Malcolm Hanslow, head chef of fine dining restaurant Pilot and CIT alumni, delivers a welcome master class to commercial cookery students. Photo: CIT.
Esteemed Canberra chef Malcolm Hanslow has some, perhaps unexpected, advice for aspiring young cooks hungry to crack into the industry.
“Don’t work in a restaurant that’s the best,” he urges. “Go and work in one that’s trying to be the best – where they’re motivated and pushing for it.”
The 36-year-old co-owner and head chef of the fine-dining restaurant Pilot in Ainslie (and Such and Such in Civic) has certainly practised what he preaches.
From a raw student of the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) some 19 years ago to the owner of a hatted restaurant, Malcolm cut his teeth in some of the country’s most highly regarded venues.
He says he was lucky to start in “good places” where he could soak up “better influences” and learn techniques that couldn’t be taught from a cookbook.
Malcolm took this approach and ran his first restaurant at the age of 24. He describes his experience as head chef at Braddon’s Eightysix as “intense” and “pretty crazy”.
Still, it landed the restaurant its first hat and the front cover of Gourmet Traveller. Malcolm, who moved out of home from a young age without any cooking experience, says his time at CIT gave him two of the most essential ingredients of his career.
The first was a solid grasp of the fundamentals of cooking, and the second was a like-minded group of friends and a network that has remained a valuable asset to him to this day.
According to Malcolm, to be a good chef, one must be “really inquisitive and detail-oriented”.
He says that completing courses through a well-recognised vocational education and training provider like CIT “starts you on the right path”.
To be a good chef, you need to be really inquisitive and detail-oriented, Malcom explains to the class. Photo: CIT.
With the hospitality sector booming on the back of Australia’s growing love affair with food and appetite for reality television shows like MasterChef, demand for skilled staff is high – from kitchen hands to cooks, chefs and catering managers.
CIT offers a range of commercial cookery courses delivering skills and real-life experience that can help serve up a sizzling career.
Courses range from entry-level food safety to training and nationally recognised certificates in commercial cookery and kitchen management to a diploma-level qualification in hospitality management.
From Semester 2, 2025, CIT hospitality and culinary courses will be taught at the new Woden campus. This campus boasts state-of-the-art commercial kitchens, a produce store, and a restaurant and bar in the heart of the town centre, providing freshly baked goods, delicious food, and beverages for the Canberra community.
The new CIT Woden campus will offer exciting opportunities for teachers and students alike, including all-electric commercial training kitchens.
The opportunity to learn in a fully equipped commercial kitchen was one of the big benefits of studying at CIT, says alumnus Ken Ocay, who now works as a chef at Canberra’s top Japanese restaurant Raku.
The 25-year-old discovered his love of cooking from a young age, helping out in the family’s small restaurant in the Philippines.
As an international student, he was originally based in Sydney, where he worked as a part-time cook and then worked in front of house at a seafood restaurant, “but I wanted to become a chef”, Ken explains.
In 2021, he moved to Canberra and began studying full-time at CIT, graduating in 2023 as a qualified chef after completing a diploma-level qualification in hospitality management.
“The main thing about CIT is the knowledge and practical skills you gain which helps get you ready for working in the industry,” Ken says.
“From knife skills and the correct temperature for cooking chicken to the different colours used for chopping boards – like yellow for poultry or white for dairy, and red for raw meat – I didn’t know any of that.”
Student Chef Ken Ocay at a CIT Café Thursday Lunch in 2023. Photo: CIT.
Ken loves the “creative expression” of food preparation and thoroughly enjoys working in the kitchen at Raku. I love the environment and the people,” he says.
Ken dreams of opening his own restaurant, but for now he is relishing “learning every day”.
That attitude is music to the ears of Malcolm, who has been among the industry experts and CIT alumni invited to lead master classes and mentor students at the institute.
CIT prides itself on the industry networking and pathway opportunities its programs provide students, including school-based apprenticeships for secondary students aged 15 and older.
While learning options may be flexible, Malcolm insists that a genuine interest in the industry is not negotiable.
The passionate foodie pushes young chefs to chase professional development over a paycheque.
His philosophy? “Stay as long as you can and learn as much as you can” in places that inspire and motivate you. “There are easier jobs in the world,” he admits.
“But if you’re going to do a job that means you’re at work until midnight, then have a real crack at it.”
For more information, check out the commercial cookery courses available at CIT.
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