Bullied at high school, intergenerational trauma, losing three babies in miscarriage, and diagnosed with PTSD, emotional behaviour disorder and Autism as an adult, it's fair to say the path for chef Zach Green has been anything but smooth.

Under the moniker of 'The Storyteller Chef', the 35-year-old has been a professional cook for 17 years, drifting in and out of kitchens, packing up when he was triggered with trauma, moving from place to place.

He tried his hand at other jobs including youth work, Aboriginal Liaison in a hospital, and even started a transport business.

Born in Melbourne and a descendant of the Gunditjmara people in south west Victoria and Palawa people in Tasmania, it's the healing power of food that has drawn Mr Green back to the kitchen time and again.

"Being a chef has always been a place where I've been able to get away from certain things in my life," Mr Green said.

After the miscarriage of his first son Elijah, he opened Darwin's first Indigenous pop-up restaurant, Elijah's Kitchen. More trauma followed with two further miscarriages and the breakdown of his relationship.

"It's not something you can get over, trauma is embedded in you, it took me a very long time, about ten years, to understand those triggers and how they affected me," he said.

"When things got too difficult, I'd internally shutdown, and then move, always with the same idea of getting a fresh start."

Mr Green said he's been working with psychologist to recognise triggers and how to manage them.

He moved to Perth just before Covid, and then headed north to Port Hedland.

There, Mr Green met a local girl, the-now-Mrs Green, falling head over heels in love with her and her four boys, whom he plans to adopt, simultaneously rekindling his love affair with food cooking for them.

Mining giant, BHP, had donated two shipping containers fitted with commercial kitchens to the Town of Port Hedland, which sat unused for two years.

"I had the idea of opening up Iluka's Kitchen and I was asking myself, 'am I ready to do this again?', and I spoke to my wife who she supported me all the way."

The Town of Port Hedland agreed to a lease and Iluka's Kitchen launched in August 2023, serving 600 people in the six-week season, also training six Aboriginal employees in hospitality service.

In 2024, the format of Iluka's Kitchen was a smaller, more intimate dining experience freeing up Mr Green to interact with guests.

"I used to dream of opening up a hatted restaurant, getting all the accolades, but not now," Mr Green said.

"My mission now is travelling Australia and doing small pop-up dinners and cultural food workshops with young mob, showing them how to cook kangaroo, hung barramundi, and more, merging traditional and modern food together.

"Our culture, our food, our stories – which means our culture is your culture, our food is your food, and our stories are still present today."

He has been on television cooking on Pilbara cliffs, and next year, Mr Green plans to hold a pop-up dinner on the spectacular Kalbarri Skywalk, is running cooking workshops in the Tiwi Islands and is finalising plans to appear at a number of food festivals around Australia.