The John Mangan Miller Kitchen at William Angliss Institute is a highly valued teaching and learning resource, used every day by student apprentices. The kitchen was named after John Miller, whose involvement with the college began in 1945, when he enrolled as a ‘Tuesday apprentice’. In 1945, students studied at the college on a particular day every week and John was among the first students who were not affiliated to any of the armed services.

The war finished … and a month later I came here and … was the first apprentice cook to do any training as an apprentice. Between 1939 and 1945 there were many people doing cookery courses, but they were mostly RAAF and Army … and the American Marines. … Between ‘39 and ‘45 cookery was mainly made up of servicemen and was training people for the services. In 1945, they decided they would move to apprenticeships in cookery for the trade.

After completing his apprenticeship, John worked and travelled widely, including London, Hong Kong and Egypt. His apprenticeship and cookery education provided him with the sound basis for him to become a highly accredited chef and industry innovator.

My training … and my studies at the William Angliss College opened doors in all of those places. … When the Australian people came to London to select cooks for the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, the reason I was approached was because somebody mentioned I was from William Angliss College.

John worked in Melbourne in the 1960s, and then in 1970 was offered a position as a trainee teacher of basic cookery by then Principal Jock Kerr, who he had trained with 25 years before. He enjoyed his time as a teacher, becoming Head of the Foods Department in 1980. John was then offered a position teaching Western Cookery at Hong Kong Polytechnic, where he taught for four years, eventually returning to the William Angliss Institute in 1984 where he was employed as Senior Curriculum Development Officer. One of his proudest achievements was developing the Diploma program, for which he designed the curriculum and wrote training materials, implemented specialised units, and streamlined the way young Diploma students were taught.

The best thing I did for William Angliss College, after my time in Hong Kong, was to come back and build on what my colleagues had done here in the apprenticeship program. … The thing I’m most proud of was the development of the Diploma Course and the reception it got. I was Executive Officer on that so I had an awful lot of input and I suppose a lot of power. And it all came together, and to this day I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Oh, I think that was lousy.’ I think we did a very good job and all the people involved (about 30 people) worked very hard … I think that was the best thing I did.

John was also involved in setting the curriculum for state-wide food and culinary programs, developing courses for restaurant operations and introducing more specialised skill units to suit different needs and emerging markets. He also improved training modules for the Army, Navy and Air Force culinary staff. Through his friendship with French Chef Paul Bocuse he also initiated a national search for talented candidates, selected by jury to travel to Lyon to compete in the bi-annual Bocuse Competition for Professional Chefs, one of the most prestigious contests of culinary skills in the world.

John worked for the college until his retirement in 1992, earning an Order of Australia medal for service and dedication to French Cuisine and Cookery in food education programs. He looks back on his time and long history with the institute with a sense of pride and achievement, acknowledging the important role William Angliss Institute played in the expansion of the food industry and trade in Australia.

I often refer to William Angliss Food School as the ‘Mother’ of all catering colleges in Australia. Everything grew out of William Angliss College.