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Anna Gare’s passion for cooking began when she could reach the top of the kitchen bench. At the age of eight-and-a-half she took charge of her school canteen one day a week, providing a three course meal for a dollar.
When she was 12 and three quarters, desperately wanting to be 13, she formed an all girl band with her sister and two friends called the “Jam Tarts”. For ten years the Jam Tarts were a successful touring and recording band within Australia and acclaimed at international music festivals.
While Anna was in the Jam Tarts, she supplemented her rock and roll lifestyle with cooking, where she honed her talents in various restaurants around Australia.
After a decade of rock and roll, it was time for a change. Her life had always revolved around food and delighting others with her gastronomical gift, so she decided to start charging for her efforts and formed a small catering business. Today Deluxe Catering with food by Anna Gare is one of Perth’s most successful and innovative Catering Companies. The food created in the Deluxe kitchen not only leaves an impression, but often steals the show.
Anna also began working in Television. She worked on ABC’s Consuming Passions as Ian Parmenter’s right hand assistant, “preparing the dish he had prepared earlier”.
Following her TV experience with Ian, Anna went on to presenting her own cooking segment on magazine chat show called Perth at Five. The program was shot live and ran weeknights for four months. Anna has also presented a documentary on Fremantle, segments on Today Tonight and cooking segments with Perth DIY show Nuts and Bolts. Anna also featured in and narrated a five-part series, Chefs Christmas, for The LifeStyle Channel. The series features ten of Australia’s hottest chefs who invite viewers into their homes to share their festive
entertaining secrets.
Last year Anna co-starred with chefs Ben O’Donoghue and Darren Simpson in The Best in Australia on The LifeStyle Channel. Filmed in her family home in Fremantle, WA, the program was incredibly well received and Anna has just finished shooting the second series which will premiere on The LifeStyle Channel in August.
Read Anna Gare's Bio
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For chef and television presenter Ben O’Donoghue, cooking is a passion and a reflex, it’s something he’s done since childhood and it never ceases to give him pleasure or stimulate his imagination. He unequivocally believes that food should be simple and distinctive, technically and culturally correct.
Ben started his career working in a number of topclass Australian restaurants including Tribeca and Goodfellas in Sydney and Jessicas in Perth before moving to London ten years ago. For four years he worked at The River Café and then joined his mate Jamie Oliver at the exclusive Monte's Club as head chef.
He then worked as Head Chef at the famous Atlantic Bar & Grill and helped Oliver Peyton win the contract to open the National Dining Room at the National Gallery with his creative and seasonal menus. He is now the creative director of food for The Great Australian Pie Company in the UK.
Ben is now living back in Australia after 13 years in the UK. He has just finished filming the brand new series of The Best in Australia. The second 8x60mins series, based on the hit BBC series, The Best, will screen on The LifeStyle Channel from the end of August. Ben was one of the chefs in the original series of The Best, which produced an accompanying book of the same name.
His television credits also include four series of the internationally acclaimed food and travel program, Surfing the Menu, a journey to source and cook with the finest, freshest ingredients from all over Australia and New Zealand. The popular series screens in Australia and the UK and has also been sold to over 30 other territories. He was the food judge for LifeStyle FOOD’s recent Great BBQ Challenge series; and has also appeared on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and Planet Food.
Ben’s new cookbook with Hardie Grant Books, Outdoor: Grill Your Way Round the World, will be released in October 2008. Ben writes a regular food column ‘Ben’s Basics’ for Olive
Magazine in the UK as well as a regular column for Delicious Magazine in Australia.
In his spare time, Ben enjoys surfing, fly-fishing and playing with his three children.
Read Ben O'Donoghue's Bio
Darren Simpson studied and began his career in Northern Ireland where he was born. Within two years of landing his first job, Darren was named UK’s Young Chef of the Year. At 21, he was and still is, the youngest ever winner of this prestigious annual award open to all UK chefs under the age of 25.
From 1992 to 1999, Darren trained and worked with some of the greatest. He has worked in restaurants such as: Paul Rankin’s Michelin-starred Roscoff, Ireland; Albert Roux’s Michelin-starred Le Gavroche, London; Sally Clarke’s Clarke’s, London; Simon Hopkinson’s Bibendum, London; as joint Head Chef of the acclaimed River Café, London; and Head Chef at Sir Terence Conran’s Sartoria in Savile Row, London.
In 1999, Darren was head-hunted to become the Head Chef of Aqua Luna Bar and Restaurant at Sydney’s East Circular Quay. Having received fantastic reviews, Darren’s food has been
described as “dynamic” and “big-flavoured”. Darren then opened the award-winning La Sala (The Room), a modern Italian restaurant in 2005.
Darren can soon be seen on the brand new series of, The Best in Australia. The second 8x60mins series, based on the hit BBC series, The Best, will screen on The LifeStyle Channel from the end of August.
His TV appearances also include resident chef on Sunrise; presiding as judge on hit reality show, My Restaurant Rules; presenter on lifestyle program, Live This; and Ready Steady Cook. Off the screen, Darren has attended invitations as MC and/or speaker of key food and wine events across Australia.
Darren has written for various national and overseas publications: Food Feature writer, ‘Esquire Magazine’ - UK; contributing food writer, ‘FHM’ – Australia; contributing food writer, ‘Selector Magazine’ – Australia; Food Editor, ‘Live This Magazine’ - Australia; and contributor, Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Good Living’ - Australia.
Darren clearly knows how to cook courses of fine Italian dishes; all garnished with his cheeky infectious Irish charm. As he says, it’s all about “keeping it simple.”
Read Darren Simpson's Bio
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