Variety of Chefs 2010

Paul McGivern
Paul's keen interest in cooking started at a young age and began cooking at just 15 years old. Since then he has worked with Russell Armstrong & David Pugh in the early nineties before joining h Phillip Johnson at the Continental Café and Ecco Bistro until1998. Whilst Head Chef at Togninis on Main as Head Chef for 4 ½ years, Paul won numerous awards cooking organic northern Italian fare. On his return from a brief stint in Italy, Paul opened Restaurant Rapide in Camp Hill.

It was during his time at Rapide that he honed his food and wine skills and built up a loyal base of regulars. Paul sold Rapide and opened Restaurant Manx at Portside Wharf, Hamilton in 2006, where expanded his already existing clientele from Brisbane South to now include regulars from Brisbane North.

Over the years Paul has received numerous awards including 'Best Chef/Owner' for Queensland and has also been a weekly contributor to ABC Radio for their Tuesday cooking segment. Paul's other passions include organic produce, sustainable fishing & Pinot Noir. These days Paul can be found working alongside Jason and Katie Coates at Jetty South Bank and Jetty Bulimba as General Manager, overseeing all aspects of the kitchen as well as front of house.

David Pugh
Chef David Pugh's continual search for the best available fresh produce provides his inspiration and the basis of the menu at Restaurant Two. His use of classic technique combined with these fine ingredients and thoroughly modern flair are what place Restaurant Two at the forefront of contemporary Australian cuisine. His love of cooking emerged at age eight when he would treat his parents to Sunday breakfast.

Since then, David has worked with some of the world's finest chefs, including a two year stint at London's Connaught Hotel, drawing inspiration and skill from each and every encounter. Recently appointed Queensland's Ambassador Chef, confirms David's commitment to Queensland produce and suppliers.

Hajime Horiguchi
Hajime Horiguchi grew up in Kyoto, the original capital of Japan, a city renowned for its refined traditional cuisine. His affinity with this time-honored art began at the early age of five when he would go to work with his father, a chef with his own restaurant in the old suburb of Kiyamachi.

As a teenager Hajime's spare time and holidays were spent in the kitchen. After graduating he began his formal training working at both his fathers' restaurant at night and during the day the iconic Iduu (a traditional saba zushi restaurant established in 1781). Working day and night, then back at the fish markets by 5am the following day left little more than a few hours to sleep, a fitting reward for the privilege of an apprenticeship in the competitive Kyoto restaurant industry.

In 2002 he took a year off, travelling Australia and fell in love with the beautiful produce, amazingly open people and unique way of life. Determined to make his way back, in 2007 he returned to Australia to take up the Sous Chef position at Wasabi Restaurant & Bar. Four years later he now heads up a kitchen of young, creative and talented chefs dedicated to using the best quality, seasonally driven produce.

Jeremy Clark
Jeremy Clark, Executive Chef, Hilton Brisbane has a wealth of experience with an illustrious career spanning more than twenty years as a Chef. When it comes to experience it would be hard to beat Clark, who has worked at some of Australia's most renowned restaurants and hotels alongside celebrated identities including Serge Dansereau and Bill Granger.

Enjoying the company of others, the love of food, dining out and the adrenalin of being in the kitchen, Clark began his Hilton Hotels career as a First Commis Chef at the UK's Royal Barkshire . Originally from Hertfordshire just outside London, he arrived in Sydney two decades ago and took odd jobs in hospitality.

During his time in Sydney, Clark worked for some of Australia's famed dining hotspots including The Edge Restaurant under renowned chef David Raynor. This was followed by a stint at the highly acclaimed Bathers Pavilion in Balmoral, alongside leading chef and restaurateur Serge Dansereau, also a former Hilton Brisbane Masterclass Weekend luminary. Following stints in coveted roles working Sydney's restaurant scene, Clark held Executive Chef positions with the award-winning Radisson Plaza Hotel later known as Radisson Blue Hotel Sydney and W Hotels. Here he was responsible for overseeing all food and beverage outlets, outside catering and banqueting facilities which resulted in numerous industry awards and accolades.

Ready for a change, Clark returned to the Hilton Hotels family, taking a post as our Executive Chef in Brisbane, where he has been responsible for the launch of the hotel's refurbished restaurant and bar – Vintaged Bar + Grill. Clark also drives revitalised menus for the hotels extensive banqueting facilities which can, on occasions, see in excess of 1000 meals prepared in a single day.

Throughout his career, Clark has most notably cooked for the Queen Mum and auditioned for the popular television program Ready Steady Cook, narrowly missing the cut.

With an incredibly dry sense of humour, Clark's presence and engaging personality is set to steer the food and beverage offering for Hilton Brisbane - one of Hilton's most important Asia-Pacific hotels - into a new era. Leveraging the hotel's $14million AUD investment in 2011 and the new restaurant and bar, Clarke will inject a welcoming bistro style menu inspired by Queensland's abundance of fresh produce. The hotel's banquet menus will also be a particular focus, with Clark ensuring all conference delegates experience restaurant quality dining as opposed typical function catering.

Clark's cooking style is simple and fresh. He looks forward to assisting with the repositioning of the hotel and consolidating its place in the highly competitive five-star-hotel market. His priority is to ensure that the Hilton Brisbane is on the map as unparalleled as a food and beverage destination among CBD hotels.

When Clark is out of his chef whites he enjoys eating out, keeping fit, travelling and being with family. His wife shares his passion, and works front of house in the industry. They have always worked in hospitality, owned restaurants and worked with outside catering. This is their first time living in Brisbane and what Clark looks forward to most is enjoying the Queensland lifestyle.

Alastair McLeod
Alastair's a dinky-di Australian (his mother was born and grew up in North Queensland) and despite the Irish accent, he knows more about Australian produce than most.

Alastair loves nothing better than the opportunities to meet Queensland's farmers, fishermen and manufacturers, hear their stories, and be inspired by them…then create dishes from their amazing produce.

Alastair is executive chef at Brisbane's iconic Bretts Wharf and co-owner and executive chef of Tank Restaurant and Bar – and that is where you will find him most days - in the kitchen of either (or both!) of the restaurants ensuring the reputation he has built with his team for quality food and service is always achieved. He's a busy boy what with the two a la carte restaurants, a function facility and off-site catering providing food for many of Brisbane's largest and most prestigious events.

Alastair also loves the opportunity his regular appearances on television programs such as Off The Eaten Track and Queensland Weekender provide and his contributions to magazines and newspapers, to share his passion and knowledge about the wonderful fresh produce that we have available to us on our doorstep.

Alastair's past career includes tenures as chef at a number of Michelin listed restaurants in Europe. These include Roscoff in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Da Giovanni restaurant in Torino, Italy. Alastair also worked at one of Scotland's finest restaurants the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow, Scotland and La Fregate in Collioure, France.

Kym Machin
Kym, an Adelaide boy, attributes his cutting-edge culinary style as the result of having worked under a number of high-profile chefs including Adelaide fusion food legend Cheong Liew and Sydney's Tim Pak Poy.

Kym has also worked in some of Australia's most well known kitchens including The Cello, the Grange Restaurant and Chloe's Restaurant to name a few.

While completing his apprenticeship at Jarmers Restaurant in South Australia and being trained by celebrated chefs, Donovan Cooke and David Swain, Kym won Australian Apprentice of the Year.

Following his apprenticeship Kym moved to the Grange where he worked as the understudy to master chef, Cheong Liew.

During this time Kym also undertook work experience during his holidays to broaden his experience at Daily Street Thai with David Thompson, Claude's with Tim Pak Poy and Tetszyua's.

Kym then decided to take a break from his masters to forge an identity for himself through his own cuisine.

Kym joined the Urbane team in 2003 creating a distinct and inspiring menu for the burgeoning venue.

In 2004, globally renowned chef, Ferran Adria, invited Kym to work in his famous three Michelin star restaurant, El Bulli, in Spain.

The extraordinary skills and artistic flare of Kym have helped Urbane to build an enviable reputation with a string of awards and accolades which include being named one of the 50 best restaurants in Australia by The Weekend Australian, being only one of two Queensland restaurants to receive three stars from The Courier-Mail's 2008 Food and Wine Guide and being awarded Restaurant of The Year in 2009 as well as a coveted two hat by Brisbanetimes.com.au.

A multi-award winner in his craft, Kym's gastronomic delights make for the most artistic, adventurous and innovative menu in Queensland. He was awarded the 2007 Young Chef of The Year and Chef of the Year in 2008 and is now pursuing other culinary adventures around Brisbane.

Adrian Richardson
For many people air travel and good food are two mutually exclusive experiences. But for Richardson it was one that led him to the other. Thankfully for Melbourne gastronomes his dreams of becoming a pilot were trumped by the captivating chaos of the kitchen. "I started working in kitchens part time to pay for my lessons and that's where it sort of kicked off, I gave up the flying lessons and went back to school." Since then he has worked in some of the most prestigious kitchens around the world. Richardson can also be found every afternoon on Ten Network's Good Chef Bad Chef.

Despite his early stint in aviation Richardson had "always been around good food, from day one" admitting "I didn't know what "bad" food was". Growing up in a household with "a mélange of North African, Middle Eastern and Italian cuisine" Richardson's heritage definitely helps explain his enthusiasm for quality food that's packed with flavour. What his heritage doesn't help explain is his interest in all things blood and guts, given one side of his family are strict vegetarians.

Nevertheless when it comes to meat Richardson wrote the book on it, literally, MEAT was released in 2008 and provided readers with a simplistic guide on how to buy, cook and enjoy meat. At his restaurant every cut has been dry aged, on the bone for 7 to 8 weeks and is butchered on the premises, "we actually use a lot of cuts that aren't mainstream, so we're using the whole animal in our own particular, strange sort of way." He encourages people to "eat good meat, sustainable produced if you can, grass fed, animals that live a healthy life".

His second book, The Good Life, is a throwback to his younger years. Influenced by memories of times spent cooking at home "the book is about, just enjoying food with your family and friends and taking it easy and making some things at home. It's a simple pleasure, it's not rocket surgery". Richardson's philosophy on food has always involved unabashed enjoyment, "a lot of chefs make really fine, pretty, tiny, beautiful food and that's great, but for me I'm more about family and getting together and sharing things".

Tony Kelly
It was the amazing cooking skills of his grandmother that nurtured Tony's love affair with food. Currently the Head Chef of Stokehouse Brisbane, Tony's food adventures have taken him all over the world.
Since completing an apprenticeship at the Hyatt Regency Coolum, Tony has worked at a variety of outstanding restaurants achieving many accolades and awards during his career. He is known for his "humble food prepared with care using quality produce and served with minimal fuss".

December 2004 saw the opening of The Wine Bar Restaurant on the Sunshine Coast and in two and a half years it received Restaurant & Catering's award for "Best Modern Australian Restaurant", "Best Fine Dining Restaurant", "Best Wine List" and over all "Restaurant of the Year".

The Brisbane food scene was very excited to welcome the arrival of Tony in town late last year as Head Chef of the recently opened Stokehouse at South Bank.