A taste of community

Business, but not as you know it 

Becoming one of Sydney’s leading hospitality figures wasn’t always part of Shaun’s life plan. As a kid, he dreamt of a career in finance, an idea that was almost at odds with his childhood in Western Sydney.
 
“There were no suits in my life. My dad was a tradie; my dad’s mates were tradies. So when I did eventually come across people in the corporate world, I was like wow, that’s power, that’s money, that’s success,” he says.
 
These aspirations led Shaun to UTS. He’d always been a hands-on sort of person, someone who liked to learn by doing. UTS, with its practical approach to teaching and learning, seemed to offer a clear path towards his goals. 
 
He enrolled in a Bachelor of Business and quickly discovered that finance was just one of countless career paths the degree would prepare him for. 
 
“It was practical, it was job ready. I’m a big fan of UTS and the focus they put on practical ways to build a career,” he says. 
 
“You get to experience a bit of everything to find out what you like and what you don’t.”
 
The degree’s broad focus and even broader definition of what business could be was inspiring. It would also turn out to be incredibly valuable in the years ahead. 
 
After graduation, Shaun landed a job working in financial services, a realisation of the goals he’d set for himself back in high school. But the reality was miserable: racism was rife, and his colleagues seemed intent on showing him he didn’t belong. 
 
“We’re going back 20 years now; the world was different then. There wasn’t representation in the same way there is now,” he says.
 
He didn’t stick around. But even as he walked away, he did so knowing there was more than one path to a business career. As he’d learnt at UTS, all he had to do was carve out a niche of his own. 

The big idea that built a movement

Disillusioned by the corporate world, Shaun found himself drawn back to the values that had shaped him: family, generosity, shared meals, community and the great big warm hug of his culture. Those values were where he’d always sought solace, but now they became the roots of an unconventional business idea. 
 
Growing up, Shaun had seen countless asylum seekers arrive in Western Sydney from countries around the world. Many struggled to find work, while others had qualifications that were no longer recognised. 
 
“That needed to change,” Shaun says.  
 
The solution seemed obvious: starting a restaurant would allow him to introduce his heritage to people across Sydney, and it could also create new opportunities for people who needed a second chance. 
 
Colombo Social opened in November 2019 to rapturous reviews. People loved the food, they loved the atmosphere, and they also loved the staff: refugees and asylum seekers, older women, people with disability, First Nations people, and “anybody that faces systemic barriers to employment, barriers that shouldn’t exist,” Shaun says. 
 
Plate It Forward followed three months later. Today, all four of Shaun’s restaurants, the company’s events and catering business and its Second Chance Kitchen, which provides employment pathways for young people in contact with the justice system, are staffed by people from marginalised communities. A total of 275 have been employed to date. 
 
This focus on meeting people where they are with the support they need also drives another important element of the Plate It Forward mission: for every meal served at one of the Social restaurants, Shaun donates another meal to people experiencing food insecurity.
 
It’s a tradition that started in the early days of Colombo Social when, three months after the doors opened, COVID-19 lockdowns slammed them shut again. Shaun and his team started preparing meals for charities and community organisations across Sydney, but even as the pandemic restrictions wound down, the need for nourishing food never did. 
 
Plate It Forward has now donated more than 730,000 meals to people in Australia and beyond. 
 
“We just know there’s more need out there,” Shaun says. 

“Do you know what a beautiful thing that is?”

It goes without saying that for Shaun, food is about more than just cooking, and the Plate It Forward venues are about more than just eating. That sense of belonging, or what he calls the “unquantifiable kindness” that characterises his restaurants, is central to the glowing reviews that keep pouring in. 
 
It doesn’t hurt that the food is damn delicious, too. At Colombo Social, the menu is inspired by his mother’s cooking and by the traditional meals that keep so many families like Shaun’s connected to their roots. 
 
In this way, Colombo Social and all the Socials that have followed are an opportunity for Shaun to right the wrongs of his own childhood. As a kid growing up in Australia, he was often embarrassed by the food in his lunchbox that his mum had lovingly prepared for him.
 
“Now, I proudly serve it. Do you know what a beautiful thing that is?” he says. 
 
Equally beautiful is the growing movement that Plate it Forward has started, and Shaun’s belief in his own duty to take action against inequity in whatever way he can.  
 
“One day, when someone says, ‘What did you do when you saw it?’ I can say I did something. Be it small, be it insignificant, I did what I could,” he says. 

At UTS, Shaun Christie-David didn’t just earn a degree, he gained the tools to build a movement.

Because it’s not just a university—it’s where community comes together. 

What can we be for you?