My mum and granny taught me everything I know about food and cooking. My mum, Lozza, is a great cook, in particular a phenomenal baker, and I would watch her every move while she baked. I am very partial to her corn and bacon muffins so she makes these for me whenever I visit. I still call on her regularly for advice when I’m developing recipes – thanks Lozza! 

I was 4 years old, just a little tucker, when I had my first, truly memorable food experience. I tried my granny’s Yorkshire fudge and it was one of the first really sweet things that I’d tasted. I just couldn’t get enough of it. Whenever I went to granny’s place, from that first taste forward, we’d get busy in the kitchen and make fudge together. It was our thing.

It was also around this ripe age of 4 that I tried my hand at cooking. I love to eat. I've always been a greedy little monster who can't get enough food. Learning how to cook was sort of an extension of always wanting to eat. My best mate's dad was a chef. He sort of lived this rock star lifestyle: He'd come in late from work and he had long hair and tattoos and he didn't conform to my dad's social circle where they all wore suits. I wanted what he had… 

Once it was time to do some work experience I got my first taste of how a professional kitchen worked. It was complete madness: extreme heat, long hours, sharp objects, crazy people, blood, sweat and tears. It had my name all over it; I bloody loved it! I did my apprenticeship at the Savoy Hotel in Melbourne and got my feet wet in the industry.

The time came to fly the coop in search of new challenges. I headed to London chasing a dream to work for Marco Pierre White – Britain’s most celebrated chef. His cookbook White Heat was the first I’d ever read. He had this huge reputation for being crazy, working ridiculous hours, and I knew I’d thrive working for him. I offered to work for free just to learn from the absolute pinnacle of chefs! This pivotal decision to seek out Marco paid off. I started working at the Grill Room (Café Royal) on the very same day I met him. This was a place where if you didn’t get fired that day, then you did a good job.

After 12 months, Marco opened a restaurant named Mirabelle. I was made Chef de Partie for 6 months then promoted to Sous Chef there the year we won our first Michelin star. 1 year later, Marco appointed me Head Chef of another of his restaurants in London, Quo Vadis. Here, I was able to explore and incorporate more Italian influences in the food. The following year we were one of the only four Italian restaurants to receive three rosette awards. 

I was at Quo Vadis when I was first approached by a publisher who phoned to say they were publishing a book about London’s finest chefs. To my amazement they wanted to include me in it. I nearly fell over because to be included in the company of people I had always admired was surreal and incredibly humbling. Following this, I got a call from an agent, did a little bit of morning television work in the UK, and my whole world started to turn around and change.

I was lucky enough to be asked to co-host a show called Surfing the Menu with my mate, Ben O’Donohue - aka Bender. In the show we travelled around Australia and met loads of passionate food producers and cooked their produce. It was the best job in the world - being paid to travel and cook my way around a country that I love.

Surfing the Menu caught the eye of US producers, which led to the Take Home Chef gig, and subsequently, a move across the pond to the States. Thank Goodness for that, as I found and wooed my beautiful wife, Lindsay, here, and we have since had two sons, Hudson and Emerson. I learnt an incredible amount about America’s produce and home cooks while working on this series.

Since wrapping Take Home Chef, I have been fortunate enough to continue sharing my knowledge and philosophy on a handful of shows, including Top Chef Masters, The Today Show, America’s Next Great Restaurant, The Biggest Loser, Around the World in 80 Plates, MasterChef, and I’m pretty stoked to have also hung out with and chatted on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, amongst many others.