Jim Whelan began his career as an apprentice chef in Limerick, Ireland, having developed an early interest in cooking from his father whom cooked a large proportion of the family meals.

After completing his training and spending a few years in various hotels around regional Ireland, he decided to broaden his horizons and moved to London.

Jim spent 8 years working in some of London’s top a la carte restaurants such as such as Canteen Chelsea Harbour , Le Palais de Jardin ,and Chesters. Here the world of ingredients opened up to Jim as he was able to explore many styles cooking.

After six years he got itchy feet and he decided to come out to Australia on a working holiday visa, arriving in November 1994. Jim loved it so much he decided very quickly to stay.
In the early days he worked on a casual basis in some of Melbourne Hotels, he than obtained more permanent work at the World Congress Centre and later on at the Melbourne Hilton on the Park, who after a short time decided to sponsor a work visa.
Jim moved from his position as the Head Banquet Chef at the Hilton to be the inaugural Head Chef of Bridie O’Reilly’s in Brunswick.

After 12 months at Bridie O’Reilly’s he spent three and a half years with Spotless Services and was Head Chef at the Centre Ivanhoe, the Members Pavillion at the MCG and the Melbourne Town Hall.

With Spotless he became involved with many of the large contracted events These included the Australian Grand Prix, Indy Car on the Gold Coast, V8 supercars in Canberra and he managed a restaurant village during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.