Ginger Catering celebrating milestones with a name change and plans for growth
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Twenty years in business is a win in anyone’s book.
But it seems even more of an achievement when the business is hospitality, and its two-decade reign coincides with both the Global Financial Crisis and a global pandemic.
Janet Jeffs and her executive team at Ginger Catering are celebrating their 20th birthday year, not to mention their decade-long stewardship of the National Arboretum, with a name change to The Ginger Group. They are turning their focus outward, looking to expand on their stellar reputation for producing some of the city’s finest food by diversifying their business in Canberra and the region.
It seems little fazes Janet, whose passion for the industry has not waned in more than four decades—since she began as a baby-faced pot washer in Adelaide before completing an apprenticeship under Cheong Liew and then joining forces with Australian culinary royalty Maggie Beer to bring the Barossa’s Pheasant Farm to life.
Janett Jeffs and Maggie Beer.
Since Ginger’s very first night of operation at the Arboretum, catering for an opening of 300 guests—which occurred in spite of them not receiving the keys to the kitchen until the very day of the event—Janet said the space had “captured the imagination” not only of residents of Canberra, but of all the interstate and overseas visitors who made it part of their pilgrimage to the nation’s capital.
And it has certainly embedded itself in her heart with early morning sunrises and late afternoon sunsets punctuating her day and forcing her to focus on the unique beauty of the landscape rather than plating up or prepping for an event.
Catering for special events, weddings, corporate functions and formals had made the space integral to major life moments for many Canberrans.
And Janet says there is nothing quite as delightful as a someone enjoying their formal against the tree-lined vistas before settling on it as a wedding venue because they could simply not consider a more beautiful place to be.
Which brings us back to longevity.
Since she arrived in Canberra in 1995 only to repeatedly hear that “the best food in Canberra was in Sydney,” Janet has tried to push the boundaries.
The Ginger Group’s philosophy is “good, clean, fair food”.
Opening Juniperberry at the Red Hill shops with a bank overdraft of $2000—only to have it become one of the most lauded restaurants in the city, earning a chef’s hat from the Sydney Morning Herald’s Terry Durack—is testament to Janet’s plucky nature.
She moved on to found Ginger Catering in Old Parliament House before being invited to take on the Arboretum contract by the ACT Government.
Her mantra of “good, clean, fair food” has seen her promote countless local growers and her embrace of locavorism happened long before it became a thing.
She has also been a trailblazing female chef.
“The thing is, kitchens have always been, and still are very male-dominated places. They’re very hard places to work in. I think being a chef is certainly not for the faint-hearted as you are constantly under pressure. You’re under pressure because customers want their food and they want it now. There’s no, ‘I’ll just be 10 minutes with that’. It’s like ‘no, they need it now’, and you’ve got to actually perform over, and over, and over every day.”
In recent years, Janet has carved out a little more personal time as she delegates to her executive team and is currently knee-deep in an Art/History degree which she loves. (“Who knows, one day I may set up a gallery bar, that would be fun.”)
That executive team includes her right-hand woman Lissa Keogh, who joined the Ginger Group in 2009 and has been General Manager for the last eight years. Janet is looking forward to the company flexing its muscles on the eating scene over the next few years, taking on more than just the Arboretum.
Janet and Ginger Group’s head chef Issy. Image by Keepsakephoto by the Keeffes.
In order to do so, they have brought in marketing and special projects manager Kara O’Brien and executive chef Ismail Toorawa (Issy), who hails from Mauritius, and has spent 20 years in the industry, working at the National Gallery of Australia and at Patissez where he helped conceptualise the FreakShake.
Janet praises Lissa, Issy and Kara for their trust and camaraderie over years that have held more than their share of challenges. And while COVID undoubtedly tested her survival skills, Janet says that the GFC stands out even more.
“Almost overnight, every contract we had for the next year got cancelled.”
At the same time, Old Parliament House was being renovated which had severely interrupted the flow of wedding bookings.
“It was harder in a way than COVID—there was no JobKeeper and there was no support.”
It led to Lissa and Janet having some very late nights with the accountant, trying to manage staffing without lay-offs, and wondering how to keep the business afloat. Miraculously, they managed to stave off major job losses and Janet sold her precious wine collection to help.
“Ah yes, all my bottles of Grange, I had to sell them,” she says with a genuinely pained look.
Yet it’s the sort of sacrifice those who work with her would expect, as Janet has shown a lifelong dedication to attracting, maintaining, and mentoring her team. This is reflected in the company’s staff retention rate of around 80 per cent—almost unheard of in an industry notorious for its churn.
And as Ginger Group seeks to expand next year and beyond, Janet will continue this figurehead role—she’s up for the new challenge.
Ultimately, she says, “to be in hospitality, you’ve got to be hospitable. I think you need to be very generous in spirit and you have to like people.”
“We do want to grow and move forward,” says Lissa, “but we don’t ever want to change the essence of this business or Janet’s stamp on it, because it’s been such a big part of Canberra now for 20 years. And in hospitality, that really is a huge achievement.”
You can follow Ginger Group on Instagram @thegingergroup.cbr or check out their Facebook here facebook.com/thegingergroupcbr
