Lucy Allon is a restaurateur who has worked with some of the world's most celebrated chefs, run several award winning Australian restaurants and subsequently founded Appetite for Excellence, Australia's most prestigious and respected restaurant awards program which recognises young restaurateurs, chefs and waiters.
She now works as a freelancer in food events and as a publicist for food magazines and events, most recently for MasterChef and Delicious magazines. Lucy lives in Kensington, NSW with her husband, Simon, and two children, Isabel (5) and Tom (2).
Lucy Allon
C4K: Give us a snapshot of your working and parenting week and how it works for you.
LA: I work three days a week and have my two year old at home with me on the other two days. I'm currently working with News Magazines, as a publicist for MasterChef Magazine and a Project Manager running the Produce Awards for delicious Magazine and I love the work as I'm still in contact with all the chefs and restaurateurs that I've known and worked with for years, but not doing the hours I used to do as a restaurateur, and which I simply couldn't do with a young family! So, I have the best of both worlds and after five years I feel like I have finally found the right balance between work and parenting!
C4K: How did you get into the food industry and come to set up Appetite for Excellence?
LA: I'm from the UK and started in hospitality in London after finishing university. I had worked in bars & restaurants during uni and just loved it – the adrenalin of service, great food and wine, and the service aspect and dealing with people. I decided that if I was serious I needed to get some good restaurants on my CV so applied for a job at Launceston Place in South Kensington, a very smart, fine-dining restaurant which was a favourite of Princess Diana! I was extremely lucky that the owner / restaurateur Nick Smallwood took me under his wing and trained me so I quickly progressed, ending up as Assistant Manager for a new restaurant that opened with great success, fantastic reviews and a number of awards in its first year. There I met Luke Mangan, a young Australian chef working in London, and when his UK visa expired I returned to Australia with him. We opened and ran Restaurant CBD in Sydney for the Hemmes family in early 1995 and it was a huge success, so Luke shot to fame as a rising young star chef and we went on to open, own and run three award-winning Sydney restaurants. We set up Appetite for Excellence in 2005 in response to the shocking attrition rate of young chef apprentices in hospitality. There was a desperate need to give apprentices some incentive and inspiration to stick at their apprenticeships and we thought an awards program that recognised young talent, rewarded it with overseas work experience at some of the world's best restaurants plus networking with and mentoring from Australia's industry leaders was the way to do this. With a group of very dedicated chefs / restaurateurs and sponsors supporting the idea we got it off the ground and the response was overwhelming. One thing led to another and we are now in year 6 of the awards as well as have two other categories – Young Waiter and Young Restaurateur. It's been a labour of love, but it's been worth it.
C4K: When did you go back to work after having your children? Did you have any time off?
LA: I had 4 weeks off in total – 2 for each of them! Isabel arrived very prematurely and with no warning (my pregnancy was progressing beautifully with no complications) at 26 weeks and I was completely unprepared. She spent 14 weeks in hospital, 8 of them in intensive care and to be honest, work was what kept my head straight. The nurses strongly urged parents not to sit in the wards all day every day, so work became my focus and I'd spend a portion of each day at hospital and then at work. If I hadn't had the reality of my businesses to focus on I think I might have fallen to pieces. However life clearly had to change and so in the time that Isabel was in hospital Luke and I mutually agreed to go our separate ways with the restaurants and within six months we had sold or closed all three businesses. I continued however to run Appetite for Excellence from home, so once Isabel came out of hospital I fitted work in around her and it worked, so I kept going! Tom also made a surprise early appearance at 35 weeks. By this point I was working part-time and I had one amazing girl working full-time for me. She kept the ball rolling while Tom was in hospital and I recovered from the birth and two weeks later I was back at work part-time, again fitting my work commitments around family commitments.
C4K: What were your main motivations to return to work and what was the hardest thing about it?
LA: My motivation was primarily driven by a need for normality when my world seemed to have turned upside down in every other way and also as it was my business I couldn't and didn't want to just walk away, but it was mostly easy to stick with it because I love what I do, so with the exception of a couple of periods when I felt frustrated, over-tired or over-stretched it never really felt like work.
C4K: Who looks after the children when you're working?
LA: Tom goes to long day care three days a week. He started at Junction Juniors (ABC) in Bondi Junction which was great, but we moved to Kensington, so I recently moved him to Jane's Place in Kensington, which he loves. Isabel is in Year 1 at Kensington Public School and she goes to after-school care there (KPS OOSH) Mon-Wed and loves it.
C4K: What were you looking for in your child care arrangement for the kids?
LA: For Tom I wanted a nurturing environment with a strong focus on routine. Jane's Place offers this, and more! I especially like the continuity of care that they provide – the same carers work every day looking after their specific age groups, so Tom feels very happy and secure, as do I. I was also very keen for him to go somewhere that had a pre-school curriculum as I really felt that it was a huge bonus when Isabel made the transition from day-care to school – she felt prepared and confident in her skills and abilities and so really enjoyed her start at school. And for Isabel I wanted her to enjoy a range of different activities (indoors and outdoors) which is what KPS OOSH offer, from drama, cooking, art and outdoor games. Happy kids, happy mum!
C4K: What are the main benefits of your child care arrangement?
LA: They are both close, the hours suit my working needs and they are both really happy.
C4K: How viable is working for you financially?
LA: It's just about viable now, though it didn't used to be!
C4K: Has weighing up career vs child care been difficult?
LA: No, luckily I found great childcare for both kids (otherwise might have been a harder decision) plus I really wanted to continue to work as I love it and I think it keeps me sane :-)
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