SCHOOLS & CO TEAM

Revitalising school dining and creating food that is fun, tasty, healthy and nutritionally balanced through our Schools & Co brand

ABOUT US

Schools & Co is part of the Wixted Catering brand family and is Darwin based, locally owned & run by chefs and identical twin brothers, Andy & Mark Wixted. They have cooked and trained chefs all over the world, with over 40 years’ experience between them.

Being one of the most sustainable caterers, providing fresh, seasonal and delicious food, we are made up of an ever-growing professional team, with the same shared passion for using local ingredients where possible, as well as free range meat and poultry and sustainably sourced fish.

Mark is also a head lecturer and examiner in Culinary Arts at a leading college and is charged with training the next generation of chefs. Andy oversees an ever-growing portfolio of restaurants and catering contracts. They both have consulted on food and drink product development and innovation projects, for leading global brands

We are an enthusiastic team of food lovers; all of us are passionate about great service and great results. We are a people business and the quality of the service that we provide and the engagement that we have with our clients and consumers is down to the dedication and hard work of our great people. We want everyone in our business to feel valued, respected, supported, cared for and happy. We celebrate individuality, diversity and appreciate everyone’s contribution.

Finally, we support and encourage everyone to build their skills and fulfil their potential, working as part of a positive and caring team. We care for each other and our customers and we enjoy what we do

Andy is the other half of the Schools & Co founding team. And had been a chef for over 20 years and life his brother settled in Darwin over 10 years ago, working in and managing some of the best restaurants in the area, over the past 5 years he has been amassing a portfolio of manged venues, providing he and his teams services to restaurants who were looking to grow or who wanted help to turnaround their business as well as doing more and more private events. In 2017 he and his brother Andy opened The Chippy, in Dinah Beach, and from the first day of opening it was a success. His passion for food and his young son inspired him and his brother to reinvent the rather industrialized school canteens and in Jan 2020, they opened. Andy will oversee the day to day operations and new business as they aim to grow the brand across the nation over coming 5 years.

ANDY WIXTED

Co-Founder

Coming from Limerick, Ireland, Mark has been a Chef for about 15 years in Ireland, UK and has been in Darwin for the past 10 years. Mark spent 4 years in one of the most famous bars, Monsoons and I oversaw the training of apprentices through the Certificate III program, In 2017 he and his brother Andy opened The Chippy, in Dinah Beach, and from the fist day of opening it was a success, at the same time they started Wixted Catering which is one of the fastest growing catering and hospitality companies in the Northern Territory. Mark is the lead Commercial Cookery Tutor and Assessor at ICAE, and his love of healthy eating with this brother helped bring the Schools & Co idea to life. Mark will oversee the culinary and nutritional teams Together they plan to reinvent and revitalise the School food in Australia and help fuel the nation's next generation through fostering healthy eating habits.

MARK WIXTED

Co -Founder

Greg has over 25 years experience in brand planning, user research and innovation and is creative entrepreneur. He has been a board director at two the world’s leading creative agencies, he is a trained advertising planner. In 2010 he founded Xpert, a creative innovation agency with 3 offices. He has designed over 40 brands, and services, 100 of products and was the led service design for the Dept of Education, Home Office, UKVI and developed the Allergen Alert Rfid bracelet for retail , now used in the NHS to restrict purchases for kids in hospital He has won over 40 awards . clients including; Orange, Heniz, Blue Skies, Tesco, DFE, Mars, Sanrio, Mr Men Sky, Dell, Hearst, Hachette, NHS UK, Sony, Coke, Yum Food Brands Lexis Neixis, Bakkavor, Starbucks

GREG WIXTED

Innovation & Service Design

WANT TO JOIN OUR TEAM?

We’re not what you might expect from a schools contract caterer. We are a young team of specialists, working hard to provide the best schools food and dining experience to some of the most innovative schools across Australia.

We’re always looking for great people to join our kitchen team as well as more specialists to work in our innovation and school operational teams. If you think you’ve got the skills to drive our business forward, drop us a line hello@schoolsandco.com

Arthur is the youngest member of the Schools & Co team and one of the reasons his father came up with the idea for a new vision for school catering. Showing signs of culinary genius he asked his dad why he could have this dish or this salad at his school. So Andy just asked his 5 year old son "why do you and your friends like to eat?" and the list kept on coming and coming. So Andy set about making all these dishes and Artur would try them out and judged what was in and what was our. Net CEO of this every growing business or Masterchef Judge for sure.

ARTHUR WIXTED

Chief Menu Tester & Future CEO

Nutrition and promotion of healthy eating habits has been in my field of expertise for more than 15 years. As a part time job I work as a: Nutrition counseling in the Office for Youth in the Municipality “Cukarica” in the city of Belgrade (proper way of leading pregnancy, giving tips for providing a longer time period of breast-feeding, counseling for infants, toddlers, preschool and school children, counseling for healthy people, counseling for diabetes or intolerance to some specific food or food group, or allergies, and every kind of eating disorders). I am experienced, dedicated and hardworking.

TANJA MILENKOVSKI

Nutritional Writer

Dave has been a professional chef since 1991 and trained at Dublin’s School of Catering, he has worked in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and the USA before settling in Australia eight years ago. He brings with him a wealth of kitchen and operational management experience including: setting up of new operations, menu development, new restaurant and venue openings, staff management & training, kitchen and service design, development and deployment of the HASSAP system, stock maintenance and hygiene awareness and training. He oversees the operational quality at Schools and Co, menu cycle development with our nutritionist and was instrumental in setting our very first Schools & Co at the Essington School in Darwin.

DAVE LAMB

Head of Operations