This was published 4 years ago
Restaurants to the rescue: Pasta business earns bread for jobless migrant
By Chloe Booker
When chef Andrea Vignali found himself jobless and ineligible for benefits amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Melbourne’s restaurant industry came to his rescue.
Before the lockdown, the Italian, who trained at a Michelin-starred restaurant, worked at CBD dining stalwart Grossi Florentino.
Chef Andrea Vignali prepares pasta at his new business.Credit: Joe Armao
But when the Italian restaurant was forced to shut due to coronavirus restrictions, the temporary visa-holder found himself without an income.
As with about 1.1 million other migrant workers, he is ineligible for JobKeeper payments and cannot easily return home. His visa sponsorship arrangements mean he is unable to work for anyone else.
But Mr Vignali, who has lived in Australia for five years and says he was close to obtaining residency, is allowed to open a business. So he started doing what he does best.
“I just started making pasta and posting the stories on Instagram,” he said.
“And some of my friends started asking me ‘can I come and buy that?’, so I started actually doing it seriously.”
His skilled work soon caught the attention of The Age food writer Dani Valent, who put him in touch with new food delivery service Cookaborough, which offered its service for free.
Meanwhile, publican Matt O’Kane, who also plans to turn to takeaway, offered the use of his kitchen at Coopers Inn on Exhibition Street.
And Mr Vignali’s boss, Guy Grossi, gifted him a pasta-making machine and passed on invaluable advice and guidance.
And with that Mr Vignali’s takeaway service Al Dente, which offers pasta varities such as mushroom and mascarpone tortellini and a decadent chocolate pudding, was born.
“They've been helping me so much,” he said. “Without them, I couldn't do anything. I never expected I could arrive [at] this point and have a business in two weeks.”
Al Dente turned over $2000 in its first week and $3000 in its second, leading him to take on two other migrant chefs.
Mr Vignali said it was hard for migrants in his situation, who had paid their taxes but now faced destitution.
“We feel a little bit Australian, because we've been here for a long while, and from one day to another, we've got no support," he said.
The Migrant Workers Centre estimates that migrant workers on temporary visas make up more than 10 per cent of Australia’s workforce. There are 32,000 skilled migrants in Victoria.
The Home Affairs Department has allowed them to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation funds, but has otherwise said those who have lost their jobs should leave the country.
“The real challenge is that many of the people who are on temporary visas aren't actually all that temporary, they've been here for very many years and this is their home now, particularly in the hospitality sector that's been so ravaged by this disease,” the centre's director, Matt Kunkel, said.
Mr Grossi, who has recently reopened offering a takeaway service, implored the government to rethink its position.
He has re-employed staff on JobKeeper payments, but has only managed so far to take back on a couple of migrants, as he cannot afford to pay more wages.
“We don't want to lose half our workforce. It's going to leave us looking pretty grim at the other side [of the pandemic] if they are forced to go home,” he said.
Cookaborough co-founder Lyndon Galvin said he hoped his platform would be able to take on more migrant chefs free of charge.
“[Andrea] is likely to build this up into something that's more than just a small little pastime that will actually be able to generate a lot of work for his other colleagues who are in a similar position,” he said.
“It's really gratifying to work on something that does have such positive impact on on people in a really difficult situation.”
Click here to order from Al Dente.
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