BIOGRAPHY

Kelly Richardson of Healthy Table Restaurant has had a creative life. Growing up in New Zealand, Kelly grew to love cold weather.

Kelly's first business started during primary school. Kelly started a Secret Sherbet business and sold sherbet with lollipops in paper bags and sold them for $0.50. Her father, Robert, encouraged her creativing and made her a custom stamp and located all the items she needed to sell the items to her classmates.

Later, she learnt to bake in the backyard. She used the bbq to create patties using mum's (Sylvia) flour from the kitchen and using a turner to turn them.

Kelly started calculating nutrition from the age of 17 but has been on a search for a way to enjoy the foods she loves. About 4-5 years ago, Kelly started experimenting with recipes to turn indulgent food into 'healthy' indulgent food. Kelly explains "God gave me a 'vision' for my life". This vision grew from taking her love of healthy indulgent food from her table to the public's table, in opening her 'Healthy Table Restaurant'.

Incorporating her need to give people what she couldn't reach for in her life, she has created a restaurant with a feeling of opulence. Kelly explains "I've always struggled with not quite having enough - That's when I started running".

Kelly says "God has used my creativity to make something from nothing". In this, Kelly has hand-build 17 tables from free pallet wood, stained in Black Japan stain with some of the tables having coloured tiles on top.

Kelly's first job at Woolworths helped her relate to customers in a different way being taught in training that the 'customer is always right'. Understanding the meaning of this, Kelly was able to deal with customers over the service desk and understand their concerns and help rectify the issues. Kelly said "Well, I'm a customer too!". "We all want to feel cared for. An 'I'm sorry that happened, I'd like to help sort that out for you'."

Kelly's restaurant uses many of her talents she has learnt throughout her life. With testing herself with putting together Ikea furniture without the instructions and the woodwork class at school, she was able to make the tables.

Starting painting and drawing at the age of 3 she was able to use those life-long skills to individually hand-paint different coloured plates for her restaurant. And with her more recent graphic design business, she was able to create the pre-book/ pre-pay restaurant website, where all bookings are booked at least a week in advance and meals are pre-ordered. With this, Kelly is able to eliminate waste of ingredients by not ordering too much and the customer's meals are being prepped before they even arrive.

Living in Sydney, Kelly learnt that being individual and niche, gives her a cutting edge in business. With this, Kelly wanted to create a business that was completely new and never been done before.

Starting with minimal funds, she was able to create a restaurant that is able to fund itself by having database of regular customers. Kelly knew that people wouldn't understand the concept as they only know how 'other restaurants' succeed.

Check out her Perth based restaurant: www.healthytablerestaurant.com.au