The 2009 Good Food & Wine Show means great news for epicureans! The LG Celebrity Theatre presented by LifeStyle FOOD Channel will feature live demonstrations from leading celebrity chefs whilst more than 150 food, wine and beverage exhibitors are showcasing their fare. At this 750-seat theatre, visitors can hear culinary secrets from chefs during live on-stage demonstrations.

All Chefs involved are listed below as well as a brief background on their culinary adventures to date.

Tobie Puttock – Fifteen Melbourne

Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Tobie trained at Box Hill Institute of TAFE. His love-affair with Italian food began at age 18, when he was working in Melbourne’s acclaimed Caffe e Cucina. This passion flourished as he worked his way across Europe, working eighteen-hour days in Italian-speaking kitchens, occasionally taking time out for snowboarding excursions and the odd long lunch in mountainside trattorias.

In London, Tobie worked at the River Café, widely regarded as that city’s best Italian restaurant, alongside a bevy of high-profile chefs, including Jamie Oliver. Upon returning to Melbourne, and, once again, an Italian kitchen: a place called Termini.

In 2001 a surprise visit from his mate Jamie (now a well-known celebrity chef) and a request to help him on his endeavour with under-privileged London youth, meant Tobie soon found himself back in the UK.

By 2002, Tobie had became head chef at Jamie’s Fifteen London, a restaurant venture that teaches disadvantaged young people how to become industry professionals, and that became the subject of a popular TV series. Back in Melbourne, Tobie opened a new Fifteen in 2006, serving Italian food made with the best produce available, prepared with care, imagination and plenty of heart.

Tobie’s cookbook Daily Italian, released in 2006, sticks to the guiding principle of great Italian cuisine: cooking is, if nothing else, an act of love.

Matt Moran - The Chopping Block

When Matt Moran left school at 15 to become an apprentice chef, little did he know he would one day own ARIA; one of Sydney’s premier restaurants, overlooking the Opera House. Formerly a country boy from Tamworth, Matt began his working life with a four-year apprenticeship perfecting classical French cooking skills. It was a period of discipline, but Moran knew that if he didn’t succeed; he would have to go back to school.

After completing his apprenticeship and working for another four years, Matt teamed with business partner Peter Sullivan and together they opened ARIA in 1991. The restaurant holds two coveted Chef’s Hats awarded by the Sydney Morning Herald’s 2003 Good Food Guide.

Matt likes to give something back – taking on New Apprentices in his harbourside restaurant. “The great thing is that it’s not just a benefit for me. It’s giving something to the industry. It’s encouraging young kids and I have always been a big believer in that,” he says.

Together with Restaurant and Catering Australia he promotes apprenticeships by talking directly with Year 11 and 12 students in their classrooms. By telling his own story and answering questions like “How much money you make?”, he gives them a realistic idea of what being a chef is really like.

“If we don’t have apprentices we don’t have an industry.” Not surprisingly, 8 of the 24 kitchen staff at ARIA are New Apprentices and Matt is proud of the close working relationship they all enjoy.

“I’m fairly hands on … swanning in and out of the kitchen … working with them and showing them exactly what we want. We expect a lot from them from day one. It all comes back to me because it’s my name on it. So what we want on the plate has to be perfect.”

Matt’s constant striving for professional excellence led to an invitation to cook for 100 people at James Beard House, a New York culinary institution in May 2003. “It is extremely prestigious to be asked to cook at James Beard and I was very honoured. There’s only been two other Australian chefs that have been asked.”

At 34, Matt says he is still learning his trade and believes he is far from the top of his profession. “I’ve still got something to achieve and somewhere to go. When I started 18 years ago, I never thought I would own my own restaurant by the time I was 30. But it hasn’t been easy. It’s been a long hard slog.”

Anna Gare - Perth born, The Best in Australia, Nuts and Bolts

Anna Gare’s passion for cooking began when she could reach the top of the kitchen bench. At age eight-and-a- half she took charge of her school canteen one day each week, cooking up a three-course meal for a dollar.

When she was 12 and three quarters, desperate to be 13, she formed an all-girl band with her sister and two friends called the “Jam Tarts”. For ten years the Jam Tarts were a successful touring and recording band within Australia and acclaimed at international music festivals.

Anna supplemented her rock and roll lifestyle with cooking, honing her talents in various restaurants around Australia. After a decade of rock’n’roll, it was time for a change. Her life had always revolved around food and delighting others with her gastronomical gift, so she decided to start charging for her efforts and formed a small catering business.

Today Deluxe Catering with food by Anna Gare is one of Perth’s most successful and innovative Catering Companies. The food created in the Deluxe kitchen not only leaves an impression, but often steals the show. Anna worked on ABC’s Consuming Passions as Ian Parmenter’s right hand assistant, “preparing the dish he had prepared earlier”.

Following her TV experience with Ian, Anna went on to presenting her own cooking segment on magazine chat show called Perth at Five. The program was shot live and ran weeknights for four months. Anna has also presented a documentary on Fremantle, segments on Today Tonight and cooking segments with Perth DIY show Nuts and Bolts.

Anna can soon be seen on the brand new television series, The Best in Australia. The contemporary food show, based on the hit BBC series, The Best.

Alastair McLeod - Ready Steady Cook

Alastair McLeod is the Executive Chef at Brett’s Wharf in Brisbane – it is a big job, as the business incorporates an a la carte seafood restaurant, on-site function facilities and off-site catering.

A dinky-di Australian (his mother was born here) and despite his Irish accent, Alastair knows more about Australian produce than most and is passionate about the fresh produce that we have available.

Before his arrival in Australia nearly 9 years ago, he was chef at a number of Michelin-listed restaurants in Europe. These included Roscoffs in Ireland (his old boss there, Paul Rankin is one of the regular chefs in the British version of Ready Steady Cook), and also Da Giovanni restaurant in Torino in Italy, one of the few family owned restaurants with a Michelin listing.

Alastair also worked at one of Scotland’s finest restaurants, The Ubiquitous Chip (at the time Glasgow's highest Michelin rated restaurant) and La Fregate in France.

Six years ago he took up the position of Executive Chef at Bretts Wharf, and since then he’s won many awards including Restaurant and Catering Associations' Best Event Caterer and Best Venue Caterer as well as Best Seafood Restaurant.

The catering side of the business sees Alastair cooking at some of Australia's most impressive events including a 3000 guest formal sit down dinner ball in a hangar for Virgin Blue, the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival, David Jones launches and the AAMI Stradbroke Cup.

Gary Mehigan – Celebrity TV Chef

Gary Mehigan has the ability to motivate and create passion in his kitchen and his team.

Gary did his apprenticeship and formative years of cooking in London, where being passionate about food is the only thing that will get you through. Not only was it London, but the Connaught and the Souffle, two of the most elite dining rooms in the UK at the time.

Gary is a charismatic Chef, who has always had great vision and business acumen. Fenix, Gary's complex in Richmond, incorporating restaurant, cafe, bar, foodstore, cooking school and events department is one very impressive establishment!

Fenix hosted a dinner for Anthony Bourdain, as a part of the 2001 Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, just an example of some of the exciting events Gary Mehigan and Fenix have been involved in.

Mehigan has called Melbourne home since 1988, and has worked at a plethora of venues including the gracious Burnheim Beeches, Brown's Restaurant, Novotel Melbourne on Collins alongside celebrated French Chef Denis Dupart and with Raymond for the first time, at Hotel Sofitel Melbourne.

This Chef has certainly covered a cross-section of Melbourne dining. Gary has hosted numerous Press dinners, been invited to consult on the opening of Hotel Sofitel Madrid, and sat on a national food & beverage committee for the Accor Group.

George Calombaris - Celebrity TV Chef

In 2003 Calombaris was selected to represent Australia at the Bocuse d’Or International culinary Grand Prix in Lyon, achieving a best ever result for an Australian representative.

In the same year George was the master-mind behind the successful restaurant Reserve, where his food was an often-surprising hybrid of classical haute cuisine and the experimental ideas of European food surrealists. George was also voted one of the top 40 chefs of influence in the world by the Global Food and Wine Magazine in 2004.

Whilst at Reserve, Calombaris was awarded Young Chef of the Year 2004 by The Age Good Food Guide Awards, and Reserve won Best New Restaurant 2004 as well as winning two chefs hats.

He’s packed a lot into a short career, including his own restaurant The Press Club which has just recently opened in Melbourne.

George Calombaris has one simple philosophy when it comes to cuisine; “With each dish that I create, my goal is to achieve for my customer a dining experience designed to do everything, except go unnoticed”

There is no cost involved to view any of the sessions in the The LG Celebrity Theatre presented by LifeStyle FOOD Channel. Please see below for a detailed timetable of sessions:

Friday 31 July

1 Matt Moran 10.30am - 11.00am

2 Alastair McLeod & Anna Gare 11.30am - 12.00pm

3 Tobie Puttock 12.30pm - 1.00pm

4 Matt Moran 1.30pm - 2.00pm

5 Alastair McLeod 2.30pm - 3.00pm

6 Tobie Puttock 6.30pm – 7.00pm

7 Gary Mehigan & George Calombaris 7.30pm – 8.00pm

Saturday 1 August

8 Gary Mehigan & George Calombaris 10.30am - 11.00am

9 Tobie Puttock 11.30am - 12.00pm

10 Matt Moran 12.30pm - 1.00pm

11 Gary Mehigan & George Calombaris 1.30pm - 2.00pm

12 Tobie Puttock 2.30pm - 3.00pm

13 Alastair McLeod & Anna Gare 3.30pm - 4.00pm

14 Matt Moran 4.30pm - 5.00pm

Sunday 2 August

15 Alastair McLeod & Anna Gare 11.00am - 11.30am

16 Gary Mehigan & George Calombaris 12noon - 12.30pm

17 Matt Moran 1.00pm - 1.30pm

18 Alastair McLeod 2.00pm - 2.30pm

19 Matt Moran 3.00pm - 3.30pm

Perth Good Food & Wine Show

Friday 31 July: 10am – 4.30pm, 6pm – 9.30pm

Saturday 1 August: 10am - 6pm

Sunday 2 August: 10am - 5pm

Perth Convention Exhibition Centre

Tickets to the Good Food & Wine Show are available through Ticketek from April on 13 28 49 or www.goodfoodshow.com.au. Adult entry is $30.00.

London, 25 June 2009 -- Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and The Fat Duck Group have joined forces to create the first London restaurant with Chef Heston Blumenthal which will open at Mandarin Oriental’s award winning property in autumn 2010. Blumenthal, of the three Michelin starred The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire and The Hinds Head pub of the same village, has won international acclaim for his unique and multi-sensory approach to cooking. This first restaurant to open outside of the village of Bray will feature the chef’s inimitable style of culinary alchemy with a menu heavily influenced by his ongoing research and discovery of historic British gastronomy.

Mandarin Oriental and Heston Blumenthal are working with the internationally renowned designer, Adam Tihany, to create the restaurant interior. Inspired by historical British style references and Blumenthal’s novel approach to cuisine, Tihany plans to highlight traditional materials such as wood, leather and iron, found in the historical roots of British style, using them in contemporary ways to reinforce Heston’s revival and modernization of traditional British recipes.

Seating 140 guests, the new restaurant will serve lunch, dinner and afternoon tea. The kitchen will be headed by Ashley Palmer Watts who has worked with Blumenthal at The Fat Duck for nine years in the capacity of Group Executive Chef.

Blumenthal commented “I am thrilled at the prospect of opening a restaurant in such a central London location. I have great respect for the Mandarin Oriental brand and working in partnership with the hotel group is a natural step and one which offers an exciting opportunity.”

“We are delighted to partner with The Fat Duck Group on this very exciting new venture. A longtime friend of Heston’s, I have always shared his enthusiasm for English recipes and have enjoyed working with him to help develop talented British chefs through the Roux Scholarship programme,” stated David Nicholls, Corporate Director of Food & Beverage of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is the award-winning owner and operator of some of the world's most prestigious hotels, resorts and residences. Mandarin Oriental now operates, or has under development, 41 hotels representing over 10,000 rooms in 25 countries, with 17 hotels in Asia, 14 in The Americas and 10 in Europe and North Africa. In addition, the Group operates, or has under development, 13 Residences at Mandarin Oriental, connected to the Group’s properties.

Photography of Mandarin Oriental is available to download, in high and low resolution, in the Photo Library of our Media section, at www.mandarinoriental.com.

ViaMichelin updates address search option with enriched content and search functions.

Having enhanced the ergonomic design and functionality of its on-line routes and maps section (viamichelin.co.uk) last April, ViaMichelin has now strengthened its Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism sections to provide even greater levels of support and assistance to customers planning their forthcoming summer travels.

A wealth of restaurant and tourism content

As well as 23,000 Green guide tourist listings and 32,000 MICHELIN guide restaurant selections, the new-look sections will include:

- A new keyword search engine

- Multi-criteria search options enabling site visitors to make specific queries in relation to a given location e.g. "Italian restaurants with outdoor seating in Bath" or "historic buildings in Penzance." Search results will display all relevant listings within a 200 km radius

- Tourism & Gastronomy articles and videos (interviews with leading chefs, suggested places to visit, recipes, recommended tours, etc) produced by the ViaMichelin editorial team and displayed contextually according to a selected region

- Free MP3 Audio guides to download as a travel accessory for forthcoming trips, visits, etc

Visitors to the ViaMichelin website can also now share their own views and comments on any tourist site, restaurant or hotel listed on the site, enabling fellow web users to share opinions and benefit from the experiences of others.

Real-time availability and direct booking in just a few clicks

The online hotel reservation service offers a multi-criteria search option for 100,000 hotel selections across the world, enabling search requests and direct bookings based on location, availability and specific preferences.

ViaMichelin exclusive: an agreement between ViaMichelin and its central booking partners means that customers can cancel reservations without incurring cancellation fees (up to 24 hours prior to scheduled arrival) and will only be charged for rooms at the end of their stay.

Visitors to the site will also benefit from the display (on the left side of the screen) of contextual information relating to any specified location or address. For example, the selection of a specific hotel will prompt a display of nearby restaurants and tourist attractions, places to discover, regional produce, etc.

The chefs at Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove’s signature restaurant The Fireplace are still reeling after cooking for international celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay and his entourage not once, but twice while he was staying at Sanctuary Cove. Gordon dined in The Fireplace the night he arrived at Sanctuary Cove ahead of the three lunch and dinner events that he was hosting as part of Sanctuary Cove’s 21st Birthday Celebrations.

Following the dinner event on Friday night, Gordon chose to once again eat at the hotel’s signature restaurant which was a delight for all the staff. During his visits to The Fireplace, Gordon enjoyed Pacific Oysters; Roasted Field Mushroom with thyme, rocket and Yarra Valley feta; Tajima Wagyu Rib Fillet with glazed eschallots; Darling Downs Grain Fed eye fillet and Tasmanian Lamb Rack and Warm Sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and double cream. The Chefs in The Fireplace were thrilled to be cooking for Gordon and his Sous Chef Stuart Gillies and said on both occasions when he visited the restaurant, he walked up to the chef’s, introduced himself, shook their hands and had a quick chat before being seated.

All meals at the Fireplace are cooked in custom-made wood-fire ovens in an open kitchen where diners can watch the chefs create their magic. Until the end of June, The Fireplace is celebrating Mushroom Mania with a selection of mouth- watering dishes that have been created using one of the most versatile ingredients available. The entrée of baked sweet potato dumpling with wild mushroom truffle sauce has proven extremely popular with diners so far this month. The Fireplace will also take part in the upcoming Taste of the Gold Coast Festival in August, with “Chef’s Go Wild” – a month long promotion featuring specialty game meat dishes.

Until the end of July, The Cove Café at Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove is also continuing with their “Take A Friend for Free” offer which is valid for lunchtime Monday to Saturday. For more information on dining where Gordon Ramsay dined while at Hyatt Regency Sanctuary

Cove visit www.hyatt.sanctuarycove.com or for bookings, call 07 55301234.