This was published 12 years ago
Cook on the books: plenty of choice at the billionaire's buffet
By Megan Levy
The daughter of billionaire mining heiress Gina Rinehart has developed very expensive taste when it comes to food, it seems.
In a personal email to her mother outlining a "few things" she needs for her birthday, Hope Rinehart Welker requests she be given $225,000-plus to employ a chef or cook so that her daughter April "is fed right".
Affordable? ... Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris.
That salary is more than chefs in any of Melbourne's top restaurants get, and only three or four chef jobs exist in Australia that pay more than $200,000 a year, according to restaurant consultant Tony Eldred.
"I work with most of the top restaurants [in Melbourne] so I know what they're getting. It's between $85,000 and $150,000 a year," Mr Eldred said.
Gina Rinehart ... not amused.Credit: Claire Martin
"Just offering $225,000 doesn't mean you're going to get a good one either. Anyone who can light a barbecue would put their hand up for that kind of salary."
In a series of intimate emails released in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, the daughters of Australia's richest person reveal their concerns about not having enough money to support their young children.
Mrs Rinehart's three oldest children Hope, John Langley Hancock and Bianca Hope Rinehart have taken action to remove their mother as the trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock trust, alleging "serious misconduct".
Documents tendered to the court included an email from Hope to her mother on July 30, 2011, in which the 26-year-old asks for funds to employ personal staff.
Top of his game ... Vue de Monde's Shannon Bennett.Credit: Eddie Jim
"I need a few things for my birthday (cook so you can be sure April is fed right, bodyguard so the kids are safe and housekeeper that is good [with] kids so if I need to go out I can) and I found a great agency here that sources the best, here are the descriptions and costs, I would buy them myself but I'm down to my last $60 000 and your [sic] only paying my husband $1 a year …," she wrote.
She requests an annual salary range of between $40 000 and $225 000-plus to employ a chef, who would prepare "detailed menus and food for most or all family and social events" and would be responsible for anything "food or kitchen-related".
Expensive tastes ... Hope's sister Bianca Rinehart has also complained about money.
Mr Eldred said Hope's range in estimated salaries was out of touch with the cost of employing a chef.
"The bottom number is too low and the top number is too high," he said.
"The bottom for a chef is about $65,000 and the top would be $180,000 or so."
He estimated that the executive chef at Crown Casino would be earning more than $200,000 a year.
"But there would probably only be three or four of those positions around the country," he said.
"You might get a top culinary chef who wanted to take a year off restaurants, and sometimes they get lured onto private yachts in the Mediterranean for big money. Some people have got more money than sense and they basically will pay an extortionate amount of money just to get a name for a period of time."
However paying more did not necessarily mean better quality, he said.
"You'd probably lure anyone who can open a baked bean can to apply for that sort of job," Mr Eldred said.
In another email, Hope complained to her mother that some of her poorer friends had more staff.
"I don't think you understand what it means now that the whole world thinks you're going to be wealthier than Bill Gates. It means we all need bodyguards and very safe homes," she wrote.
"I should have enough money to have a bodyguard, housekeeper and cook. Even my friends who have nothing compared to your wealth have more staff. It's not fair you are selfishly pressuring me to move to Singapore and Australia just because you hate America."