A trailer full of tasty tucker
CHEF James Blackman has cooked for Bill Gates, Will Smith and the Dalai Lama and is now looking to bring his Organic Sustainable Food Trailer to Geelong West. In a planning application before the City of Greater Geelong, Mr Blackman details plans to bring his food van — previously operating in Torquay — to The In8 Life chiropractic clinic on Hope St. If plans are approved the trailer would be parked permanently in the driveway and sell organic, vegan prepared meals such as curries, lasagne, soup, toasted sandwiches and salads. Estimated operating hours are 8am to 9pm every day. Mr Blackman, who relocated to the Surf Coast in 2015, got his first job post-apprenticeship at Prahran’s Jacques Reymond, which at the time was Australia’s best restaurant. He later moved to the south of France and, after four days of giving his resume to the mega-yachts and agencies, secured work as a temp-chef for an American who had bought a $20 million yacht.
“I was employed for eight days to cook for him and his friends but, after the third day, he asked if I would like to be his personal chef,” Blackman previously told the Addy.
As well as cooking on the yacht, he managed his employees’ Turks and Caicos Islands Caribbean property, which had become an exclusive resort. “During that time, I cooked for Bill and Melinda Gates, the president of Turks and Caicos, Will Smith and his wife, the Dalai Lama, Gerald and Betty Ford, Bush Senior and a few others,” he said. Mr Blackman became a vegan in 2012.