Ben O'Donoghue - About - Professional Chef, TV Celebrity

For chef, author 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’s first foray as a restaurateur (Co-Owner and Executive Chef) for new Brisbane restaurant and bar South Bank Surf Club has given him the opportunity to embrace a quintessentially Australian virtue – the love of a good old Surf Club! Complete with the sophisticated twist of an inner-city waterfront location and a brilliant menu, Ben’s philosophy is to keep the emphasis on a relaxed and welcoming dining setting featuring great food and terrific atmosphere. Obviously a winning formula with South Bank Surf Club awarded ‘Best Casual Dining’ in the prestigious Courier-Mail Queensland Food & Wine Guide Awards after only four months of opening.

Ben's passion for the Australian countryside and love of local produce is also very much evident in his latest television series - Channel Seven's Drive thru Australia airing February 2011- an Aussie road trip of epic proportions! In his decked out 4WD/SUV, complete with a state-of- the-art foldout barbeque kitchen, Ben takes in some of the country's most amazing destinations and indulges in some of its finest gourmet offerings.

In the beginnings Ben started his career working in a number of top class Australian restaurants including 'Tribeca' and 'Goodfellas' in Sydney and 'Jessica's' in Perth before moving to London. For four years he worked at 'The River Café' and then joined his mate Jamie Oliver at the exclusive 'Monte's Club' as Executive Chef.

Ben then worked as Executive 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. Ben is now the creative director of food for 'The Great Australian Pie Company' in the UK.

Now living back in Australia after 13 years in the UK, 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 'Great BBQ Challenge' series and starred in three series of 'The Best In Australia'; and appeared on BBC's Saturday Kitchen and US food channels Planet Food. Ben also appeared on the first season of Channel Ten's top rating 'MasterChef' as a guest celebrity chef.

When not in the kitchen Ben is frequently working at his laptop writing a regular column for Delicious Magazine in Australia as well as writing cookbooks with Hardie Grant Books, 'Outdoor: Grill Your Way Round the World' was released in October 2008, with the second edition Ben's Barbeque released in August 2009.

Ben's newest book launched November 2010 titled At Home - depicts a snap-shot of his stellar cooking career covering family meals, economy of food, dishes to impress and everyday meals.

Ben is currently a brand ambassador for Wilshire and Variety Queensland. In his spare time, Ben enjoys surfing, fly-fishing and playing with his three children.

For interviews and media enquires please contact: Rebecca Brewster Rebecca Jane PR - M 0419 683 212 - rebecca@rebeccajanepr.com.au

When I was ten, my family moved south to Perth, where my brother and I went to school. On finishing, I got a job on Rottnest Island for the summer. I loved it so much (sun, surf, girls, etc.) that I got a job in the kitchen of the Rottnest Restaurant as a kitchen hand. This was the perfect job scenario, that is, surf-work-pub. There was great camaraderie among the chefs and I found I had a talent in the cooking department. I thought I should get an apprenticeship and abandoned my plans of attending teacher training college. A couple of interviews later, I was working in a busy Nedlands fish restaurant called Jojo’s doing about eighty hours a week (the honeymoon was over) and loving it.

After qualifying as a chef, I was promoted to Sous Chef at Jessica’s Seafood Restaurant in Perth, but felt the need to spread my wings, so I headed to Sydney. I managed to secure a position as a chef de Partie at a new restaurant called Goodfella’s, in the inner west suburb of Newtown. I was shortly promoted to a Sous Chef. In 1993, the restaurant was awarded the Best New restaurant Award by The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.

Jobs and chefs come and go, and I went travelling, chasing the dream of the perfect wave. I found myself on the frost-bitten earth of old Blighty in the middle of May 1996 on my twenty sixth birthday. I promptly bought a food guide, looked up the best restaurants in town and started looking for work. I didn’t have to look long – the second place I went to was The River Café where I somehow managed to secure a job. The River Café was the most inspirational place I’ve ever has the pleasure to work. The quality of chefs and the inspirational genius of Rose Gray and Ruthie Rodgers provided a highly motivated environment in which to work. Their ideas, philosophy and approach to Italian food provided the backbone of my own style of cooking.

At this time I met Jamie Oliver (yes, The Naked Chef, he of Jamie’s School Dinners fame) who had started just a few days earlier. Who was to know that Jamie’s life would change so dramatically and that mine would run a similar course? During the whole Naked Chef thing, Jamie turned to his friends; to appear on The naked Chef (I was on the show three times and had one episode dedicated to my birthday) and to help out with the food styling for his first and second cookbooks as well as publicity tour to Australia and New Zealand (on this tour I met my wife and mother to our beautiful children Ruby and Herb. Thanks mate!).

After all this I made a few connections of my own, and scored an agent – thinking that a little bit of extra work and pocket money would be great from doing demos and small-bit TV appearances. The next thing, Martine, my agent is saying “Do you want to present a show in Morocco for American TV?” I’m like, yeah, love to!

One thing led to another and I got a call to do a screen test for a new show on the BBC, I didn’t think I’d get the job, especially after saying that my favourite food to cook was “hash cookies”, but they liked my style and my food and the rest is history. The Best came along with an accompanying book for the series in Aril 2002 on BBC2.

To think that I was doing nothing but TV work at the time would be far from reality. I had been approached by the management of the Hyatt Carlton Tower hotel in London to be Head Chef of Monte’s, a restaurant, bar and night club in the fashionable shopping area of Knightsbridge. This was a fantastic opportunity to define and refine my style and philosophy on food: approachable, relaxed, and hardworking with a good sense of humour and time for play!

The next adventure came in the form of filming and working on the accompanying book of “Surfing the Menu”: a journey to source, savour and cook with the finest, freshest ingredients from all over Australia.

Around about the same time I had taken control of The Atlantic Bar and grill in Piccadilly – one of the finest dining rooms in Great Britain. All this also coincided with the happy event of the birth of my daughter Ruby.

I am currently (January 2006) involved in planning “Surfing the Menu” series four so watch out for further news on that.

Cooking for me is a passion and a reflex, it’s something I’ve done since childhood and it never ceases to give pleasure or stimulate my imagination. I believe unequivocally that food should be simple and distinctive, technically and culturally correct. To say we eat with our eyes is rubbish: the sense of taste, smell and touch are far more important to me. Presentation should be secondary, but not discounted, and natural forms adhered to as much as possible. Use the best available seasonal produce, selecting from producers or suppliers with equal levels of integrity and passion as you have towards what you cook and eat. Cooking for me is fifty percent confidence, forty percent passion and ten percent technique and skill. Be brave and eat anything because experience is everything.