An eager and passionate rural chef has dedicated 30 years of cooking experience to her new cook recruitment and training business, Remote Contract Cooks.
The nationwide business, now going into its second year of operation, recruits and trains bush cooks while offering temporary, relief or short-term jobs.
Business owner Raqual Humphries said the idea struck when she was talking to an old boss.
“She said ‘why don’t you start a business from it’ and that’s what I decided to do,” she said.
“I want to help people not only on stations but also in rural and remote areas as there is a significant lack of resources in those regions.”
Being professionally trained as a qualified chef, Raqual said she had spent her younger years living and travelling with her family throughout Australia.
“I loved travelling around in our bus and now I get to live it myself,” she said.
Once Raqual and her family settled in Ipswich when she was 17 years old, Raqual left home to become a steward in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Her first year as a camp cook in 1996 on Carlton Hill Station, WA was where her love of cooking first emerged.
“I love the people on stations and that’s why I came to the outback,” she said.
“I think that’s the reason why a lot of people come to the outback”
“I love being able to feed nutritious meals to ringers because they have been working outside all day and they can come back and have a hearty meal waiting for them”
Having 30 years of bush cooking experience, Raqual said she has dozens of favourite recipes to make.
“My favourite things to make would have to be baked goods, like cakes and breads,” she said.
