Author profile: Tony Bilson

Chef Tony Bilson was at the heart of high-end cuisine in Australia for several decades, with protegés including Neil Perry and Tetsuya Wakuda. We are pleased to add to ckbk both of Bilson’s best-known cookbooks, Tony Bilson’s Recipe Book and Fine Family Cooking, each of which showcase the range and quality of his cooking, and describe how his work was inspired by the classic French chefs. In this profile, Australian food writer Roberta Muir looks at Bilson’s impact on the Australian culinary scene, and picks out a personal selection of recipes from across his illustrious career.

Author profile: Neil Perry

Neil Perry is a leading Australian chef with a career spanning 40+ years. Two more of his cookbooks (Rockpool and Simply Asian) have just been added to ckbk, where they join The Food I Love and Balance and Harmony. To mark the occasion, Roberta Muir caught up with the chef to discuss his cookbooks and his latest restaurant ventures in Sydney.

Mushroom magic: a forage through ckbk's fungi recipes

To celebrate the debut of Fantastic Fungi: The Community Cookbook on ckbk, we chatted with chefs about their top ‘shrooms and unearthed some of our own favorite mushroom recipes.

Behind the Cookbook: Sydney Seafood School

Roberta Muir ran the Sydney Seafood School for more than a decade and during that time the school hosted a Who’s Who of top Australian and international guest chefs. In Sydney Seafood School Cookbook, Roberta brings together all the key information you need on buying and preparing fish, together with more than 90 battle-tested chef recipes.

Behind the CookbookSusan LowMarch 12, 2024Sydney Seafood School Cookbook, Fish, Seafood, Roberta Muir

Author profile: Damien Pignolet

Damien Pignolet has been an influential chef and teacher of cookery in Australia for more than four decades. He trained at the William Angliss College of Catering in Melbourne, and his long career as a chef in and around Sydney at restaurants including Pavilion on the Park, Claude's and Bistro Moncur in Woollahara. He is the author of two cookbooks, French and Salades, both now available in full on ckbk.

Author ProfileSusan LowMarch 5, 2024Damien Pignolet, French, Salades, Roberta Muir

Author Profile: Christine Manfield

Christine Manfield is one of Australia’s most celebrated chefs, and we are delighted to have six of her books now available on ckbk. In this exclusive author profile for ckbk, fellow chef and author Roberta Muir speaks to Christina about her career, her restaurants, and her cookbooks.

Consuming Passions: Cephalopods (Octopus, Squid and Cuttlefish)

Roberta Muir, who ran the Sydney Seafood School for more than a decade, shares her enthusiasm for these many-legged, strange looking, but delicious molluscs.

Consuming passionsckbkJanuary 11, 2024Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish, Cephalopods, Roberta Muir, Sydney Seafood School Cookbook

Behind the Cookbook: Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well

The latest book to be added to ckbk’s collection is Pellegrino Artusi’s era-defining work, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

The book is a foundational text on Italian cuisine, first published in 1891 (not long after Italian unification) and still of key relevance today. It is celebrated by contemporary Italian chefs such as Giorgio Locatelli (who described it as “life-changing”) and writers including Bill Buford and Anna del Conte.

Behind the Cookbook: A Sardinian Cookbook, A Lombardian Cookbook and Wild Weed Pie

They say there are two types of people in the world: Italians and those who wish they were. Despite a very Italian first name, I fall firmly into the second group.

I’ve loved Italy since I spent six weeks backpacking down the Mediterranean coast from Rome to Sicily in the early 90s, discovering cacio e pepe pasta, buffalo mozzarella, authentic cannoli and Campari soda. I love its food, wine, architecture and history, but most of all I love its people and the way they embrace life and share it with whoever happens to be nearby, most often around the table.

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