How these SA workers gave up day jobs for foodie dream and ended up in delicious. 100
There’s nothing flaky about quitting law to make croissants! These “food change” success stories profile South Aussies who dropped their day job to pursue their passion.
Lifestyle
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One was a lawyer who abandoned the world of cross-examination to concentrate on croissants. Then there’s the plumber who turned his tradie skills into a knack for making tacos. Or the nurse who went from wrapping bandages to rolling dumplings.
These are some of the people behind the eats and treats named in the new-look delicious 100 list for 2023, showing that, where awesome food is involved, it can be worth giving up your day job.
PROVE PATISSERIE
When Anna Rogers and Megan Bowditch met while playing for the same hockey team, they discovered they had more in common than a love for the sport.
Rogers was working as a lawyer but found the interstate travel difficult with a new family. She also had an entrepreneurial itch. Bowditch was an award-winning pastry chef who wanted to start her own company.
Following a chance conversation, the pair decided to combine forces and launched Prove Patisserie.
After starting with a shared space in Port Adelaide and a couple of wholesale customers in 2020, Prove moved to larger premises with a shopfront in Magill Rd at the beginning of the year. A line out the door and the thousands of croissants they now make each week is testament to their popularity.
Rogers laughs that Bowditch gets nervous if she goes anywhere near the kitchen, but she does everything else from retail front of house, to payroll, HR and managing wholesale customers.
She has no regrets about the sudden change of career. “Before, even when you won a case, the bill still had to be paid, and not everyone was thrilled with that,” she says. “Now people are happier to pay up. Our motto is made with love and eaten with joy. It sounds a bit cliched but it is genuine.”
She says that making the delicious 100 list was recognition for a lot of hard work. “We feel very loved and appreciated. It helps us remember to stop and smell the roses … to celebrate the small wins.”
BRAISING BOY
Growing up in the state’s South East, Dan Gill always loved to cook, whether it was with his grandparents, his mum, or in a camp oven on the farm. But the idea of becoming a chef, he says, never occurred to him.
When he came to live in Adelaide, then, he trained as a plumber and spent 10 years working in the trade until he realised that he hated it.
In the meantime, a few threads started to come together. He lived in Brazil with his partner for six months and came to love the way they prepared grilled meats and salsas. The pair started a family and they began having friends over for dinner parties that became bigger and bigger.
Two years ago, Gill took the plunge, bought a food truck and launched Braising Boy, setting up at wineries and other venues on weekends, learning techniques and recipes from books, TV shows and YouTube. Still working as a plumber, a day off became a rarity.
“I could see a hole in the market, there wasn’t much around that was authentic,” he recalls. “There was a lot of trial and error at the start. I look back at some of the events I was doing in the first year and I cringe.”
After a working holiday to visit the best taco trucks and shops in Los Angeles and Texas earlier this year, Gill has gone to the next stage, quitting his job as a plumber two months ago.
He now imports traditional corn and blue corn tortillas from Mexico and fills them with combinations such as fish in tequila batter with cabbage and salsa roja and the “birria” of beef braised slowly with three different chillies.
While the business has its challenges, he says he loves the feedback that comes from customers. “It’s either instant gratification or instant criticism, he says. “When you are clearing a toilet or clearing a drain, no one really cares, they just want to see you gone. But even when you have a shocking night and hardly sell anything, it only takes one person to come up and say ‘that was a bloody good taco’ and it makes your night, changes your week. It gives you motivation and makes you feel good.”
MOON BEAR DUMPLINGS
A major health scare and some beloved childhood memories combined to change the lives of Joseph and Emma del Bono, the husband-and-wife team behind Moon Bear Dumplings and Bobibao restaurant.
Growing up in Taiwan, Emma learnt to roll dumplings and prepare other favourites from her grandmother. Though she worked as a nurse at a major Taiwanese hospital, those lessons never left her.
After she met Joseph and came to Australia, they began a small market stall selling dumplings, while she retrained in nursing.
When he suffered a brain aneurysm and could no longer work as an optical dispenser, it was “the catalyst for doing it full time”.
They leased a larger production space in Fulham and opened a tiny eatery, Moon Bear, at the front. This year they expanded further, launching the Taiwanese restaurant Bobibao in Bowden.
“We just love it,” Joseph says simply about their new life in food.
Originally published as How these SA workers gave up day jobs for foodie dream and ended up in delicious. 100
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