Case Studies
Issue No. 17 - June/July 2004
Classic Catering
flavour trade
Pop quiz, hotshot: you’ve been at the top of your profession for 40 years and run some of SA’s best-known businesses in your field. What do you do? Answer: find a new angle you like, and keep on going.
It’s not quite apt to say hospitality icon Joe de Ieso is dabbling in the restaurant trade now; better to say he has been there, done that and is now doing what he feels like.
Increasingly, Joe takes pride in seeing how many people he has sent off on along successful career paths in the hospitality industry. He enjoys passing on his skills.
The de Ieso family founded The Drumminor restaurant in 1974, when fine dining was virtually unknown in South Australia. Clients of the time tell Joe the service there “is still hard to beat”. For eight years The Drumminor held its spot as the State’s premier restaurant—a supreme effort given the resources available at the time.
“We went to that level because of its unique siting; there was a lot of history behind the property,” Joe says.
The restaurant won many national-level awards and an international Vin de Champagne accolade for sommelier, Rene Gallen.
“We trained 32 apprentice chefs there, many of whom have gone on to set up their own businesses,” Joe says.
“We were getting good support from Regency College and in those days the Government supported apprentices. We used to train seven at a time. When the Government withdrew those subsidies we went backwards.”
Joe, who was schooled in cuisine in Switzerland, even then loved to train young people in the culinary arts. He regrets that training more than enough apprentices for his own needs simply isn’t viable any more.
His ambition to be the best brought recognition and a role for Joe in the public arena. He worked closely with the Regency academics and advised the Dunstan Government and liquor licensing authorities on opening hours reform. He was having to deal with function re...
