Profile

Hailing from North India which is highly rich in culture and cuisine, Chef Gurpreet Bhatia loves to travel, likes music and is fluent in English, Hindi and Punjabi languages.

He graduated from the Institute of Hotel Management, Jaipur, capital of rich and colorful cultural state of Rajasthan in India. Those 3 years of catering studies inculcated in him a sense of discipline and acceptance of the odd hours of work in the hospitality industry.

Upon graduation in 1999, he was selected by French hospitality group Accor Hotels as a Kitchen Executive Trainee for their operations in Asia Pacific.  During these initial years of his culinary journey he worked in locations like Mumbai, Bangalore, Singapore, Bangkok etc and gained valuable experience in pre- opening and launching operations of various properties for the group. He handled various food production units and organized several international and regional food promotions. He was exposed to European Fine Dining and Contemporary Cuisine at ‘Al Fresco’, Mumbai. In 2001 he graduated as a Sous Chef with Accor and was awarded as the best trainee of the year for their management training program.

In 2002, he joined the Western India Culinary Association, a renowned gathering of the top Chefs of Mumbai and Western India and became an active member for their specialty events.

During the same tenure, he joined Eurasia group, Hong Kong as Training and Development Manager for their maritime catering management division called ‘Sea Chef’, through which he travelled to various international destinations like Singapore, Japan (Osaka, Imabari, Kobe), Malaysia etc. and gained international exposure working with the local chefs.

In Oct 2002, he joined Apavou Group of Hotels, Mauritius as Chef for Indian Cuisine and launched an Indian Gastronomique restaurant at Indian Resort and Spa, Le Morne, Mauritius. In 2004 he was promoted as ‘Corporate Chef for Indian Cuisine – Group Apavou’ and became responsible for introducing and implementing authentic Indian cuisine among the 5 luxury hotels of the group besides training the local chefs in the intricacies of this fine cuisine. In 2005, he moved from the south of the island to Hotel La Plantation located in the heartland of beautiful scenic northwest of the paradise island of Mauritius and worked as Executive Chef till Dec 2006. In the same year, he was also invited to impart Indian Cuisine training to chefs at Stellenbosch Lanzerac Wine Estate and Hotel in Capetown, South Africa.

During this culinary journey and traveling to various countries, Chef Gurpreet was back in India in 2007 and got involved as F&B Manager in opening and set up of ‘Olde Bangalore Resort & Convention Centre’, a complete eco-friendly resort with unique concepts in terms of accommodation and a unit of Ventures Hospitality India Pvt Ltd. in Bangalore, India.

In 2009, Gurpreet moved to Australia with his family and has been living in Melbourne since then. On arriving down under, he got involved in redefining the award winning modern Indian restaurant ‘TULSI’ and won the best Indian Restaurant award in the Victoria Region in 2010, 2011 and again in 2016. Still continuing with them as Consultant, he later worked with ALH hotels in Victoria and Hotel Stella’s Dromana – an award-winning countryside hotel in the tourist town of Dromana, which helped him to gain experience in local cuisine and food styles.

Since 2012, Gurpreet is involved in training students in Commercial Cookery & Hospitality Management with various training organizations including HOLMESGLEN TAFE, MCIE, ANIBT etc. He also organizes the annual Culinary competitions for MCIE involving teams of international students.

In 2018 Gurpreet has been awarded with ‘VET International Practitioner Fellowship’ by Department of Education and Training in Victoria to undertake a research on identifying effective practices and advanced strategies used in internationally acclaimed Hospitality venues and training organisations, to train and upskill Learners with special needs in a VET setting. This research also includes studying the frameworks and intervention methods used in other centres of excellence to support such learners during and after the training journey by improvising the learning outcomes and overall success in employment opportunities and career pathways.

A proud member of Australian Culinary Federation, Australian Institute of Technical Chefs and Les Toques Blanches.