For anyone interested in a career in hospitality, Shaun ‘Googsy’ Kestle is a good man to have a yarn with. The Hastings-based chef has been working in commercial kitchens since 2000 and has been Chef de Partie at Merricks Store since 2018.
Shaun was born and raised in Castlemaine until 1994 when his family moved to Hastings to be closer to his grandmother. Shaun cuts an imposing figure: tall, broad, with a bushy black beard that’d make a bikie proud, a big laugh, and, until recently, a full mullet with shaved sides, spiky hair and dreadlocks that reached all the way to his waist. It’s a hairdo that inspired the name of his side hustle, started in 2018, Mad Mullet Gastronom. “People would be like, ‘Ooh, that’s a mad mullet!’. And ‘Gastronom’ means hospitality.” His business logo includes a Yellow-Eyed Mullet looking, well, very mad.
Mad Mullet Gastronom began as a merchandise project selling to commercial chefs, starting with T-shirts and stubbie holders, later broadening to a wider market and branching into cookware, utensils, and barbecue sauces and rubs. That has expanded further into smokers and expendables such as charcoal.
Shaun’s long-held passion for barbecuing and smoking pushed the business into catering. His unique style of barbecued and smoked foods, which he personally cooks on site for private events, is in demand across the peninsula. While there’s a distinct carnivore-vibe to his business, he also smokes seafood and caters for vegetarians and vegans.
It’s all fun. That’s what barbecue is all about.”
Shaun manages all sales and marketing through social media. His events include weddings, 21st parties, barbecues on farms, business functions, and work breakups. It’s a much more relaxed, low-key environment than a commercial kitchen. “The smoke’s goin’ ‘round the party and everyone can smell it … people come around and have a look. It’s like on a Sunday afternoon when you get family over. It’s all fun. That’s what barbecue is all about.”
Building on his solid grounding of 25 years in the hospitality industry, Shaun’s skills have taken him into the international community of competitive barbecuing, a sub-culture that has emerged in Australia in the last decade or so, with parallel events in Brazil, New Zealand and the USA. It has also led to sponsorship deals with Oklahoma Joe’s, B & B Charcoal, Mornington and Westernport Hyundai, and Lindens Fresh.
He remains enthusiastic about the fast pace of commercial cooking, a career he decided on at the remarkable age of four. “I love it. You’re thinking about the whole environment. You’ve got hot oil, sharp knives, you’re trying to read dockets, there’s someone else talking to you, you have to listen to the food cooking behind you, the fans are on, timers are going off, fryer baskets of chips are going in, waitresses coming in slamming doors and you still have to listen and know exactly what the head chef’s talking about.”
For the last six years Shaun has judged barbecue competitions, including the Australian Barbecue Awards in Melbourne and the World Championships in Newcastle. This has developed his critical palette, which feeds back into his commercial work. So what makes a winning burger? “Sometimes simple is the best. Not too much on the burger. The seasoning on the patty is a game-changer. Flavour the mayo with, like, shallots, or jalapeños.”
Shaun’s home-life is a bustling, blended, extended family with five kids (“We’re kind of like the Brady Bunch”) and his father-in-law living in a flat at the front of the house. It’s a happy environment, and a busy one from which to run a business while working full time.
There’s an intriguing addendum to the Mad Mullet Gastronom name: ‘COYC’. “That was my little slogan that me and my dad came up with. It means ‘Cooking On Your Clothes’. So when you’re cooking, you always get some of your cooking on your clothes.” Entirely appropriate, given that T-shirts were Mad Mullet’s first line of merchandise.
It’s also a poignant reminder of Shaun’s dad who died quite suddenly just as the business was getting up and running. “He helped me with a lot of stuff and did a lot of groundwork. My dad was supposed to be my manager. I had clouds over my head, just grieving. “Dad’s work ethic was massive. He slogged it out. That’s where
I got my work ethic from, having a full-time job, kids and a business on the side, same as what he had.”
Shaun has plenty on his plate, but three open-heart surgeries to fix a childhood heart condition have left him healthily mindful of excessive stress, despite his enthusiasm for an adrenaline-filled kitchen. “I’m not really a guy who gets stressed.” While the heart condition, fixed long ago, affected his capacity for competitive sport in his youth, his characteristic positive attitude shines through: “You can’t pull a hamstring putting a steak on the grill!”
The best thing about hospitality? “When you cook something, and the waitress takes it out, and the customer cuts it with a knife and they put it in their mouth and they go…”. He mimes an expression of delicious bliss. “…and then you see ‘em get the fork and go ‘Try this!’ to the other person … You get goosebumps because they’re really enjoying it.”
Hit Googsy up on the social platforms if you’re interested in a chat, a booking, or help with other cooking-related stuff.
IG: @gastronomcoyc