Ben O'Donoghue

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.