William Angliss Institute graduate and chef Daniel Dannock, 21, talks to Ashley Alasagas about his recent Australian Overseas Foundation scholarship win and his chance to travel in Asia.
I’ve lived at Keilor Lodge for 15 years now.
What do you like most about living around here?
I like that everything’s so close. The CBD is near, with the freeways and shops around. Everything’s so easily accessible.
Where did you go to school?
I went to Overnewton Anglican Community College at Keilor.
What are your hobbies outside of cooking?
I played basketball over at Keilor Park stadium for six years. Since finishing up at school, I’ve been focused on cooking … and that’s pretty much taken up most of my time.
What opportunities has your scholarship provided?
It allows me to travel to an Asian country of my choice, choose where I want to work overseas, then they will give me an allowance to pay for my accommodation, as well as any fees and fares to get across there, and to start up for the first 12 months … and that’ll continue on for up to 24 months.
Where do you plan on going?
At this stage, I’m focusing on Hong Kong. I want to go there and get into one of the hotels or into one of the nicer restaurants. I also want to go over to Macau, to get into one of its casinos.
Did you ever think you’d have the opportunity to do something like this?
No, I didn’t, to be honest. It was out of the blue. I was told about the opportunity and, two weeks later, it all happened. It didn’t leave me much time to think about it, that’s for sure.
What are you most excited about?
I’m most excited about having the opportunity to go across and really get a head-start on my career. It will allow me to actually learn their way of life and gain a lot of knowledge and skill that you just can’t get here in Australia.
What are your goals?
Hopefully, come back here to Melbourne and put the skills and knowledge I gain overseas into practice. And hopefully, one day open up a restaurant of my own. That’s the dream.
