From Paternity Leave to Corporate Catering: The Story Behind From Dad Catering

My name is Daniel Ng. Most people know me as the owner of Dad and the Frog Café in Surry Hills. Some people just know me as "Daddy", a nickname I picked up years ago from my friends, where I was the youngest and the only one who'd become a father. It stuck. And somewhere along the way, it became something bigger than a nickname. It became a business.

This is the story of how From Dad Catering came to be, and why I believe it's the most honest thing I've ever built.

Dad and the Frog Cafe....

where it all started

I'd spent years working almost every role in hospitality, I was a kitchen hand, cook, a supervisor for events and corporate boxes, a boardroom manager for a major tech firm, bartender, private butler. Front of house was my home, but I'd touched nearly everything. I knew the industry from the inside out, and I knew exactly what a great hospitality experience was supposed to feel like.

During the covid lockdown I teamed up with a long-time friend and colleague, a Frenchman with the same obsession for quality coffee and good food. Dad and the Frog Café was born. The name? Simple. Me, Dad. Him, the Frog. Two mates from Sydney's hospitality world, opening a café on Fitzroy Street in Surry Hills.

When Sydney opened up after the second lock down, we felt the time was right and launched. We built something we were genuinely proud of. Specialty coffee, housemade sauces, jams, relishes and pickles, a menu that had real personality. The community responded. We became a proper local institution, winning Best Café at the 2025 Local Business Awards and being recognised as Toby's Estate Local Legends in 2024.

After a few years, Baptiste moved on to new ventures. I kept going as the sole owner, with a team I'd carefully built and completely trusted. And that trust would turn out to be the most important thing I ever invested in.

The moment everything changed

Last July, my son was born. I took three months of paternity leave, three months of broken sleep, morning feeds, watching my wife and I figure out this new version of our family together. It was the best and most disorienting time of my life.

When I came back, I realised I'd built something strong enough to run without me. My team didn't need me in the café. I'd made myself redundant and that was exactly the right problem to have.

I needed a new challenge. And I needed a skill I'd never learned: sales. Not because I wanted to change careers, but because I knew it was the missing piece. If I was ever going to grow our catering arm into something real, I had to know how to sell.

So I picked up the phone. I started cold calling. I got rejected, a lot! I sold outsourced HR services to businesses across Sydney, learning the craft that most hospitality operators never bother with. I gave myself six months and a clear decision: pursue a career in sales, or use what I'd learned to build something of my own.

Six months passed. I chose myself.

From Dad Catering: the natural next chapter

From Dad Catering didn't come out of nowhere. It grew out of everything, the café's reputation, my team's skill, the housemade approach we'd always taken, and the personal truth at the centre of it all: I am a dad who loves to cook.

At home, cooking is my responsibility and I love it. My wife and daughter challenge me constantly with new recipes, dishes they've found online, flavours I've never tried before. I take it seriously. I take pride in it. That care, that intention, that desire to make something genuinely delicious for the people I love, that's what From Dad Catering is built on.

We deliver boxed catering for corporate breakfasts, brunches and lunches across Surry Hills and Sydney's inner city. Every box is made with the same housemade approach that earned Dad and the Frog its reputation. We control the flavours. We obsess over the details. And we show up reliably, consistently, every time.

"This isn't food sourced from a commissary and reheated in transit. It's food made with the same café love we give our Surry Hills locals, packed and delivered to your office door."

Why it matters for your business

If you manage a team, run an office, or organise corporate events in the inner city, you already know how hard it is to find a caterer who is genuinely good and genuinely reliable. Most services promise both and underdeliver on one or the other.

From Dad Catering is different because it comes from a different place. It doesn't come from a factory kitchen trying to hit volume. It comes from an award-winning café that has spent years earning the loyalty of a community and a founder who learned the hard way that consistency, quality and genuine care are the only things worth building on.

We're here for the offices that want better. The teams that deserve a proper breakfast. The events that need a caterer who makes the food look as good as it tastes.

That's what From Dad Catering is. That's who we are.

Ready to bring From Dad Catering to your office?

We cater for groups of 10 to 100 across Surry Hills and Sydney's inner city breakfast, brunch and lunch, made fresh and delivered with care.

Get in touch to chat about your next event or recurring office catering.