By Lucy Carroll
Just over 18 months ago, chefs Donna Chau and Kenji Okuda reluctantly decided to close the small Ashfield restaurant they had run for almost three years.
The husband-and-wife duo, who have spent a decade working at some of Sydney’s dining institutions including the hatted Billy Kwong and Toko, were regularly putting in 80-hour weeks to sustain their eatery, Koku Culture, while also raising two school-aged children.
Chefs Kenji Okuda, Donna Chau and Santo Bun have taken over as the new operators at Stanmore Public School canteen.Credit: Steven Siewert
“It was exhausting, we were non-stop at the restaurant. We had no weekends or holidays, and were barely spending time with the kids,” Okuda says. “It wasn’t healthy.”
So when Chau spotted an opportunity to tender for Stanmore Public School’s canteen at the end of last year, they leapt at the chance. “It seemed so obvious to go for it, we could continue to cook, but also have some kind of work-life balance,” Okuda explains.
The pair joined forces with another former Billy Kwong chef, Santo Bun, and won a three-year contract to operate the primary school’s on-site canteen serving recess and lunch.
“It does feel unusual after so long working in restaurants to not have such gruelling hours,” Chau says. “But it means we can pick the kids up from school, and not work late nights.”
Donna Chau with Stanmore Public School students in the first week of term 1.Credit: Ben Symons
Hundreds of canteens across public schools are now leased to private companies, and providers must follow Healthy School Canteen Strategy, which was rolled out by the Education Department six years ago.
The policy includes a ban on sugary soft drinks, promoting access to healthier foods, supporting “water as a drink of choice” and ensuring 75 per cent of the food available is classified as “everyday” healthy items. All packaged items must have a minimum 3.5 health star rating.
Chau said she had spent the summer testing recipes, and making sure their meals could be made in the canteen’s kitchen. The menu has been updated with staples of toasted sandwiches, wraps and pasta, but also includes mixed dumpling boxes, Hokkien noodles, sushi, onigiri and homemade pizza.
“We wanted to expand the food options a bit, offer more Asian food, and we are also looking to include curries and other rice dishes,” she said. “We are trying different things out to see what the kids like, and have a suggestion box for the kids.”
Kenji Okuda preparing lunch orders for students at Stanmore Public School.Credit: Steven Siewert
“We’re also really conscious about keeping prices as low as possible, we know the pressures on families with household costs. But we also know how convenient it is for families to have that option to order a healthy lunch.”
Okuda said after years of working 15-hour days in fine-dining restaurants, including a three-year stint as head chef at Lotus in Barangaroo, it was a relief to “take a break and switch to home-style cooking.”
“At the canteen I’m cooking as a dad, not as a chef,” he says. “I also have a part-time job teaching commercial cookery at TAFE, so I still get the chance to extend myself and cook more complex food.”
“I grew up in Japan eating the school-provided lunches, called kyushoku, which were always really healthy, so I’ve taken some inspiration for the canteen from my memories of that.”
Stanmore Public’s principal Ben Heinecke said the school also has a small commercial kitchen where students from kindergarten to year 6 can take cooking lessons using fruit and vegetables grown in their community garden.
“We try to run that program two terms a year, it’s so important the students are exposed to healthy and fresh foods as much as possible,” Heinecke says.
Managing director of Healthy Canteens Australia, Graham Bernard, estimates about 600 NSW schools have an on-site canteen staffed by individual providers or small companies.
“There are far fewer parent volunteers than there were a couple of decades ago, so more operators have taken over. But as enrolments have dropped in some parts of Sydney it can be difficult to maintain the traditional canteen on the school grounds,” he says.
For Okuda, part of the appeal of running the Stanmore Public canteen is the flexibility it gives him to collect his children from school.
“When I was a head chef, I was starting at 8am and finishing at 11pm. It was my choice, and to be at the top of your game you have to put in the effort to stay there. But now I can pick the kids up, see them at night, and not be as exhausted.”