MasterChef star dreams of combining IT and food

MasterChef star Jonathan Daddia sadly exited the show last night. CRN caught up with Daddia, who is also an IT professional, a little while ago. Here's what he had to say.  

Jonathan Daddia, one of the stars on the hit reality TV cooking competition, MasterChef, has told CRN that he hopes to head up a business where he can combine his passion for food and IT.

"I'd like to think that I can go into a business where I can combine both. It might be something where you would go online to order a product and it would be broken down into a recipe.

" I couldn't tell you what it would look like, to be honest. I'm yet to find out how I can combine my two passions, simplicity in IT and great food."

Daddia has worked in IT for over 10 years and two years ago he opened his own consultancy, Daddia and Co. His work history includes implementing Oracle upgrades at Westpac and UK chain Sainsbury's, and stints managing IT projects at Babcock and Brown.

Daddia is one of 11 contestants left in the MasterChef series. He said that if he did open a restaurant after the competition he would want to draw on his IT background.

"Regardless of whatever business I go into, even if I open a restaurant and go and cook, I will always look at what I've done previously, how do I use some great things that have come out of IT to enable my business. I see so many efficiencies, even in common restaurants and how they work.

"A good example is procurement. A lot of restaurants and caterers walk around with their little manual check sheet and write down everything they need every day and then ring 10 suppliers to order it.

"You can almost walk around with a mobile computer and know what you want and it should be ordered for you regardless of supplier."

Daddia said his experience in IT had shown him how technology could improve a business -and how it could be wasted.

Several years ago he completed a Masters in business and IT management at the University of Technology, Sydney. One of his final papers was titled, ‘Is the CIO redundant?'

"I have a lot of frustrations in IT. I think there is a lot of money spent on a lot of the wrong things, which is a real shame," said Daddia. The amateur chef said few IT managers and CIOs understood that IT was more than watching lights on boxes.

"I used to have an argument [with a colleague] about whether you need dark fibre. No one could tell me what the business benefits are.

"I don't think a lot of IT people truly understand what a business benefit is or how to do that cliched thing of enabling business with IT. And that's my frustration, to sum it up."

For the full two-page interview with Jonathan Daddia see the July issue of CRN magazine.