Tassis Group announces close-to-home charity event for dying chef

A well-known hospitality group has proven their team is truly a family, launching a fundraiser for their recently diagnosed head chef.

Jean-Luc Marcollet and Michael Tassis. Photo: Supplied, Marcus Ravik

One of Brisbane’s biggest hospitality groups has announced a heartwarming charity event, revealing it will provide for their head chef in his final days.

Tassis Group, the powerhouse behind venues like FatCow, Pompette and Stilts Dining, today revealed the devastating news that one of their head chefs had been recently diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and had received a ‘tragically short prognosis’.

Jean-Luc Morcellet, a chef with over 40 years experience, joined the Tassis team almost two years ago, and has been the mastermind at the helm of the Queen’s Wharf precincts' Pompette.

Motor neurone disease (MND) is a degenerative neurological disease with no cure, which affects the nerves controlling messaging between the brain and voluntary muscles.

Pompette at Queens Wharf. Photo: Marcus Ravik

It is understood that while progression rates vary, Mr Morcellet and his loved ones have been told he has just two years to live. In the statement from Allo Creative, the marketing and advertising agency who represent the group, said they were a close-knit team who ‘operated with family and community at the centre of everything they do’.

“In our (Allo Creative) work with Tassis Group, we’ve come to know that the group operates with family and community at the centre of everything they do. We also know that anyone who has experienced the hospitality at a Tassis venue will have felt the same,” they said.

Allo Creative revealed that Mr Morcellet would require a large amount of support, therapies and specialist equipment as his body succumbed to the disease, with the talented chef planning to return to his homeland in France, where he hopes to spend his final days with family.

They said they had worked with Tassis to develop a charity event on May 12, that will see support the chef and his family as he battles the disease.

The event, hosted at Pompette among Mr Morcellet’s close-knit work family, will be a silent auction and banquet-style dinner, with 100% of proceeds from the auction going directly to Mr Morcellet.

Auction items will include items donated by groups like Tangalooma, Brisbane Broncos, Brisbane Reds, Brisbane Lions, The Emporium Hotel, as well as the Tassis Group including a place on the ‘Bugs on the Bay’ exclusive yacht cruise with Michael Tassis himself.

Mr Morcellet’s wife will need to become his full-time carer and the family said the fundraiser would go a long way to allowing him access to practical equipment like an electric wheelchair and bi-pap machine, as well as, eventually, palliative care.

Tickets are available for $250 and a portion of proceeds from those sales will also go to the family.

Originally published as Tassis Group announces close-to-home charity event for dying chef