Our Story
about our background
Established.
the story so far
Chubby Chef Kebab is Greek and Persian cuisine restaurant which also offers a huge range of shisha with indoor dine-in facilities.
Rastegar Fathi’s kebab shop has been a labour of love from day one, as he admitted to spending more than 15 hours a day at work. Although no longer the self-titled chubby chef, Rastegar turned the endearing name with its funny origin story into a memorable brand for his shop.
With support and guidance from Manager of Thrive Victoria, Arie Moses, Rastegar was able to fulfill his ambition to open the Chubby Chef kebab shop on Chapel St in Melbourne. He had a clear vision for his shop, from its prime location to the type of food served-the only sliced pizzas in the area!-and even made his own dining furniture.
The enterprising business owner shared with Arie on how he had learned to make tables and chairs by watching video tutorials. His hard work has led to great savings on his Thrive loan, which was then put to better use elsewhere in the shop.
As he showed Arie around during a site visit, Rastegar also talked about his plans for eventually expanding into a shisha and tea shop. Today, Chubby Chef is a successful and vibrant fixture on Chapel St serving up pizzas, kebabs, souvlakis, and much more.
Journey with Thrive Refugee Enterprise!
Thrive is a start-up not-for-profit charity promoting business enterprise among refugee and asylum seeking communities, through microfinance business loans and mentoring support. With the microfinance support of Thrive Chubby Chef Kebab started their journey. Thrive also provided post-loan service Chubby Chef with ongoing mentoring and business support for sustainable success.
Rastegar Fathi
Owner
The Journey.
people
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Growing up in Iran, Rastegar Fathi always worked hard to support his family. However, due to the war, he was forced to flee to Australia to start a new life for himself.
Before opening up his business, Rastegar planned everything from writing down his business plan to figuring out the best location and the type of food that he would like to serve. He even started making his own dining furniture!!
After much planning, Rastegar now has a successful business on Chapel St in Melbourne!