Chats with a Chef from Lucas Group

Sep 16, 2022

Dan Briggs is Executive Chef working for Lucas Group at Chin Chin in Melbourne. This “gentle giant with two great passions; his family… and his job” recently conducted an interview with conversationwithachef.com to share his industry insights. Dan has been part of the Chin Chin family for his whole career, meaning he has lots of experience to share about the phenomenon of the Chin Chin craze, as well as advice for young people thinking about becoming a chef. Read below for our quick recap on Dan’s great wisdom!

There’s currently two  Chin Chin venues, one in Sydney and where Dan works in Melbourne. Dan expresses that himself and Matt, Sydney’s executive chef “collab together and discuss ideas but since the brand is so strong itself, it is 70% of the menus become a signature dish anyway, so then we have 20 to 30% to play with and be creative and all the side menus and events menus as well.”

Chin Chin opened about 11 years ago, and is “still pumping” says Dan, explaining that queues are often down the street, booking out around 60-70% (around 300 people) every night, including walk-ins they see around 800 people on busy nights. 

When asked what Dan thinks it is about Chin Chin that keeps coming back he explains “it has to do with the whole experience. When we first started, we had a massive social media presence and Jess Ho was leading that and getting stuff on Twitter and Instagram and all that jazz and that created its own cult following. We back ourselves in that the food is good anyway and then we have all the art installations, and we have a good culture and a good team, good training and we make sure that it is a fun loud environment. Everyone comes in for a good time, sometimes a quick time.” 

Dan explains that the “kitchens run on high energy and a high vibe and I like to make sure everyone is having fun.”, especially seen as it can go from zero to one hundred very quickly. 

When asked what advice Dan would give to a young person thinking about a chef now, he exclaimed, “My advice would be to find a good mentor. I feel like we have been very successful here because we go out of our way to create a program, we actually have our own Lucas Group apprenticeship program that I run myself. Basically all the guys go to school and then every three weeks we do our own mentoring. For example, tomorrow we are going to the abattoir and go through and see how everything is processed and then do a cow break down and a pig breakdown and then hopefully we can do it ourselves. We did a seafood one last week and the guy showed us how the place worked but then we got to do it all as well, so from start to finish we did the scaling and filleting and everything. I think really getting that training and time in and having someone who is willing to develop you and put the time into you is the biggest thing you need to be successful. I have had a lot of good mentors, like Geoff Lindsay, Adam D'Silva and Benjamin Cooper, especially, they put so much time into me. Benjamin, I met as a completed chef but not a completed leader. The amount of time he has put into me from a leadership aspect has created the person I am now, not just as a chef, but as a father and a person. That has been my journey, but for young people, find the right person who is willing to give you the time and treat you respectfully because you dont need to be treated like dirt. And then finding a work-life balance. I do think to be successful for me, and I know it is probably not politically correct, but you need to put in the time. I don't think that is 80 to 100 hours a week but hitting that 45 to 50 hour mark. I do think a big part of where I have got to in life is from doing some of those hard hours and putting the time in and going out of my way to pick up an extra shift and the knowledge I have gained from doing that is huge. Finding a good mentor and applying yourself and the world is your oyster.”

Read the full interview here or you can also listen to the podcast here.

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