Matthew Woolford

by Dr. Iain Corness

It is every Australian schoolboy’s dream to be a sporting hero. Sport features very high in the school curriculum. Cooking does not. Yet here we have in the Sheraton Pattaya Resort a talented young Australian chef, Matthew Woolford, who was well on the way to being a Rugby Union half-back hero when his career changed, proving ultimately for the better.
Matthew was born in Sydney, Australia. His father was a salesman for chicken farms, whose culinary expertise went as far as boiled water and French toast. His mother was a bank clerk who had to give up counting money for counting children, of which Matthew was the fourth and last.
He went to a government school in Sydney which tried to keep the attention of 600 sport mad children, and Matthew was definitely one of those. “I was a stand-out rugby player,” said Matthew. “I was known as ‘The Blur’ and was a student representative for Sydney Juniors. I was the half-back and imagined a career in rugby.” Unfortunately for Matthew he tore the ligaments in his left knee and he saw his hoped-for future contracts torn up as well. The Blur was well and truly blocked! “I had no fall-back after sports. I was in the bottom 15 percent of the state in academic results!” His future gone, he was washed up, and he was only 16 years old.
He had an uncle who worked in the Hilton in Sydney who suggested that he might be able to use his influence to get the young lad into the hotel kitchen. The 16 year old presented himself to the Swiss-German chef who begrudgingly said that if young Matthew could work for two months, without pay, then he would be considered for an apprenticeship. With no alternatives, he arrived in the Hilton’s kitchen the next morning and given the job to crack and separate 5,000 eggs! He arrived each morning for one week to another 5,000 eggs a day. However, his persistence paid off. The chef told him that he could start as an apprentice the following week, as nobody had ever managed to last the egg-cracking ordeal before! Matthew is quite philosophical about this. “It helps you understand the work and effort in being a chef. It’s not all glamour.”
He worked there for the next two years, and like all young bloods was quite sure he was the mainstay of the entire place. So when the sous-chef decided to open up his own restaurant, and offered Matthew $20 a week more than he was getting at the Hilton, the young man who knew it all was off and running. “It was the worst experience of my life,” said Matthew. “It brought me back to earth, the 18 year old hot-shot from the Hilton!” He ran back to the Hilton and asked for his old job back - but it was filled, but they did find him a position in a boutique hotel in Sydney (the Sebel Town House) which was to give him great experience.
By now Matthew was starting to spread his wings. He moved out from home and got a flat in Sydney. He also found that you can’t afford a flat in Sydney on an apprentice’s wages, so he had to work two jobs, averaging three hours sleep a day. This could not last either, and when he was offered a posting as a breakfast chef at the Regent Hotel he took it. This property was the flagship of culinary art in Australia at that time.
It was at the Regent that he joined their fine dining team. He became engulfed in cooking. He was sent to France for a year. Cooking was becoming his life. “The Regent gave me the desire to stay in food. They gave me good role models, and I made it my goal to become a sous-chef by the time I was 30.” He also had learned the real lesson of life. “If you put something in, there’s benefits that come out.”
After four years with the Regent he was still only 24 years old, and was approached to run an exclusive restaurant in the Canberra Hyatt. “This was the first time I realized you can work 30 hours in 24 if you really want to!”
However, Thailand was calling. He had married a Thai girl he had met in Australia and they came to Thailand for a honeymoon, and he was blown away by the standard of the hotels over here. Seizing the first job that was available, he arrived in Phuket. But this was no Nirvana. “It was the (another) worst experience of my life. The culture shock! I thought I knew all about Thailand. I was 26 and having difficulty with leadership. I was in management and I thought, am I a chef or a guy in a uniform?”
Matthew took off for the kitchens in Singapore, but when SARS hit, life looked bleak again, but for someone who offered him a helping hand. This was David Cuddon, a fellow Aussie (and incidentally the GM of the Sheraton in Pattaya). David took him to Krabi, and obviously nurtured this young talent, then arranged for him to join the Sheraton in Bangkok. “That was where I was shown how to be an executive chef,” said Matthew simply.
Like all high-flyers in the hospitality industry, it was necessary to keep moving and Matthew went to Seoul and then Hong Kong. It was during this time that he developed his philosophy of food, “Restraint and simplicity are the perfect tools for any dish.”
However, David Cuddon had been keeping an eye on his progress and enticed the young man back to Thailand to join him in the Sheraton Pattaya. “I like coming to work for somebody you know and respect already,” said Matthew.
When he is not working in the kitchen, you will find Matthew with his wife and baby daughter Ivy. “Kids change your life and your whole perspective.” We all agree, Matthew!

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