKEA, how you walk through and you've got to walk through everything to get to the end. You walked through the produce, the butchery, the bakery, the seafood, and then the groceries that's at the end. So you had this captivated trail of people coming through.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Well, that that just shows the level of touch points that they wanted to take a customer on a journey, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:10

And it and it worked. At its time, it was that kind of food festival atmosphere. You press the button and the cow would move for the kids, and you know what I mean. There was that real market atmosphere. And I worked in the butchery there. After school, during my high school years, year 11 and 12, every Thursday night I'd go in there and Saturdays and the occasional Sundays, and I worked on the counter when the butchers went home. And that's how I got my passion for red meat. Seven years there. Because that carried on to while I was doing my apprenticeship. I still hustled that night and worked there. And that's what gave me my love of meat.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

And you would have you would have learned how to display meat.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

I learned how to display meat. I could bone out a leg of lamb, and I wasn't even an apprentice, and I could French racks, and I could clean up, you know, you know, I could I could clean up the bandsaw, you know what I mean, after the butchers. So when they went home, we used to clean up the back of the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

All the hard jobs for you.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah, but once again, it taught you respect, and you got to learn the whole supply chain, if you like. And um that was one of the best jobs of my life, and I had an avenue because I actually got accepted to what they call the Young Achievers Management Program to go into a store manager of a supermarket, in those days it was Franklin's, or continue my culinary apprenticeship. So that started at Spotless Group. We were in 1992, the the 1992, uh, and I was in year 11, sorry, it was 93, I did my HSD. 94 I came out, we're in the middle of the recession we had to have with Paul Keating. There was eight jobs and 64 applicants. And I was one of the one of the lucky ones to get that apprenticeship. It was now we're dying for apprentices. Back then it was very hard to get an apprenticeship. So I went for the interview out at the Sydney Football Ground at the at the SCG, the cricket ground, where they had the catering at the time. And I was fortunate enough to get that apprenticeship.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Spotless, so maybe give a bit of context around who Spotless is.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Yeah, well, Spotless back then were the biggest commercial caterer in Australia. So they had over 600 sites nationally. Everything from mining to education to business and industry to corporate banks like NAB, ANZ, Ernst Young, uh, you name it, they did the commercial cutting, Australian Institute of Sport, Football Stadium, Toronto Zoo Function Centre, they were everywhere. And the beauty of doing my apprenticeship there, Paulie, is that we had six-month rotational stints in all different facets of business. So I started off, believe it, guess where I was working, Caltech Soil Refinery cooking for refiners. 600 a day running through the at lunchtime, you know, big cakes in planetary Hobart mixes, you know, you know, big stir-fries and curries and learnt bulk commercial catering quality food, right? Then the second six months, I went to Toronga Function Centre. At the time was an award-winning function centre, still is there today, the Harbour View. And we did Garadon service, you know, and Silver Service and buffets, you know, you know what I mean, for wedding receptions and all different types of events. And uh I did that for my second six months. Then I went to Combank, and Combank at 48 Martin Place had their own fine dining restaurant that was called Dennison's. And back in the days, the bank managers used to bring their big clients, and we did everything there. So I had a tough Yorkshire chef by the name of Phil Gilroy. We did everything from our bread rolls to our desserts to our you know, terrines to you name it, it was a full commercial kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

You don't hear of this culinary level in Australia anymore. No, mate. Like this is something that you see in New York, you see in London. Yes, sir. You see in global cities around the world. And Australia, Sydney, between the 80s and early 2000s had this.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yes, sir. And it's sad that it's not there anymore. But I understand why it's not there.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Yeah, but it's you know, we can understand why, but it was just like let's just show a level of appreciation that what we did. What you did and the level of hospitality that was given, and I guess the the perception and and the way that the way that the industry was was was growing and how many job opportunities there was. Right? Yeah to to see this level of of of corporate structure such as Spotless, who's so who are an organization that that still dominates the market here in Australia today, um, even though they've diversified a little bit, they're still they're still quite large, right? Um Spotless, I think, own Downer, and they're huge.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Oh yeah, what's the opposite? Now Downer are quite down. Downer down 2017. That's right, sorry. Uh you know your stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

That's exactly right. Um and to see them through different facilities and and what they what they offer, like you know, you you obviously learnt in a juggernaut of that size a different level of hospitality.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Paulie, it's funny you say that I'll I'll never say anything bad about Spotless. I was there for 20 years. I went from an apprentice to a company car and an office job as the food development manager looking after 185 sites with another good mate of yours, Glenn Flood, across Australia. You know what I mean? So they groomed me, they gave me the opportunity from a young apprentice right up to a senior management role. And I'm not sure if you saw a post I put on LinkedIn last week, but at Nestle Golden Chefs hat, but it was very important to me. You have a look at the photo, you see Peter Wright, who is a global superstar in commercial food service, Dylan Sandling, executive chef of MCG, Steve McFarlane, head of food operations safety for Delaware North, Glenn Flood, myself in that photo. Guess where we all came from? The one company. You know, and and to sh and how proud it was that we were all separately invited as different organizations to the most prestigious young culinary cookery cooking comp that backed off fine food. Wow. It just goes to show that what that company bred back in the day, and and and and it bred strong, resilient culinary leaders that learnt different facets of that business. You know, I'm no maestro, but the experience I've had, I've done bulk commercial cookery, I've done fine dining, I've done stadia, I've done function centers. And that young training on learning all those different parts of commercial food service gave me the strength to be able to walk in confidently and understand other people's businesses.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Mate, a million percent. And you you know, and you're not just talking walking walking locally into people's businesses. This is you going on an international scale. Correct. Yeah, you're going into a different culture, a different community. Sometimes I see you in China, in Japan, Korea, but then you can be traveling to Europe. Yeah, you know what, yeah. So you're you're going around to London and you you have this level of presence and knowledge. It's like when when I walk into a space I'm young, but I've had Exposure, just like you did. You know, I've been exposed to over 600 different venues from defense all the way through to your mum and dad's small kebab shop.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

The backbone of the country, mate, those operators?

SPEAKER_00 22:19

One million percent. And when I walk into a space, I can hold my head high, understand the task at hand, and see, okay, what needs to happen here, or what do we need to change, or what's the business case that we've got to move forward. The same way when you walk into a when you walk into a space, I feel like with that level of experience that you've had and the level of exposure that you had, you know, exposure and experience is two different things. I feel like when you're exposed to more uh varietal, you know, uh a larger variety of concepts that you work with within your field, your skill set just naturally grows.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

100%, right? And and and you never stop learning, poorly. Every day I go in the kitchens, I'm listening. I'm it's a learning day. Every day is a learning day. It's like going to school. Three weeks ago, we were with Rob Smithson, head of Donata Catering. 64 million airline mills, five, four out of every five mills that go 30,000 feet out of Australia, whether it be around Australia or internationally, come out of his kitchens underneath his watch. How good was it to spend two days with his senior culinary leadership team learning what they do with our proteins in airlines? You know, you know what I mean? Did you know that when a meal goes 30,000 feet, you have to increase the sodium in that mill to enjoy the taste because you lose your taste receptors in your mouth when you're when you're up at 30,000 feet?

unknown 23:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

You know, all those little things, did you know that their food has to be deconstructed into little foil trays with an instruction sheet so the cabin crew can make first-class meals out of regiothermic ovens in the air? They don't just pull it out on a plate and it's done. They have all these little silver trays with all the all the deconstructed. Mise on plus, exactly, with a sheet where the cabin crew put their gloves on and they assemble that dish like you were in a restaurant. How much organizational skills do you have to have to do that for 64 million meals? These are the guys I learn off, right? You're a big sponge. You know what I mean? And I guess you're right, you we do come with a level of respect and understanding, right? But we never stop learning as well.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

And how did you manage, you know, after you got into Spotless and you grew your role there, you found yourself in an organization that embraced you and you embraced their system, right? How does one person because I I I've never worked in corporate. No. Okay, I I get called I get called a cowboy. No way in the world, mate. No, but it's funny, it's hilarious. Like I and I take it, I take it as a I take it as a compliment. Um, because a lot of the guys that that in my world that that are corporate wish they were on my side of the fence with what I can do being nimble and stuff like that. 100%. Um and I take it as a compliment, because they always say, you know, when you're so corporate, you're so rigid, and you and you can't move, you you, you you can't focus on on anything else but the goal at hand. But you know, when you're a cowboy per se, you can you can be nimble and you can be open and you can be friendly and you know, you can be yourself. How this is something that I always want to know is how did you manage to hold that relationship and grow within an organization for 20 years?

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Yeah, good good question. Well, number one, I met my wife there, right? Right. So my wife's the chef, a lot of people don't know that, but I met my wife as a second-year apprentice cutting buck choy, and it and it was one of those rotations. It was out at IBM Cumberland Forest, and um, she was working for the organization too, right? So I guess what I enjoyed about Spotless the most was that nine times out of ten they were sociable hours. Yes, we did our weekends and nights, but they weren't split shifts, and because you work for commercial catering, you even got the chance to have a weekend off every now and then. So I guess that's what kept me in the organization. Um and also the diversity of work too. A bit of a balance, you'd say? Yes, mate. I had a bit a bit of a balance where I had some weekends off, but then other times I had to work weekends. And and although I worked at Spotless, I hustled and did other jobs on the side. So I worked at the stadium, the Olympic Stadium when it opened, Stadium Australia back then, on its opening there, part-time on the weekends and at nights. I was a cleaner at Barker School. I was a bouncer. I I used to uh also do security at Lycut Oval, and I was a DJ, right? So at that time of my period, I guess, you know, I was 21, I had no money. I was dating a beautiful Australian girl from Arab background, and the the challenge was put on by my father-in-law to um, have you got a house? Have you got any money saved? You know, you want to take my beautiful daughter, my eldest, my first daughter, what what what kind of future are you gonna give her? And uh, you know, a few people who listen to this will know the story. You know, they had a shop on on Blacksall Street in Granville, and um, you know, he put he put a challenge to me, and it was like, if you want a beautiful wife, you've got to you've got to earn that respect to to look after that woman and later be your wife. So we worked and hustled for years, and um, you know, we saved for our first house in two years, and all the money was between her ensemble bed up at the top of the shop. It was the safest place to be because they never left the shop, right? You know, because it's a seven-day operation. But I guess I guess that's what that that's what in the answer kept me at spotless so long. It was just the the variety, the beautiful people like my wife that I met, and also the opportunity to be good at a lot of things, not just one type of commercial food service establishment, to be able to work commercial cookery, fine dining, stadia, retail, education, um, inbound catering where we used to bump in and do big events like the golf and the V8s and all that kind of stuff. It taught me how to be versatile and I enjoyed the variety of it. And not only that, I got a company car at a young age. Like how many chefs at um 25 are driving around a brand new Falcon with a Nokia 3110 and hands-free in there? I thought I'd made it, mate. You know what I mean? And and and and those opp and spotless rewarded me back for those opportunities. They also put me through university too, after my commercial food service, my my cert for commercial cookery. I did uh a degree at uh in business at UTS, you know, at age 32 with um two beautiful kids.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

And how important was uh tertiary education in your role now?

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Yeah, well, I'd gone to a level as a commercial chef, uh as an executive chef at Spotless, and in order to get into an operations role, um, the business challenged me and said that I needed to evolve and have some tertiary education in business. So the true Sam Burke is telling me you can't do it and watch him do it. Alright, sign me up. When do I start? So the business kept their word and HR put me into UTS and we did a uh a degree there, you know, you know, at UTS at Ultimo. And then I still use some of that project Gantt skills and all that kind of stuff in my position today. But more I learnt is from life experiences. You can go to uni all you want, but where I've had the greatest learnings in life is working with, I learned today from talking to you. I learned with Donata last week at, you know, talking about airline meals. I learned when I'm out on the Canard Queen Elizabeth doing a pop-up steakhouse restaurant in the middle of the ocean. I learned when I'm at an aged care center and we're doing reverse-engineered food, you know, that brings nostalgia and happiness to people because elderly people ate red meat Monday to Friday and had chicken on the weekend. So we've got a very important responsibility to look after those people at their later stages in lives because food brings enjoyment, memories, and nostalgia. And I believe we've got an opportunity and a very important opportunity as professionals in this industry to bring that to our consumers no matter where they are, across the whole of Horeka.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

And how do you like what's one piece of advice you'd give to a chef or you know, someone in that in that transition right now, looking for that sort of role like you had at Spotless or like you have at MLA as a corporate chef? How can they get into that sort of role?

SPEAKER_01 31:51

No, good question. I just didn't walk into this role at MLA. I worked 20 years and and got all that information from Spotless and I guess that skill set, if you like, to be diverse and understand a forage of different businesses. And then when an opportunity came, I challenged myself. And to be honest, to be personally honest, I actually went for the opportunity at um MLA because I was upset at Spotless because they got acquired by private equity, and I started to look after cleaning contracts as well as commercial catering. So contracts at Stocklands, at Merrylands, at Weverell Park, the shopping centres, Chatswood Westfields. That was not my forte. I wasn't a commercial cleaner. They're very high-risk contracts because if somebody slips over in a shopping centre and hurts themselves and you haven't cleaned in a certain type of period, you know what I mean? They can sue the centre, and the centre will then sue the contractor. So there was a lot of different aspects that I didn't know. I wasn't a professional in that kind of industry, and when I got forced to look after that as well as commercial catering, I lost my passion.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

So that does happen, right? You're you when you're a part of a corporate juggernaut, yeah, you sometimes the business has to do what the business has to do to survive. Correct. And, you know, even though that we can sit and bitch and moan about, you know, how shit it might be, yeah, at the end of the day, the business is a business and they're there to make a profit.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

But guess what, Paulie? I did my 20 years, bro.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

You know, I was loyal to the end, I loved the joint, but when I saw it started to lose the focus on the food at the time, my personal experience, and they still do a great job today, but from from my own, or when I started to lose the passion, right? Not so much the organization, I knew it was time for a move. So when the role at MLA came, once again that was very highly contested. There was quite a bit, a lot of chefs that applied for the role, and I got that job, I was actually scared to leave because I'd been 20 years with the one employer since I left school in 1994 to 2013. So I actually was nervous to take the role because you had to start at the bottom and work your way to the top again and prove yourself. And at age 38 with three daughters, and my wife didn't work and a mortgage, that was a big risk for me. Right? And so how did you mentally manage that risk? So believe it or not, the gentleman that hired me, Lochland Botel, we were good mates before. And when I got the job, he said, I rang up to decline the offer, believe it or not, because I said I'll just stay at Spotless because I'm safe there, they'll look after me. I'll just bin it and I'll just grind it out at the cleaning, and then hopefully I'll just look after catering again. And um, he encouraged me. He said, Sam, I've seen what you can do. You've brought MLA in when you used to have master classes with your individual teams at Spotless. I've seen the passion that you display. Okay, you your mum comes from a rural background. What do you got to lose? You know your stuff. That instant, I remember taking the call, I was in my garage in my backyard. I said, We're on. I went in and told my wife, she burst out crying because she could see the pressure I was on uh under at Spotless. And mate, true Sandberg fashion, I said, I'm gonna give this job at MLA 250%. I'm gonna learn everything I can about red meat that I don't already know, and I'm gonna make sure I leave a legacy at this disposition. So that's exactly what I did. I read all the books, I started cooking every weekend. It was a bit like, you know, when you watch Rocky and he's about to fight Drago and he does that training montage before he he flies to Russia. Yeah. That was me in a culinary perspective, learning about beef and lamb, reading, knowledge, uh, cooking, looking at different aspects from mints all the way up to wagyu, you know, you know, you know, the highest cuts, marblescore nine ribsets, you know what I mean? And then applying that knowledge slowly to my role. And when I came to MLA, it was more of a corporate role that assisted with the marketing programs, but there wasn't such a business development aspect and a budget per se for me. And I thought about it, and I said, when I was at Spotless, we always got invited to big corporate executive chefs things, and you see the head chef of the Hilton, and you see the head chef of Quantas, and you see the head chef of other commercial catering companies, big reception centres. So you saw the same old faces. We were all the corporate executive chefs of these organizations. So, what if I use my opportunity at MLA as a corporate chef to talk to all these networks that I've made, these executive chefs of major corporations all around the world, and say, how about I immerse myself in your business, I learn about your challenges, and I arrest some of those challenges, and then we throw a bit of marketing into it and training and culinary confidence for your staff. And one gentleman by the name of Gary Johnson, who's very well renowned in the industry, saw the opportunity when I was at MLA. Yes, that's great, Sam, let's do it. And it snowboarded. Then the next thing there was my old commercial catering company, Spotless. I went back there and did some training with them. Then the next thing we did at a hotel group, or the next thing we're on airlines, and the next thing we're with cruise ships, and it expanded, expanded, and and this is all through your natural organic network? 100%. And then all of a sudden, MLA could see traction. Traction and good ROI, because there were stories to be told about how before we went in and then after we went in. And I'll tell you, we don't always get it right. What's MLA's definitive job? Yeah, good question. So Meat and Livestock Australia are the service provider for Australian beef, veal, lamb, and goat producers for marketing and research and development in Australia and across a hundred markets around the world for Aussie beef. So we work for the producers, and our role is for better prosperity for producers. And how is MLA funded? So MLA is funded by producer levies and also by the Australian federal government. So every animal that's processed, the producer pays a levy to MLA, and we're responsible for marketing, research, and development. And also for our RD projects, the government meets producer levies dollar for dollar or investments, dollar for dollar for research and development to foster prosperity for the red meat industry.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

So you're at the forefront of a you know government-bound organization. You are the hinging gateway for both the government and producers.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Yeah, so we're owned by the producers of Australia. We're a service body owned by Australian beef, lamb, veal, and goat producers, but we're funded by the federal government for RD as well. Wow. So we've got a two reports to the producers and to the agricultural minister.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

If there was a chef out there that's listening to this podcast and he struggles as an introvert.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

I'm not that. I know I'm not. I know you're not.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

I know you're far from it. But at the end of the day, you're a 16-year-old kid flipping burgers at McDonald's. Correct. So we all come from somewhere. We do, and we never forget where we came from. That's very, very, very important. How would you best tell an introverted chef to be able to take that step out of his comfort zone and communicate through food to other people outside the industry like you do at a government? Because you one day you're cooking for the Prime Minister, correct? The next day you're cooking for government delegates in in other countries. Yep. Correct. And you know, in my eyes, you you're a humble man from Sydney, Australia, that that's the suburbs, that's it, where we all grew up. And you know, for you to be able to translate and communicate through food, how would you, you know, sort of pass that on to a chef who's who's struggling with that growth period, with that that that that stepping out of his comfort zone?

SPEAKER_01 40:59

I guess we've all got to put ourselves out there, whether we like it or not, and we really do. If you want to succeed in life, you've got to take changes, chances, and be prepared to fail. I have failed so many times in life, but I've succeeded more times than I've failed. And I've and what did you learn from failing to make you stronger? Right? So I guess what I say to young chefs that are introverted, I said, get out there, network, talk, take chances, and don't be afraid to fail. Because that's the only way we learn and excel from what we've done, probably not to the best in our past. And I still fail today, but I always re-look at what didn't work and how can I fix it so it doesn't happen again. And if it does happen again, what have I learned from that as well? So I guess it's the old saying is my mum used to say to me when I was a young kid, you know, it's Sesame Street, and Big Bird would fall off the bike when he was trying to learn how to ride it. He got back on and tried and tried and tried again. And that is the basic fundamentals that you need to learn for life. That not everyone gets everything straight off. Sometimes some people do, but if you keep on struggling and you keep on hustling and you keep on working hard and you network and you be prepared to do things to learn, it doesn't always have to be financially remunerated, you will succeed in life, it'll pay back. Trust me, it will, because that's been my life, that's been my mantor. I have always looked at opportunities to better myself, and it hasn't always been financially. Like we go back to trade school. If I was scared to um do the what do they call it, the the test at the end, right? You know, for vegetables, right? I couldn't peel turn potatoes. Remember you had to turn potatoes with your your pear knife, your pairing knife? I would stay back and get 20 kilos of potatoes and I'd do it until I nailed it. When I was at Spotless, let's take meat aside. I was the food development manager for Alliance catering business. We had 185 sites around the country. Nearly every of them, every one of them had a two-group coffee machine in there, right? And I couldn't make a coffee. So who am I as food development manager to tell you how to run your business when I don't know how to make a coffee? So, what did I do? I went on the training at Grinders, who looked after our Coke back in the day, looked after our coffee. And then every site that I went to in one year, I pulled the shot, I frothed the milk, and I made a coffee. By the end of the year, I could make coffees very good. And I still have a commercial machine at home and I make a Coffee every day. That's the kind of entry that you should take with everything. If you're nervous at speaking, what can you do to build that confidence? If you can't cook something, keep on practicing until you nail it. It's just like anything like an athlete trains, you need to train in the kitchen. If you're not strong at cost of goods, download the free sheets from Hospital Dojo and learn, no, seriously, and learn how to cost out food. If you don't know cost of goods, manage it or labour percentages, work it out. Because these are fundamentals. You can be a great chef, but if you're not a good business unit operator, unfortunately, there's a high chance of you failing in this industry. So you need to be not an expert in everything, but you need to be great at a lot of things. Cost of goods, you know, labor, what you said, wastage as well, rent, your food offer, your hours, everything that you say on your on, and this is why I love your, and and this is me giving something back to you. Everything you put on your Instagram, I enjoy because I can relate to it and I still learn from it. And guess what? I've downloaded a few of your sheets. We never stop learning, right?

SPEAKER_00 45:22

One million percent.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

And I keep them in the in the hard drive because one day I'll need to look at that again to jog my memory. That's it. So that's what I say to introverts. Get out there and give it a go. The worst thing you can do is fail. It's like when you're looking at that beautiful girl at your first school dance. Unless you go up and you might get rejected, but you don't know if you don't ask her to dance.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

You'll never know. Anyway, that's it. So ask her to take a dance. That's a crazy analogy. People use zaps these days, but we did it the hard day way back at the nightclubs in the old days, mate.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

So, I mean, if there was um anyone that was instrumental to your career, you know, during this whole podcast, I've learnt how you've just grown and shaped into now the voice of MLA on a global scale. Who would you pinpoint in your career was maybe the most instrumental figure in Y?

SPEAKER_01 46:23

Phil Gilroy. He was he was my chef at Combank, the one I told you that really pushed me. So we'd do grinding. Yeah, the Orkshire Blood. We we did grinding work underneath under underneath him, right? We'd do big days in the kitchen, we'd make all our terrines, all our bread rolls, all our ice creams, you know, the squid ink linguini, you know, you name it, we we made it, you know, we portioned our own meat, we did our own butchery, and then at the end of the day, when you were tired and you washed all the tea towels in the in the washing machine and you hung them up, you were then called into the office to do stock take, purchase summary, branch invoicing. And at the time, as a young 20-year-old, I was so angry because I'm a young apprentice, I'm here to cook, I'm not here to do this stuff. But what I learned from Phil pushing me and learning me how to use all that kind of acumen in in other development areas in hospitality groomed me to be a leader a lot younger than what I would have been. And also there's another lady called Catherine Mitchell who was uh my my uh a mentor to me uh in the operational world who saw the chance of Sam Burke being a food service leader out of the weights. There's a few, right? David Pugh, another guy, there's there's there's a few people that have been great. And my other big supporter, I have to say, I say to the same my beautiful wife, because unless you've got a strong family background, and my mum. My mum was the one that pushed me to be a chef. She said, you love to eat, get out there and do it, right? So there's few people in your life, there's a select few of people that that guide you today. I've got another mentor, Glenn Flood, who you know, right? You know, I talk to him every day. You know, these these people you reflect on, you challenge yourself, you talk, you learn, and um they just push you to be better.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Now, if there's one thing that you learn off them that you can pass down to someone else potentially sitting in that mentor's driver's seat, what's one sort of you know, because there's a there's a lot of senior chefs and a lot of executives as well as you know different people in in business right now who listen to this podcast that unfortunately fail to mentor the next up-and-coming person within their organization. And you've been taught through many different systems and been exposed to so many different systems. What's and I we under and I understand your mantra on on your approach for an individual, but as a mentor, because you know, you you judge some of the best chefing um competitions, uh so as a as a mentor, what's one piece of advice you could give to you know somebody going through that mentorship journey when they're when they're teaching somebody else?

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Don't beat yourself up, right? And never stop learning. I I sincerely mean that. I know I've said it a few times today, but but I guess what I what I can say is if you fail, don't be upset at yourself because the great greatest people fail in life, and also learn why you failed, and then try to build the strength to overcome that factor that made you fail.

SPEAKER_00 50:02

And and how do you deal with patience?

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Like if you're teaching someone, you're mentoring someone, patience is a virtue, it's something that you know like the biggest fe the biggest this just popped into my head now, right? The biggest thing that upsets a lot of young people in hospitality is that they want the big money as soon as they finish this their cert three or cert four. It'll come if you work for it. Right? And and and I get it, right? Cost of living is expensive, it's hard to rent, pay the bills, and then earn a minimum wage. But I guess everyone's got to start from somewhere, and those who learn and and and put in just that little bit extra, like stay back that extra hour and learn off their chef, or be inquisitive to find out how to order, you become number one, more valuable to the business or employer that you're working with, and they want to repay you by investing more in you. So it works two ways, right? You need to invest a bit in the employer, a bit more, and a good employer will see that and invest that back into yourself. Does that make sense? Definitely, definitely. So don't expect all the time, it's always give and take. No matter what part of the business you work on. And and when you've succeeded and get to a stature in your life, you need to be able to give back to. This is why I do judging at the Royal Fine Foods, this is why I get involved in competitions like Nestle Gone and Chessat. This is why we do work with the Australian Culinary Federation, is because we got a responsibility to give back because the people before us gave back to us. So we need to, and that's with everything, not just food. Definitely. Right? You know what I mean? If if if you give back, it's a great feeling positively for yourself. It's a great gift to yourself because it's not all it's not all money and wealth and flashcars, and like you know, I drive around in a V8, but I didn't get it until it's 2018. When I was young, I drove uh uh a Suzuki caravan that looked like gray paper in it that was 1400 bucks, and I drove it for 10 years. What I'm saying to you is that work hard, show respect, network, and be prepared to give a little bit back. And if a good employer will notice that and invest in yourself, that's my mantra, right?

SPEAKER_00 52:45

I love it. Sammy, you fly around a bit. People see you always up in planes and between different lounges, and and you know, I through my travels as well, it's tiring. It is, man.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

Look at my eyes.

SPEAKER_00 53:02

It's tiring, and you know, people looking for those roles where you know they can have travel, they can work a corporate job. I find that you know what I want to shed a bit of light on is the truth behind these sort of roles is you know when you're when you're constantly traveling for your job, you're losing uh connection to to your home, you're losing connection to your family, you have to disconnect, you have to immerse yourself, and all of a sudden an eight hour eight-hour day turns into a 24-hour day. 100% it does. Because the minute you walk out the door and you're on a plane, you're on 24-7.

SPEAKER_01 53:42

And when you're traveling, you're working and immersing yourself in the client's business all day, and then you're catching up on the emails at night. People don't understand that. Well, they do, but you know what I mean? It's just like working a grinding day in the kitchen. The stuff's still got to go on back in the administrative side of the world. I guess, I guess, how do I do with it? I'll tell you how I deal with it. Fitness is very important to me. That's my one outlet, right? I've got a gym at home where I'm in every morning, not for a long time, 35 minutes, and I do a 3K run every day, and I do four sets of 40 push-ups wherever I am in the world. That fitness gives me the mental clarity to put more energy into what I do every day. It's so important, guys. And I try to eat properly, and it's hard when you're eating out all the time and you're with clients and they give you a beer. Sometimes I like a bowl of broccoli and a little steak and a salad and a glass of water. It's hard to have that when you're out with customers every night. You know what I mean? When you're the red meat chef, you're expected to have that big, beautiful tomahawk. The chef is proud that you're in their restaurant. So they'll bring out the tomahawk and the truffle fries and the and the peppercorn sauce and the and the beautiful crispy lamb ribs. And of course, I'd love to eat it. But if you have that in five days, you know what I mean, it starts to add up. So what I'm saying is fitness is key, right? To not only keeping healthy and living a long life, but for mental health as well.

SPEAKER_00 55:22

And how important is mental health?

SPEAKER_01 55:25

Oh, mate, it's everything. It's it's um, you know, you know what I mean. Uh we we see the struggles. I I was watching just a documentary last night on James Packer. It was on Sunday night on Channel 7 about how he's dealt with it. It's very real in food service, and I'm not going to pretend to know the answer to that, but what I do know, it's just nice to get out and smell the roses every now and then, go for a quiet walk, breathe the air in. Don't have your phone with you all the time. Go for a drive, put the windows down like we used to in the old days, go for a cruise with the boys, remember that? And live young. I don't know, you know my socials, mate. Yeah, we we follow each other like magnets, right? Two weeks ago, my daughter turned 18. How many fathers DJ their daughters 18th? And the kids are actually proud of their dad DJing to 18th. 100%. I give everything to those girls, man.

unknown 56:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 56:21

That you know, when I'm home, I'm at home. I people go, what do you do on the weekend? I sit on my couch, I watch the rugby league, I cook barbecues, and I be present with my family.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

And how do you manage in a corporate role to disconnect when you walk in that door?

SPEAKER_01 56:43

Yeah, it's it's not easy. I struggle with that sometimes. Put my hand up. If a text comes through or if there's an emergency come through, or somebody needs to talk to me, I'm always trying to help them. That's something I've struggled with, and that's something I've got to get better at. Switching off and just um being present after work, not just on the weekends.

SPEAKER_00 57:04

You know what a fine works for me. I you know, my my current my current uh lifestyle at the moment is quite quite a lot of late nights uh clients globally that have access to me. Yeah. So I run my business very tight on a calendar. Every hour is booked. Very good. Um and then when when I need my family time, I book that out as well. So if you're running, like right now with global business and and you know, being accessible, yeah, the level of accessibility to people now is instant. It's straight away, it's on the phone, it's through WhatsApp, through your text messages, through a phone call, through an email, and they know that you're online. Like, you know, there's no hiding from it.

SPEAKER_01 58:00

They can yeah, they can see it. There's no hiding from it. My wife can look at the phone and see where I'm sitting right now.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

So, so you know, it's what I what I like to do is put that block in my calendar. Like it. And I just say, you know, dinner with my wife between here and here. Smart. And I block it out. Smart. Like you would with a meeting. Like you would with a bloody meeting. So if you run your whole day, 80% of your day is run on a calendar, well, you might as well run 100% on it. You know what? People think I'm crazy.

SPEAKER_01 58:30

I like I like that, Paul, and I'm gonna try it. Give it a go.

SPEAKER_00 58:33

And I'm gonna try it. I feel like it, I feel like it helps. And this is talking to people that that listen to this pod that you know, in the kitchen, people turn around and they say, once we close the doors of the business, we go home, it's all off. Yeah, okay, I understand what you mean. But for the for those of you that are that are operating in a different in a different mindset, in a different world, and where you're where you're constantly online, well, just block out time in your in your physical diary.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

And that would be to be the most important people in your life.

SPEAKER_00 59:06

Schedule it. Yep, agree. Schedule your hobbies in. Like, mate, I I literally put blocks in my calendar for when I go to the gym, when I get my hair cut, and for me, sitting, I I can have breakfast on the go, I can have lunch on the go because it doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But dinner's so important to me because I have that downtime with my communication. Sunday barbecue for my family. There you go, man. Just block it in. Put it in the calendar and have it as a repeat event. And you know when something comes up, you're going, shit, I'm missing out on this. 100% problem. The same way that you want to move a meeting, you're like, can I move this? Yeah. Or can I reschedule it up?

SPEAKER_01 59:43

And it's not a mindset thing. It's it's I I I run the calendar hard on my job. If it doesn't go on my calendar, it's not in there.

SPEAKER_00 59:52

Yeah. And I think that's an important trait for anybody is, you know, is is if you don't have diary and calendar management, like my father was always the type that he would carry a diary, a physical diary everywhere. God bless him. Yeah. He still does. He runs his whole life on a physical diary.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:11

The little bit of ribbon that goes for between the day.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

And he has to run it every single day on the diary. And he would always drill to me, you need a diary. But for me, I was like, I hated writing things down. Like there, I'd always like to have it on my device because I'd have it accessible. So when he would see me forget a meeting or or whatnot, he'd be like, 'Cause it's not in your fucking diary, it's not in your diary. And I never understood it for years. Years. I'm talking like mate, eight years of my eight years of my early career, I never understood it until until you know we had the pandemic, and then we started having to schedule things in because not everything was nimble. Um and then I started really getting to this this calendar organization, and now especially in the past 12 months, with dealing with people in different time zones all the time. Like mate, I could have a call at 11, 11 pm, 1am if my if my calendar's not right, I'm gone. I need a block out time for myself. So I think it's really important. And you know, when you went through that transitional period of going from spotless to to MLA, I went through my own journey as well. And what I found was the one thing that allowed me to go through my own journey was that I was lucky enough during my my transfer time to be able to take one day off a week and focus on myself. Yeah, good. So I took time, I focused on myself for for for for literally eight hours of the day, and that's where I'll do my study. I started my MBA. Good man. That'd be my study day, and then my my professional mentor that was in the background, um, I'd spend one hour a week with her. So I'd I'd spend eight to nine hours a day on a self-development day, and that allowed me to build some clarity in my life. So, yeah, sometimes Jim Carrey says it very well. Jim Carrey has a saying comedian Jim Carrey turns around and says, if you can't change your lifestyle, you well, he says, for in order for you to succeed, you need to be literally able to take a step back, cut your income in half, be prepared to basically eat eat bread and butter and just live off bare bones in order for you to take a next step. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. And there's nothing wrong with that. You need to go back, pair back the bones. You might be, you know, in a in a great job, in or in a good paying job, in a big environment, in around a group of 30 under you, but you feel like you're lost in this wheel, going to another big, bulky organization, that's not gonna help you if that's not what you love. So sometimes it's about making that sacrifice, communicating with your family like you did. You communicate it to your wife, you say, I'm taking this risk. And in the back of your subconscious, you thought she's not gonna like it, but she cried out, burst out in tears of joy. Yeah, she did, mate.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:27

So, you know because she could see the the pressure I was going to.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

But she didn't obviously show that to you every single day.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:33

No, can you you asked me a question a minute ago a question, and I've had a bit of a bit of a think about it further. Yeah, you know, advice. Have a good set of people around you too. Well, a million percent. Like my wife, good friends, good networks, if you surround yourself with positive people, it brings you up with them. If you surround yourself with negative people, it holds you back. And another bit of advice if people, you you want to know the greatest determination for me that gets me up today and gets me revved up, tell Sam Buck you can't do it. Just tell me I can't do it and then watch me do it. Right? Always have faith in yourself and keep on striving until you get the end result. And sometimes that doesn't happen immediately.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

And but some people struggle with self-belief, Sam. Like or self-belief. I struggled with that for a year. I agree. Or for many years, I didn't know that. But for 12 months, I went through a period where I didn't know my self-worth as an individual. So what I did was I actually went selfish. I used to do everything for everyone. Anyone that wanted anything, Paul was there. Drop of a hat, one phone call away, I was the first person there. But I was always scattered and there for everyone. And what I found was that I was there for everyone, but I wasn't there for the people that needed me most. Love it. And I wasn't there for the person that needed me most was myself. So people go to me, you know, how'd you grow on Instagram? How'd you do this? How'd you start a business yourself? What how'd you travel and and share a stage with Lewis Howes and Tom Brady in in your first year of doing all this? How'd you manage to do all that? I'll tell you how. I was selfish. I was selfish to the point where I needed to understand who I was. I needed to just stop everything and it's okay. It's actually okay to take a break and tell everyone, hey, hold the fuck off for a second. Yeah. Because my mental health isn't in the right state. Here's my hand. Nice one, Paul. I'm not going through the best of things. In order for me to help you on it. Help myself.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:01

You know what I've I need to learn a bit of that. And that's been that's been you know that's been a great piece of wisdom passed over to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:10

Take take a step back, take a breather, and just go, you know, my mentor was like to me, what's important to you in your life? What do you want to achieve? What is it, what do you see yourself in five years? What is it on that list? I'll tell you now, when I started that list and my list now, and my list six months ago, they're continually evolving. You need to check in with yourself just like you're checking with your client. You need to check in with yourself just like you're checking with your staff member. So just take that step back. You said it beautifully. Smell the fucking roses that are in front of you. 100%. And if there's no roses in front of you, well you've got to walk the roses, find the roses and smell.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

Find the roses in the smell.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

So definitely. I'm in. That's it. That's it. Sam, thank you so much for jumping on the pod. It was an emotional one, but it was definitely something I learnt a lot from. And I would love next time you're in Donada or next time you're in, you're at, you're at a farm that's got livestock or or something, something that we can shed some light on together.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

Yeah, Paul, we'd love to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:23

I'd love to do some work openly with MLA, wherever the case may be, because I feel like, you know, it's it's our role. Um you know, I believe God's graced us with a gift where we can help others. And you know, I do this podcast, I don't, I don't earn any money from this pod. This is all funded from myself, this is all paid for by me, bootstrapped and done, just to showcase and shed some light on our industry in Australia. Something that I wanted to walk away from, that I thought I should walk away from, but I said no, I'm doubling down, I'm reinvesting in because I love it and I love the people in it because it's given me so much. So if there's any way that I can, you know, give back to to MLA and the team uh that are behind it, because I truly believe you guys are doing amazing work. Thank you. Please let me know because I'd love to be involved. And um guys, Australian beef, lamb, goat, any red meat and veal, get it on your fork.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:27

Yeah, legend. Look, look, just a quick plug plug out uh to my followers that are listening to this, please jump on Paul Lexher's socials. You will learn so much, not only about food service, but about life. And just really comprehensive, easy to understand information that'll make you better at your role. Support the people that are here for food service. And also, you know, you might have to just give a plug to RareMedium, that's our food service account, raremedium.com.au. And you and you know, and and for Paul's listeners, come to Chef Samuel Burke too, because we love giving information and tips and tricks to make sure Chef Samuel Burke on Insta, you know, just to help you if your red meat struggles, you know. So, you know, you know, if you've got any questions, that's how you can reach out to me uh through Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn, um, Samuel Burke on LinkedIn or Chef Samuel Burke on Facebook and Insta. And um, you know, you know, learn different ways to use non-prime cuts, whole carcass utilization, sustainable eating, beef lamb and goat. You can't beat it. No, mate, and and we and and I've said it time and time again, we need to have you in the backyard cooking a big tomahawk over the Argentinian perilla. Get get the boys there with the the video camera, and that'll be a true shut the gates moment. We'll get there. On those words, thank you so much. Shut the gates. Thank you very much, Robert.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:53

Cheers, thank you.