Meet Cathy

Australia is a good country, generous.

I am from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I have just one of my kids here, my daughter, and my grandkids - three of my kids are not here in Australia.

They teach people how to work here. I am 60 now and they sent me to go and learn, I thought WOW!

I am still working and studying, I’ve learned English and studied a disability course too. My mum suffers from dementia, now I understand that it is an illness - I learned this in Australia.

I started in the ASRC kitchen in 2021.

My daughter always asks me, ” Why do you like to go to work in the kitchen?”

In the kitchen I feel like I’m with my family, I feel like I am home. In the Congo, I had my own kitchen - not big, small in size. I feel comfortable in the kitchen.

I like the kitchen, the people are very kind when you have problems, they assist you, when you come to work, it’s not stressful.

They teach you a lot here. If they teach me, I will do it. I want to know more, I want to know a lot about cooking.

Malaysian Chicken Curry is my favourite to cook in the ASRC kitchen, it’s a new dish for me. I tried it at home and wow, everyone was happy to try it - my family liked it.

In my country cassava is a special food for us, you can add chicken, beef, beans and other things but cassava must be there. I cook it well, here I cook it for my grandkids, beans as well - the kids like beans.

In my village we eat a lot of fish, we cook fish in oil with onion, chilli and sometimes you can mix it with peanut butter.

My dream is to learn more so that I can have a small business, that’s why I’m learning a lot now. I see the African restaurants here in Australia - maybe one day I’ll have my own restaurant or maybe I’ll sell something.