Dennis Barton

by Dr. Iain Corness

There is a wonderful Australian word “larrikin”, which could be used to describe the happy-go-lucky Australian Dennis Barton, who is the kitchen operation manager of the Pattaya Marriott Resort and Spa. He laughs a lot, is very happy being here and puts his happy marriage down to the fact that he has big feet. Size 13 and a half to be precise!
Dennis was born in Brisbane, Australia, the only son of a very successful plumber father and a librarian mother. Plumbing was his heritage, and it was going to be his future too, if Barton Senior had his way. However, young Dennis had other ideas. He like cooking! Young Dennis was no namby-pamby though, and was your everyday rough and tough Aussie schoolboy, with sport being a major interest. But in fact, Dennis liked cooking so much that after representing Australia in schoolboy rugby league, when the others went into town to celebrate, Dennis went home to bake bread with his mother.
By the time he was ready to leave school, his father had the apprenticeship ready for him in the plumbing company, and he was indentured, receiving the large sum (for a 17 year old) of $350 per week. However, his elder sister was dating the son of a chef, whose father asked Dennis what did he want to do. When he heard it was to be a chef too, he arranged for an interview and Dennis was accepted into a cooking apprenticeship.
Proudly, and I would imagine a little defiantly, young Dennis went back home and announced his change to his father. “I’m going to be a chef and earn some ‘real’ money,” said Dennis. He had to eat those words, as well as his own cooking, when he received his first week’s wages. “It was $68, about enough to cover the bus fare!”
He completed his four year apprenticeship and struck out to try and find that ‘real’ money he had imagined. His first port of call was Tangalooma Island, off Brisbane where he spent the next two years on the bottom rung of the ladder. It was a great lifestyle for the young chef, but he had adventure in his blood and began working up the Queensland coast, through the Whitsunday Islands. After the tropical islands he then ventured further afield through Australia and New Zealand, working his way up the kitchen hierarchy. “This is the best way to gain experience. If you stay in any one place too long, that’s all you will know,” said Dennis. “I was lucky I worked with a lot of European chefs and really got a classical European training.”
The island life called him back to the Queensland coast and he took a position as sous chef at the luxurious Hamilton Island resort. “It was a huge job. Driving around in a golf buggy to the 20 outlets on the island.” He only stayed there 12 months, as I think there was more driving than cooking involved!
Returning to the mainland he was to snap up a job with an award winning fine dining restaurant in Brisbane, which used his talents more than the stop and go pedals in a golf buggy. The other chefs were French and he was in his element, but like most chefs, after a year it was time to move on.
It was back to the golf buggy for Dennis, taking a job in a very upscale golf resort, being managed from Japan. “I stayed there for five years and played golf every day. It was $140 a round for the guests, but I played for free. It was hard work though, especially for the Johnny Walker Classic where I had 3,000 people a day to cater for.”
He catered well and won a three month trip to Japan, courtesy of the owners. He got on so well in Japan that the owners extended his trip to 12 months, and kept his job open for him in Australia.
On his return, he was hit with culture shock. “After living overseas I went mental. I had to get out. It’s (living in Australia) really dismal.” He was offered a redundancy package, and he took it and went to the closest travel agent to go on holidays.
The agent, at an aptly named village called Runaway Bay, suggested Thailand and asked when did he want to go. “This afternoon,” was the reply! So Dennis first set his size 13 and a half foot in Thailand in 1999.
He was hooked. He kept on coming back so often he wore out his traveling shoes and then tried to buy some new ones in Pattaya. Size 13 and a half, “No hap” other than a young lady in Mike’s Shopping Mall who managed to find him a pair. Dennis was so appreciative of her efforts, he took her to dinner. Dinners followed dinners until eventually they were to marry, after 18 trips to Thailand in two years.
Now married, they built a house in Pattaya and he began to look for a job here. The Pattaya Mail jobs column led him to the kitchens in the Kanary Bay Resort, and eventually to the Marriott, right here in Pattaya. “I’m loving it,” said Dennis and then launched into an enthusiastic spiel as to the cuisine and the quality. “You can’t produce gold from crook (Australian slang for ‘poor’) produce. That’s our winning way.”
For the future, he would like to be in the position to settle down with a mushroom farm in the country, and some real estate holdings in Pattaya. “I’d be living like a king.”
Dennis Barton is one of those happy, laughing people, with a string of anecdotes, like most wags from Down-under. He will never be far away from like-minded souls, and if you ever get the invitation to come along when he throws another shrimp on the Barbie, take it with both hands. It was a fun interview of a fun person.