Lismore floods: Sikh chef Satnam Singh Rath lost all but hope

A Lismore chef cooked thousands of free meals for flood victims after the disaster devastated the town, then he had to face the harsh reality of being one himself. Read why only now can the full story be told.

Satnam Singh Rath and his wife Erin Werner in front of their restaurant.

When the owner and chef of Masala Indian Fusion, Satnam Singh Rath, lost his restaurant to the February floods, his thoughts were only for his Lismore community.

While he and his wife, Erin Werner, were rebuilding their destroyed business, Mr Rath spent hours every week at the Koori Kitchen cooking hundreds of free meals every week.

Being a Sikh, Mr Rath said getting out into the community and helping in any way he could was second nature.

In the same building as the flood-wrecked restaurant was a grocery store, and Mr Rath donated what stock he could save from that to the Koori Kitchen.

Satnam Singh Rath and his wife Erin Werner in front of their restaurant.

Sikh volunteers came up from Melbourne shortly after the flood, and for the first week they cooked for the community from the couple’s home.

They set up a kitchen in their garage, and for 10 days’ straight, Mr Rath joined them on the pans, knocking out up to 1400 meals a day for flood-shocked Lismore residents.

Only when the Sikh volunteers left did Mr Rath start about the haunting process of cleaning up his own business.

“Not even clean up, just throwing stuff out ... took me about three weeks,” he said.

Right through the harrowing task, Mr Rath continued to volunteer his culinary skills, joining the Koori Kitchen for a day or two every week from March until mid-August - cooking between 500 and 700 meals a day.

Satnam Singh Rath cooking at the Lismore Koori Kitchen.

Satnam Singh Rath cooked hundreds of free meals for flood victims.

Mr Rath rubs his eyes in exhaustion as he recounts these selfless deeds in the empty shell of his former business. It seems like a lifetime ago, he said.

The couple revealed they had bought their business on Keen Street in Lismore’s CBD only a few months before the floods.

They had a ‘flood plan’, and everything was raised to specifications, but the waters rose about three times higher than anyone had ever seen before.

“We moved everything up into the mezzanine levels and into the roof cavity. Which of course wasn't high enough,” Ms Werner said.

The roof and walls collapsed under the pressure of the flood waters, and their entire commercial kitchen and grocery store was destroyed.

Between both businesses, the couple lost about $520,000.

“We always knew it was a risk, but not to the extent that it happened,” Ms Werner said.

The couple received an incredible amount of support from the community.

“The weekend before the floods, I heard what I thought was a garbage truck, and the next thing I know there is some random guy with a forklift who has driven in and put all my fridges up,” Ms Werner said.

“Without him we would have saved nothing. The stuff we got out we only got out because of him.”

And since the floods, friends, family, members of the community and volunteers have dropped in to the ruined store to lend a hand.

But the real challenge was keeping up with the bills that kept pouring in.

It’s been a living nightmare for the couple, receiving calls from commercial credit control, who are calling every week about overdue power and electric accounts.

Satnam Singh Rath and his wife Erin Werner in their once flooded store, Masala Indian Fusion.

Mr Rath said he can only for more time to pay.

The pair said they hadn’t made a single dollar from the business since the floods - but were paying bills and rebuilding on the single wage of Ms Werner, a teacher at Wollongbar TAFE.

Rebuilding was made even harder when the couple had difficulty in their dealings with Services NSW to access a business recovery grant.

It took months to have the issue resolved, with Mr Rath taking his case to Janelle Saffin, the state MP for Lismore, to lobby on his behalf.

Mr Rath and Ms Werner finally reopened their restaurant again on October 20, for takeaway, and plan to resume a full dining service in a few weeks.

“At the moment I’m pretty quiet, but I’m hoping that we get a bit of business like we did before the floods,” Mr Rath said.