Lumen Autumn 2017 - Flipbook - Page 37
story by Ian Williams
U
niversity of Adelaide alumna
Dr Susie Chant is a self-described
country girl who packed in an
awful lot before turning her sights to
full-time on study and research; and
becoming an Australian expert on the
history of local foods.
After cooking at an English palace
and working on an island paradise in her
twenties, she launched three successful
restaurants and a few bed and breakfasts
in South Australia’s South East.
A major point of difference at the time
was her strong focus on local produce
– a commitment to her community
long before such food experiences
became fashionable.
It was an intense grounding at the sharp
end of the food sector that has given
Susie unique insights for her current roles.
Today she is the Academic Manager
of the global culinary institution Le
Cordon Bleu, a lecturer with the
University of Adelaide’s Entrepreneurship,
Commercialisation and Innovation
Centre (ECIC) and a member of its Food
Values Research Group.
While food has always been her
passion, when Susie was fresh out of
school her parents tried to steer her in
a different direction.
“At some point one of my parents
said to me they didn’t think that food
was going to make a good career
for me,” says Susie. “So I studied
teaching and interior design before
doing commercial cooking and
ending up back where I always
wanted to be.”
Susie won the dux award in
commercial cookery for most
successful chef and then
headed to the UK where
she applied for the job as
nanny at Blenheim Palace,
the birthplace of Sir
Winston Churchill.
Food Innovator Dr Susie Chant
Photo by Chris Tonkin
“The Duchess of Marlborough
interviewed me and said I believe you
belong in the kitchen, and there I learnt
how to cook game birds and all sorts of
weird and wonderful things,” says Susie.
The Duke and Duchess were keen
entertainers and Susie found herself
preparing banquets for a revolving door
of famous people. After nine months she
resumed her travels and ended up as
a chef on the Grand Caymen Islands in
the Caribbean.
They were experiences that proved
invaluable when she returned to Australia
and launched her own hospitality
businesses on the Limestone Coast
and Coonawarra.
“Running a restaurant is very hard
work and it’s difficult to make money,
so you have to be really astute,” she
says. “I treated my restaurants as a
tourism experience with the food all
locally sourced, which made them
unique at the time.
“The whole local food phenomenon
then exploded and it was exciting being
part of that.”
Her restaurants won several tourism
awards and she still owns the diVine Cafe
in Penola, which she leases out.
Throughout her life Susie has always
been prepared to challenge herself
and has never been afraid to leap at
opportunities as they arise. It’s an attitude
that resulted in her sudden switch into
academia at the age of 47.
“I was flicking through a magazine and
came across a scholarship for a Masters in
Gastronomy at the University of Adelaide.
The application involved writing an essay
and I was so surprised that I did well
because I hadn’t studied for decades.”
After graduating Susie won another
scholarship at the University, this time
for a Masters in Entrepreneurship and
Innovation after she pitched a business
idea relating to ethical foods. She
graduated in the top 15 per cent of her
class for both degrees.
By this stage Susie was hooked on
study and research, so when one of
her lecturers suggested doing a PhD
on local foods in Australia she leapt
at the opportunity.
The doctoral challenge was also a way
of honouring her father Kevin Chant, a
farmer and community leader in their
home town of Millicent.
“My father was forced to leave school
early to work on the farm and he always
felt he had missed out with his education,”
says Susie. “When I had the opportunity
to do a PhD he was so excited for me
and part of the reason I wanted to do
it was I felt I was doing something for
him as well.”
Sadly, Susie’s father was too unwell to
attend her graduation ceremony last year
and died a few weeks later.
But he was alive when her thesis, A
History of Local Foods in Australia 1788
– 2015, was announced as the winner
of a coveted Dean’s Commendation for
Doctoral Thesis Excellence.
Susie’s research took her back to the
beginning of European settlement in
Australia when sourcing local food was
a matter of survival.
“During my research I came across
about 50 different concepts relating to
local food which were really unique to
Australia,” says Susie. “Today people are
very interested in eating different things for
ethical reasons and they really care about
what they eat and put into their bodies.”
One of her next projects is to turn her
thesis into a book.
“It’s a really interesting story and I’ve
been looking at ways of reworking it so
that it appeals to a wider audience. I’ve
done all the groundwork and have some
good back stories, including my own
personal journey.”
Finding the time to write the book could
be Susie’s biggest challenge.
As the full-time Academic Manager
of Le Cordon Bleu in Adelaide, part of
her role involves managing relationships
and professional development at Le
Cordon Bleu schools in Kuala Lumpur,
Bangkok and Madrid.
Susie describes her part-time role at
the University of Adelaide as her own
professional development.
She is a member of the Food Values
Research group, which is involved
in research projects that explore the
historical, social, cultural and political
aspects of food production and
consumption, an area which ties in with
her PhD studies, and lectures in food
ethics and entrepreneurship for ECIC.
The University of Adelaide | Alumni Magazine 35
