Cooking School Chefs

 

Christine Manfield

Christine Manfield is one of Australia's most celebrated chefs and she has 3 rare Master Classes planned at Sticky Rice Cooking School in Adelaide on May 21/22/23 2010

A perfectionist inspired by complex flavours and a writer whose successful books, Paramount Cooking, Christine Manfield Desserts, Christine Manfield Originals, Spice and Stir, have spiced up the lives of keen cooks from Melbourne to Mumbai and Manhattan, her fifth book Fire - A World of Flavour was released in October 2008 to instant acclaim.

Her highly celebrated restaurant Universal opened in Sydney's Darlinghurst in August 2007. With a philosophy that centres on food without borders, pure clean flavours and integrity of produce, the menu showcases flavours of the world, where the food and wine reflect her exotic global travels, crossing cultural boundaries with confidence and showing respect for culinary heritage; and is living to the promise of consolidating her prominence and relevance in Sydney's dynamic dining scene.

Christine continues her culinary adventures, maintaining her work portfolio in Australia, pursuing her global and travel interests that allow her to explore and challenge herself with the never ending possibilities and potential that the world of gastronomy offers.

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David Thompson

“For a mastery of Thai cooking, you must allow your tastebuds to be your guide.”
Internationally renowned and respected Chef David Thompson will be teaching 3 Sensational Master Classes at the Sticky Rice School on 13th,14th 15th November 2009. This is a one off opportunity for SA since David has not visited Adelaide for 8 years! Places are limited… Bookings Open Now

Here’s a bit about this great Chef!

David first went to Thailand by mistake: a holiday plan had to be changed at the last minute and he ended up in Bangkok, where he was seduced by the people, their culture and cuisine.
But it was that visit to Thailand, and 18 months spent studying Thai cuisine under the guidance of an elderly matriarch who cooked for the Royal Family at the palace at Bangkok, that “seduced” him completely.

Restaurants
On his return from Thailand, David opened his own restaurant in Darley Street Thai in Sydney’s Newtown, and was then very much an oddity – a western chef tackling Asian food.
His Sydney restaurants, the acclaimed Darley Street Thai – now closed – and the perennially popular Sailors Thai, have increased the awareness and appreciation of authentic Thai cooking in Australia. In July 2001 he opened Nahm, in London’s Halkin Hotel. Seven months later, it gained a Michelin star, making Nahm the first Thai restaurant to attain such an award.

Author
Working alongside cooks who had perfected their craft in the Thai royal palaces, he began to document the traditional recipes and culinary techniques that have been handed down from generation to generation – before they were eroded, altered and modernised beyond all recognition. The result was David's First book Thai Food, the most comprehensive account of this ancient and exotic cuisine ever published in English.
Thai Food – is regarded as the bible of Thai cuisine. Indeed, with its detailed exploration of the role of food in Thai culture, as well as plenty of recipes, the book runs to an appropriately biblical number of pages.
Due to be released is David's second book Thai Street Food, and his Master Classes in November at the Sticky Rice Cooking School will explore just that!

Mentored
Amongst others including Spirit House Chef Katrina Ryan and Award winning Adelaide Chef Jordan Theodoros (both on our chefs page!) David mentored Martin Boetz at Darley Street Thai and it was during this period that Martin first developed a passion and palate for Asian food cooked with the freshest, local produce and ingredients.
Martin later went on to run Sailors Thai. It was here that he secured his reputation as one of Australia's leading talents of contemporary Thai-style Asian cooking. In 2003, Boetz was honoured when David Thompson visited from London to officially launch his first cookbook: Longrain Modern Thai Food (Hardie Grant Books).

Living and Working in Bangkok
Since that fateful trip some 20 years ago, Thailand has become David's second home and he continued to spend aprox 6 months of the year there.

David consults to the prestigious Suan Dusit College in Bangkok on the preservation of Thai culinary heritage and he is also an eloquent ambassador for Thai culture.

He is, in short, passionate and maybe even a tiny bit obsessive about creating authentic Thai dishes. So much so that when the Thai government wanted to set up a restaurant serving the very best of their country’s cuisine, he was the man they called in to help.

His Philosophy
His food is pure Thai and he makes no attempt to juggle flavours and ideas; he makes no compromises in trying to reproduce the fine Thai dishes he discovered in Bangkok. He works to re-create a flavour, a taste sensation, and he pursues authenticity rigorously.
In his determination to find the correct ingredients, David has worked with farmers in the Northern Territory and far North Queensland, encouraging them to plant crops of Kaffir limes, water lilies and wild ginger to fuel his cooking pots. His kitchen uses painstaking traditional techniques.
As part of his visit to the Sticky Rice Cooking school owner Claire Fuller is working with David to establish an SA supply of hard to come by ingredients.

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Katrina Ryan

Katrina Ryan's profile reads like the who's who of celebrity chefs and film stars. She is a rare talent and is not only experienced with Thai & Vietnamese cuisine, but also Moroccan, and Mediterranean.

To our delight she has now added the Sticky Rice Cooking School to her list of regular teaching venues and will be joining us and fellow Spirit House Chef Kelly Lord for lots of inspirational classes throughout the rest of 2009.

As former Head Chef in Neil Perry's famous Rock Pool restaurant and having owned her own successful restaurants, Katrina commenced her cooking career in 1987. She went to work for Neil Perry, first at Bondi Beach's Blue Water Grill, and then to 'Rockpool' for 5 years. Three of those years were as Head Chef, overseeing burgeoning apprentices such as Kylie Kwong.

The arrival of children saw Katrina assisting her husband Mark with the running of their two restaurants, The Pig and the Olives, and several stints working as personal chef to Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.

A sea change brought the family to Noosa and 5 years ago Katrina found her dream job as a part time teacher at the Spirit House Cooking School. For many years she has written a weekly food column for the Noosa Journal and in 2005-2006 filmed a series of cooking segments at the Spirit House for the TV program 'Escape with ET'. She continues to teach and lead food tours for the Spirit House in Yandina and to find inspiration from her friend and mentor Thai food expert David Thompson.
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Simon Bryant

Simon Bryant is a face well known to regional and urban Australia as he and South Australian food icon Maggie Beer was beamed into thousands of lounge rooms and kitchens via the ABC program The Cook & the Chef.

He began his career in several Thai & Indian Restaurants in Melbourne, before moving to Adelaide in 1995. Simon was with Hilton Adelaide for more than 10 years, as a Chef de Partie in 'The Grange' with Cheong Liew before emerging as one of South Australia’s hottest young chefs as Executive Chef in 'The Brasserie'.

Simon is about to embark on the next stage of his life journey which includes working on his first book and we are delighted that Simon is dedicating some of his time to teaching at the Sticky Rice Cooking School from Oct 2010.
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Marieke Brugman

Legendary Chef Marieke Brugman has an unsurpassed passion for and knowledge of India. A profoundly respected Chef and owner of her own gourmet cooking school for decades, Marieke was for 30 years at the helm of the kitchens at the HowquaDale Gourmet Retreat.

Marieke is now inspired to teach further afield as she leads culinary tours to India through her company The Art of Living and teaches across the country as a talented and passionate guest Chef.

She will be introducing herself to customers of the Sticky rice Cooking School on July 31st and Aug 1st for 2 great Master Classes.
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Kurma Dasa

Kurma Dasa is one of the world's leading proponents of pure and natural vegetarian cuisine.

Known as 'Australia's Vegetarian Guru', Kurma Dasa has been writing cookbooks, teaching students around the world and hosting internationally broadcast TV shows for over thirty five years. His books have sold almost one million copies.

Kurma's light-hearted presentation of healthy, attractive and innovative cuisine continues to shake off the outdated notion that vegetarian food is dull and lack-lustre. Kurma's cuisine is stylish and delicious, and most importantly, highly approachable.

Kurma was head chef at Melbourne's most popular Vegetarian Restaurant, Gopal's for many years, and is the author of 'Great Vegetarian Dishes' (which is in its seventh print run), 'Cooking With Kurma', 'Quick Vegetarian Dishes', and most recently 'Vegetarian World Food'. All books have received wide acclaim for their professional, clearly written and richly illustrated presentation of vegetarian cuisine.

Kurma has hosted three internationally broadcast television cooking series seen in over 46 countries. His third and latest 26-part TV series "Cooking with Kurma - More Great Vegetarian Dishes" recently screened throughout Australia on SBS and Foxtel.
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Kelly Lord

For the past 4 years Kelly has been the head chef at the famous Spirit House restaurant and now teaches at their fabulous cooking school. With a passion for travel you can find Kelly leading Spirit House food tours to Thailand, Vietnam and Laos - luckily for us, he travels south as well.

With years of experience leading kitchen teams in 5 star hotels, Kelly has an innate gift for food styling and a wealth of cooking knowledge to share with you. He will be a regular fixture at Sticky Rice Cooking School teaching you the tips, trick and techniques to create the sort of award-winning Asian cuisine that the Spirit House is famous for.
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Nhut Huynh - Chef/Author 'Little Vietnam'

In 2010, Nhut is excited to be involved with Tasting Australia in Adelaide and will teach a Special Vietnamese Master Class at the Sticky Rice Cooking School on May 3rd.

Nhut Huynh arrived in Australia in 1984 as a refugee from Vietnam. Like many others escaping political change and upheaval, he had dreams of a better life with freedom and opportunity. After finishing his apprenticeship, like many before him he ventured into the world of commercial cookery to explore his options. In 2000 Nhut opened his first restaurant RQ Sydney in Darlinghurst, NSW with business partner food and wine writer Jeremy McNamara.

RQ started life as a casual brasserie serving simple Asian favourites, but as the project came together it evolved into one of Sydney's early pioneers of upmarket Asian eateries. RQ was an immediate success and Nhut quickly developed a signature style of Vietnamese inspired dishes prepared in a contemporary style. Reviews and media hype recorded Nhut's journey, and regular appearances on television and articles in premium food media followed including Australian Gourmet Traveller and Delicious Magazine.

Nhut has appeared as a regular presenter on Mornings with Kerri-Anne (9 network), Fresh (9 network), Food Safari (SBS) and a wide range of public demonstration events across NSW. Nhut also has spent time teaching at The KOTO project for street kids in Hanoi and in 2004, he was recognised for his contributions to training in cookery with an award from Tourism Training Australia

In 2007, Nhut and Jeremy sold RQ Sydney to free Nhut from full-time commitment to their restaurant operations, and Nhut began work on his first cookery book 'Little Vietnam' (Lantern). Nhut travelled widely throughout Vietnam to collect treasured family recipes for his book. In July 2009, 'Little Vietnam' was published to wide acclaim. Nhut is currently working on research for his next book and is engaged as a training consultant specialising in Asian cookery. Nhut Huynh continues to surprise and delight diners and his colleagues with his unique take on Vietnamese inspired cuisine in Australia.
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Genevieve Harris

Chef Genevieve Harris started her working life as a school teacher, all the while cooking furiously for friends and family, honing her skills in the kitchen. She then embarked on a 25 plus-year career in hospitality that began at the Grey Masts restaurant in Robe on the Limestone Coast in South Australia.

In the late 1980s Genevieve moved to Sydney where she worked at the Blue Water Grill in Bondi, and at the Bathers Pavilion, Balmoral, two Sydney beachside dining benchmarks at that time. In between working in these, and other iconic Sydney restaurants, she spent time travelling (and eating) around South East Asia before spending two years as executive chef at the luxurious Amankila Resort, Bali.

Food critics have lauded her as a perfectionist,a chef of incredible finesse and refinement with a rare understanding of ingredients and spices. Returning to Adelaide in the late 1990s she owned and ran the highly regarded Nediz restaurant with her business partner and sister Marianne Harris. Together they have continued the Nediz business moving into food writing, styling, teaching and exquisite special occasion catering events.

Genevieve is an inspiration to learn from and she is passionate about sharing her wealth of knowledge. Speciality classes with Genevieve will have you journeying to regional Indonesian and uncovering the secrets of Nonya cuisine.
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Ali Seedsman

Chef Ali Seedsman has been cooking professionally for over 20 years. During this time she spent 9 years in Sydney, running al a carte restaurant service and functions concurrently at The Bayswater Brasserie and then Bathers Pavillion. She also gained extensive experience at MG Garage.

Ali returned to Adelaide and worked as the 1st Executive Chef at Magill Estate and then Head Chef at Universal Wine Bar. Ali now shares her time between teaching and catering for private and corporate events and we a lucky enough to have her teaching some exciting Asian classes at the Sticky Rice Cooking School and inspiring audiences as one of our demonstration chefs at public events.
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Allie Reynolds

With a family of 8 to feed, Allies mother knew a thing or two about cooking. Allie has inherited that deep love and understanding of food and its place in the family, and has been a culinary consultant and demonstrator for many years.

Born and educated in England, she followed a successful career in teaching catering. Allie then lived in Asia for several years before moving to Darwin (where one of her jobs was to cook for the Administrator), then to Coffs Harbour, where she ran the popular Cooking School. During this time Allie presented a weekly food segment called 'Mere Morsels' for ABC Mid North Coast local radio.

Allie is now settled in the Adelaide Hills with her family and three cats. As a regular food guest on 891 ABC Adelaide, Allie is able to share her passion for food. In 2006 she added the Le Cordon Bleu Master of Gastronomy from the University of Adelaide to her portfolio and is now engaged as a consultant Gastronomer on a variety of projects.

Allie is passionate about food and teaching and has put together our kids classes where no other Chef dares to go! With teachers like Allie there is hope yet for the youngsters of today.

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Yukiko Anschutz

Chef Yukiko Anschutz is currently working at the prestigious Hyatt Regency hotel in the award winning Shiki restaurant. Chef Yukiko has a passion for Thai and Japanese cuisine and over 15 years of teaching experience. Her Thai classes at the Sticky Rice School were featured on TV's The Cook and The Chef in 2009 and her popularity as one of our regular teaching chefs continues to escalate.

Her past includes a career tutoring for the Institute of TAFE and as a guest demonstrator at major culinary events including the 2006 Seafood Soiree and the 2005 central market Tasting of South Australia.

A Qualified Professional in Asian cuisine and trained at the Thai Cooking School at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, Yukiko has a great depth of knowledge for Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Thai and Japanese cuisine.

Chef Yukiko is a perfect fit for the Sticky Rice Cooking School because she believes that cooking should be fun and exploratory; a fundamental tenet of her classes. Yukiko has an unique ability to demonstrate traditional Asian cuisine and then infuse it with exciting and contemporary influences. Chef Yukiko builds on this by making her cooking classes enjoyable and uncomplicated -she has the exceptional ability to deconstruct complex and intimidating dishes; distilling the recipes and culinary techniques into simple and effective principles that allow all lovers of fine food to improve their culinary skills.

Experience Chef Yukiko's effervescent and engaging style by taking part in one of her cooking adventures

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Jordan Theodoros

Award winning Chef Jordan Theodoros has cooked in Myanmar, Hong Kong and alongside David Thomson, the Thai food expert, in Sydney at Darley St Thai. He began his career 18 years ago working under under Lew Kathreptis at Mezes; has lived and worked in Burma and Shanghai for 6 years with the luxury boutique hotel group GHM; then returned to Adelaide and won 2006 Chef Of The Year and Best Fine Dining Restaurant whilst Head Chef at The Melting Pot.

In 2008 he returned from Rajasthan in India where he consulted to the Aman Resorts Group and late last year he opened his own place; Aquacaf, a casual waterside eatery in Goolwa.

Jordan has been an inspiration to many people along the way and now joins the Sticky Rice Cooking School as a guest chef to offer his expertise and guidance in award winning Asian Cuisine.
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Brian Smith

Brian Smith has over 30 years experience as a professional chef in fine dining restaurants in Adelaide, Sydney and London. Brian is a passionate expert in Indian, Sri Lankan and Nonya cuisine and has a charismatic warmth that extends to all those that he teaches. As Brian explains:

In India I fell in love with the country, its food and culture. I stayed in India for eighteen months travelling the length and breadth of the county, taking the opportunity to experience the varying flavours across the states.

An extensive traveller, his food journeys also took him to Bali, Java, Sumatra, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Japan then Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Greece.

Every step of the way presented new challenges and offered new taste discoveries and Brian spent his time foraging out those unique ingredients, delving behind the recipes of those memorable dishes and questioning the locals, always eager to master the unique flavour combinations that could be recreated back home. As a Sticky Rice teaching Chef, Brian presents his classes in an informal and relaxed manner and will be enjoyed by keen and amateur cooks who want to ask questions and discover the secrets. The trial and effort has been done for you so enjoy his expertise and become a master in your own kitchen.

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