Making the switch from fine dining to catering is a career move many chefs might turn their noses up at. Leander (“Leo”) Gstrein – who spent years working in fine-diners such as the three-hatted Hotel Trofana Royal in Austria and Michelin-starred Bibendum in London – was hesitant to take the leap. But since taking up the role of National Executive Chef with the Australian branch of Compass, the largest catering company in the world (it employs
10,000 people in Australia alone), he’s come around to the idea, due in part to the scope and variety of his role. “You get exposed to different sectors,” Gstrein says. “Hospitality is everywhere and it impacts on everyone. It’s quite exciting, actually.”
With a restaurant manager for a mum and a chef/butcher for a dad, it was natural for Austrian-born Gstrein to enter the hospitality industry. He started his fine-dining career at the five-star Alpenresort Schwarz near the alpine Austrian city of Innsbruck, and moved through the ranks at other high-end restaurants.
Since moving to Sydney 12 years ago, he’s worked at venues such as the now-defunct Astral at The Star Sydney, beginning at Compass eight years ago. He started as head chef at Sydney Town Hall and stepped up to his current role in 2018. Gstrein has a hand in everything, from feeding defence forces to coming up with menus for hospital cafes, business events, retirement homes and the mining sector, as well as high-end catering at venues such as the National Gallery of Victoria.
Between meeting the various nutritional needs of the elderly, and crafting restaurant-quality meals for the top end of town, all while balancing budgets and running the company’s Future Food program, Gstrein’s job goes far beyond the kitchen. Though he works with hundreds of staff members, Gstrein sees his role more as mentor than boss. He places great emphasis on building strong teams and staff loyalty, celebrating staff by profiling them on Compass’s website and highlighting them on the company’s Instagram account. “You want to make staff feel rewarded,” he says. “Make them feel like they’ve done something amazing. My role is to inspire.”
As with the majority of businesses in the hospitality industry, Compass has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic and its lock downs. While events have been cancelled and venues closed, Gstrein says that the company has managed to redeploy most staff across other areas of the business. Not only has the coronavirus affected Compass’s workforce, it’s also changed how the company works. Gstrein says they’ve tripled down on cleaning, and had just days to devise a grab and- go method to feed the defence forces, who could no longer dine in mess halls.
“We changed our business to see how we could help and support,” Gstrein says. “It’s going to take a while for things to come back. But I’m confident they will eventually.”
