Chef checks in

HIS career has seen him travel the world, cater for 19 presidents in a single sit-down and accept a compliment from H.R.H.The Prince of Wales, but Ewald Jeske’s flair for fare has its roots at home.

Sheraton Mirage Resort & Spa Gold Coast’s new executive chef recalls cooking for the family as a child because his mum was very ill.

“I had to be hands on in the kitchen with my grandma to get lunch and dinner on the table for the family every day,” he says.

“It just grew on me and fell in love with it.

“Both my father and my brother were working in a bakery, which gave me the extra ammunition to drive me

I into the hospitality industry.”

There’s a twinkle in Ewald’s eye when he jokes it was a tough life – the chef cut his teeth in some of the world’s most beautiful locations.

“I did my apprenticeship in Germany and after completion I travelled between Switzerland and Germany for seasonal work,” he says.

“This included winter in the snowy mountains and summer in the historic cities in Germany.

“I also did my chef’s master degree at the hotel school in Heidelberg, which is when my culinary journey really began.”

Ewald’s first taste of Australia was in 1988 when he joined the opening team of the Grand Hyatt Hotel Canberra.

“In 1989 I moved to the Sheraton Hotel in Darwin, where my Starwood career began,” he says.

“Starwood Hotels & Resorts has provided me with endless opportunities, including at Fiji, Taipei, Korea, India, Sheraton on the Park Sydney, Bali and now back here at this prestige property where I worked previously for nine years as fine dining chef and later executive chef.”

Ewald specialises in Asian cuisine with a European influence, including signatures of bread dumpling with fresh chanterelle mushroom and chervil ragout with wild boar steak.

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