Jordan is from Bunbury, a small town in Western Australia’s South West. Her culinary career began at 14, when she worked casually in a small cafe in Balingup.
Wanting to learn and grow, Jordan moved to Bunbury and began her chef apprenticeship at the Crooked Carrot Cafe in Myalup, working under head chef Luke Normington. She was 19 at the time and spent the next two years there. The Crooked Carrot is an extremely busy cafe on the highway between Perth and Margaret River, and it gave her a real snapshot of chef life. She is very grateful for the experience, which taught her a great deal about resilience.
After completing her apprenticeship, Jordan became a CDP at the Dardanup Tavern. Not long after, at the young age of 21, she stepped up to head chef. Taking on such a high leadership role as a young female chef was challenging, and it took time to learn how everything worked and how to be a good head chef. Eventually she worked it out, and she spent the next two years as the tavern’s head chef, enjoying her time there.
Jordan then decided to see what the big smoke was like and moved to Perth. She landed a role as venue manager at the Beach St Co in East Fremantle, on the Swan River. Venue management was something she had never done before, but she wanted to give it a go and see the other side of the industry. It took a lot of hard work to learn the role, but she got there, and she has now been at the venue for almost two years, at the age of 24.
Throughout these career moves, Jordan has competed in over 15 state, national and international competitions, placing in every one with bronze, silver or gold medals. She has received scholarships and TAFE Apprentice of the Year awards, and has recently committed to judging and mentoring for WorldSkills and the Australian Culinary Federation (ACF). She has squeezed a lot of experience into a small number of years, and wouldn’t have it any other way.