Kitchen

Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania’s food social enterprise project provides a pathway to employment for people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Participants undertake practical workplace experience, furthering training and employment opportunities in the hospitality industry.

Our kitchen is located at Level G, 1A Anfield St Glenorchy, and open to the public three days per week – Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 10am-3pm for brunch, lunch and delicious sweet treats. Catering is also available for large events.

We offer a changing menu of authentic and delicious food. The types of dishes on offer depend on the country of origin/cooking style of the participants completing their work placement, as well as the local produce in season. We work with participants to develop traditional home cuisines into dishes that are suitable for use in a café setting or for large events. Currently the social enterprise team has members from Iraq, Syria and Eritrea.

Since launching in May 2019, 14 participants have completed work experience placements and a number of participants are now employed in our kitchen. We have also catered for a wide range of functions – from soup for six hundred guests served in handmade pottery, to mezze platters and even sandwiches for 1000 guests. We’ve had a great response from the greater Hobart community and as a result have been able to expand our offering from one day per week to three days per week. The project has been featured by SBS Food, TasWeekend Magazine, The Mercury, ABC News, and Nightly News 7 Tasmania.

Menu updates can be found on the Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

Anyone from a migrant background is welcome to apply to participate in the work experience program. Applicants can contact Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania to complete an assessment.

Contact: Food Manager Megan Quill on 03 6221 0999, or catering@mrctas.org.au

Click here to read more about the program

Click here to read about the pilot project

Participant Testimonials

Huweida – “Fridays are good. It is good to have customers and to share my recipes. I am making friends too. I am very happy.”

Abebea – “I am happy to  make friends and to learn new food, to have communication with others including people who are in my English class but now they are my friends.”

Nagham – “I love being here. There is beautiful teamwork. Even in the rush hours it is very cooperative. The variety of food is really beautiful.”

Testimonials

“We were thrilled to collaborate with the Migrant Resource Centre Tasmania to serve 600 potters a wonderful meal – hot and hearty soup and a range of sourdough bread in handmade ceramic bowls – called Pot Luck Dinner, the opening event for the Australian Ceramics Triennale. There was plenty of the delicious soup and bread, cooked with fresh, local ingredients and served efficiently by the MRC Tas team. We were delighted with the success of the dinner!”

– Vicki Grima – Chair, Australian Ceramics Triennale

“I just wanted to extend my thanks again for the wonderful catering you and your team provided at our event last Thursday. I didn’t actually get to try anything, but the feedback I have received has been very positive! I am sending an email to guests later today and will include a link to your website in the hope that will generate further business for you.”

– Red Cross Migrant Mentor Support Program

“We just wanted to say how very impressed have been by your Service, and let you know that the food was very very well received by our guests, clients and staff.

We have had many participants at our function today, ask us, who supplied the catering, and we gladly advised them who to contact if they required catering themselves.

Could you please pass on our thanks to all those staff and helpers, at the migrant resource centre, who helped deliver today’s catering – and say we thought it was wonderfully presented (you eat with your eyes too) and let them know it was delicious!”

– Department of State Growth (Skills Tasmania)