Alastair McLeod

Alastair McLeod is Executive Chef at Bretts Wharf in Brisbane - which is a big job, the business incorporates an la carte seafood restaurant, on-site function facilities and off-site catering. He´s a dinky-di Australian (his mother was born here) and despite the Irish accent, he knows more about Australian produce than most and is passionate about the fresh produce that we have available to us in Australia, and especially in the South East Queensland region.

Previous to 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, which is 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 has 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.

Manu Feildel

It seems that Manu Fieldel was destined to become a great chef from the moment he was born — his great grandfather was a pastry chef, his grandfather, father and cousin were chefs, his uncle is a charcutier and his mother is a great cook.

His first job at The Cafe Royal, was hard to say the least, as Manu didn´t speak any English. But his perseverance paid off, and he later took up a position as Chef de Partie at the seafood restaurant, Livebait (nominated best seafood in the UK in '98) and that's when he really began to understand and love the career he had chosen.

Manu relocated to Sydney and after six months with Hugo´s at Bondi Beach, he opened the kitchen at the new Hugo´s Lounge in Kings Cross. Manu ran the kitchen for about 18 months before he moved to Restaurant VII with its exciting fusion of French and Japanese cuisine.

It was then Tony Bilson approached Manu to open his new venture Bilsons and it seems his career has turned full circle, as he returns to his roots cooking contemporary French cuisine.

Congratulations to Manu for being awarded his 3rd chefs hat for Bilsons at the 2007 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards

George Calombaris

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"

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.

Darren Simpson

Darren Simpson´s resume reads like the "who´s who" of restaurants in the UK. Darren studied and began his career in Northern Ireland where he was born. Within two years of landing his first job. Darren was named UK´s Young Chef of the Year. At 21, he was and still is, the youngest ever winner of this prestigious annual award open to all UK chefs under the age of 25.

From 1992 to 1999, Darren has trained and worked with some of the greatest. He has worked in restaurants such as Paul Rankin´s Michelin-starred Roscoff, Belfast; Albert Roux´s Michelin-starred Le Gavroche, London; Sally Clarke´s Clarke´s, London: Simon Hopkinson´s Bibendum, London; as joint Head Chef of the acclaimed River Café, London, and Head Chef at Sir Terence Conran´s Sartoria in Savile Row, London.

Simpson has also written about food for various newspapers and magazines both here and overseas including British Esquire; The Sydney Morning Herald´s Good Living supplement and Live This Magazine.

Darren Simpson clearly knows how to cook courses of fine Italian food; all of them garnished with his cheekily infectious Irish charm.

As he said, it´s all about "keeping it simple"

Darren can be contacted via : Andrew Taylor Management - Sydney

Damian Heads

Brisbane born Damian started his career in the kitchens at the Brisbane Hilton. He stayed just long enough to complete his apprenticeship … the day after Damian finished his apprenticeship he was on a plane to Europe, with his knives packed in his backpack.

By January 2000, he was back in Sydney, as Sauce Chef at the Bennelong Restaurant at the Sydney Opera House.

In mid 2001 he moved to Milsons as Chef de Partie, and the next year he was awarded the Josephine Pignolet Award for Best Young Chef.

In 2003 he opened the very popular Garfish, before embarking on a six month study trip (as part of his prize for the Josephine Pignolet Award) through Europe and the United Kingdom, visiting a wide variety of restaurants and meeting with some of the world´s best chefs.

On returning to Australia early 2005 Damian took the role of Head Chef at Fuel Bistro, Surry Hills, Sydney.

One year on Damian has joined forces with synonymous architect Michael McCann (architect best known for Flying Fish, Mu Shu, Whitewater, and many more) in his latest project Pony, situated in The Rocks on the doorstep of Sydney Harbour. Pony a restaurant which is no doubt as unique as it´s name.

Janelle Bloom

Janelle Bloom is one of this countries most loved food writers and authors. She wants to spread the word that cooking is fun and easy although this is not always the case, she says, when you have just 20 minutes to cook a feast from a bag of secret ingredients!. Janelle believes cooking begins with confidence and a little patience, she is passionate that her recipes are foolproof, easy to follow, use ingredients that are easy to obtain, in season and taste as good as they look.

2008 is looking like a great year for Janelle, she will launch her third cookbook published by Random House and it will be on the shelves early November. ´I have been working on this book for over 5 years, it will include my all time favourite recipes all beautifully photographed, I cant wait too see it on the shelf!´

As well as writing the book and appearing on ready steady cook, Janelle can be heard Sunday afternoons 4pm till 6pm on Radio 2UE with Glenn Wheeler.

2008 wont be all work, there is plenty of time for fun, while Janelle loves to read, swim, exercise (to work off all the food she eats) and cook of course, Janelle will continue to work as a volunteer in the community donating as much time each week as she can to her favourite cause Ronald Mcdonald House.

When asked to tell us her thoughts on Ready Steady Cook, Janelle says ´it is challenging and choatic, but the most fun she's ever had in a kitchen and the best job I have ever had´!

Matt Golinski

Matt Golinski is a man of few words, and those  he does use are fairly understated. If you ask him where he has worked he´ll tell you that he hasn´t worked "with the Roux Brothers, Marco Pierre White, Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsay."

Born on the Sunshine Coast, Matt began life as an apprentice in Brisbane, working at Squirrels Restaurant, West End and Chevaliers Restaurant. With his apprenticeship completed, he packed his fishing rod and his favourite books and headed around Australia.

Twelve months on the road didn´t cure his wanderlust and in 1997 Matt and his wife Rachel, travelled through Thailand, Turkey, Europe and England, working in a variety of large and small establishments.

By 1999 the Sunshine Coast was calling them back, and Matt took up the position of Executive Chef at Ricky Ricardo´s in Noosa. Here he cooked Mediterranean-inspired food in one of the most beautiful locations in Australia.

Matt also has a swag of local and international awards to his name, including when he beat the Italians at their own game and earned a bronze medal from Bologna´s Internazionale della Cucina Bolognese for cooking fresh pasta.

Still based on the Sunshine Coast today Matt is currently focusing on his own tapas range The Rolling Dolmade.

Jacqui Gowan

Jacqui Gowan is one female chef that´s not afraid to go up against the boys!

Jacqui started her career at Darling Mills in Glebe, and from there went on to be second in charge at Bathers´ Pavilion in Balmoral. She has also run a Santa Fe /South American style restaurant called Rattle Snake Grill in Neutral Bay, and is currently Head Chef at Subsolo, in Sydney.

According to Jacqui, when it comes to the kitchen, you´ve got to be tough, "You have to be male in the kitchen… and then when you leave you do your hair and your nails and become a girl again".

Jacqui rarely cooks at home but when she does, she enjoys BBQ´s and sukiyaki nights, basically any cooking situation that allows her to socialise and cook at the same time. Having said that, Jacqui does confess she would rather eat breakfast, lunch and dinner out on her days off.

Ready Steady Cook appeals to Jacqui because she likes seeing Chefs having fun. She believes the show is a fun challenge and adds another dimension to her career.

"As a Head Chef you are always looking for something that will keep you motivated all the time, and Ready Steady Cook is an escape from what I do everyday."

Mark Jensen

Unlike most chefs Mark Jensen didn´t start working in a professional kitchen until the age of 27. "At that time I was considering a career change but didn´t know what that change might be. I had to get away and consider my options so I moved to Byron Bay. I found work as a kitchen hand, surfed in the morning and washed pots at night for 6 months. During this time I became completely enamored with restaurant life."

Mark decided that if he was going to be a successful Chef the right training would be essential. He moved backed to Sydney and promptly obtained a position in Mathew Morans kitchen at the Paddington Inn Bistro. Here he refined the techniques he had previously learnt under the exceptional tutelage of Janni Krystis.

The time had come for Mark to make his own stand in the Sydney dining scene and he opened the dining room at the Olympic Hotel.

After many years at the stoves and many favourable reviews in the Good Food Guide Mark was approached by his brother-in-law to head up the kitchen brigade at his new restaurant, Red Lantern. He received intensive training from a Vietnamese master chef and quickly became familiar with his new friends the wok and the cleaver.

Red Lantern became an instant hit with Sydney´s dining public, a cool but casual dining room, fresh ingredients crafted in a traditional manner with informative service.

"The most enjoyable part of being on RSC is meeting and exchanging ideas with the other talented chefs and sharing the passion of food with the contestants."

Jared Ingersoll

Jared started Danks Street Depot with his wife Melanie Starr in February 2002.

Jared previously spent time in London working at Mezzo, in So-Ho and Michelin two star- The Square and Hillaire in South Kensington. Jared then travelled to Sydney where he was head chef at Bayswater Brasserie followed by the opening of Dank Street Depot.

Jared has cooked for numerous Celebrities- including Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, Joan Rivers (private dinner party, Knightsbridge London). When the legendery Rick Stein is in town , he´s a bit of a regular at Danks Street along with Hugo Weaving, Lisa Forest, Annita Keating, Merrick (radio host for Nova 96.9), along with numerous politicians such as Alexander Downer and Frank Sartor.

Jared´s latest book out - The Danks Street Depot cookbook released in March 2006.

Jared and his team have worked hard to build a reputation for having a good respect for seasonal produce and ´honest flavour packed food´(SMH good food 2006)

Dank Street Depot has numerous and consistently good reviews and articles including a mention in Vogue Living, as being a must see destination when visiting NSW.

Dominique Rizzo

Dominique Rizzo has 13 years experience as a chef, and has a passion for good food and quality ingredients.

"I can remember being about three and making my mum cups of coffee by using the hot water tap in the bath because I couldn't reach the one in the kitchen", she says. "I love everything about food - the flavours, the tastes, the textures, and how to put it together, the passion of creating dishes and the rawness of it".

Her passion for creative food is fuelled by her Sicilian heritage and a deep desire to develop innovative cuisine using quality safe, clean, fresh organic produce.

Check out Dominique's site

Jeff Campbell

How does a Rock Star wannabe, skateboarding lad from Sydney, become a hot, young Chef? Well these things can start with humble beginnings, like packet cake mix and an inspiring Aunt. For Jeff Campbell it was those things and a long journey via Japan and Europe, before returning home to Sydney to really make his mark.

Jeff Campbell´s honest and passionate enthusiasm for food can be attributed to many things during his 17 years of cooking. But it is his time with Jamie Oliver and Ben O´Donoghue at Monte´s in London that really stands out of him. Jeff was lucky enough to work with a team that was inspired daily with new ideas and attitudes, as well as assisting Jamie on two of his "Naked Chef" books.

Jeff recently setup his business Jetfood, which specializes in restaurant consulting, corporate catering, private dinner parties & cooking classes.  He is also currently appearing in the LG Ready Steady Cook Roadshow, throughout NSW, and loves the opportunity to teach people how to cook easy & delicious food, on a budget and with style.

Jeff was a guest judge on Lifestyle Channel´s "Great BBQ Challenge", has had regular appearances on Channel Nine´s "Fresh", all while starting up his own consulting & catering business, "Jet Food".  Jeff wants to make his own mark on the Australian food scene through education, enthusiasm and fun. With plans for a book, TV show, and to assist "Suicide Prevention Australia", this will be one busy boy, but that´s just the way he likes it.

Peter Everett

Peter Everett comes to Ready Steady Cook with a passion for food and a passion for life. Although he counts cooking as a major hobby (he makes a great Thai salad) Peter is not a chef. He therefore "de-jargons the chef-speak", asks lots of questions, and generally acts as a link between the audience and the professional chefs, making the show both extremely entertaining and educational.

Peter is well known as the interior designer who, after being told by Princess Diana's clairvoyant in London in 1996 that he would end up on TV, found himself on that very medium on home renovation programs including Changing Rooms, Renovation Rescue and Amazing Homes.

But there's much more to Peter than renovating. Peter grew up "an outback kid" in Charleville, central Queensland. A natural entertainer, he moved to Brisbane as a teen and joined a singing group. He spent years travelling and living in the U.S. and Hong Kong before settling in Sydney to run the Queen Street Brasserie.

Apart from cooking, his hobbies include yoga, photography and horse riding.

Peter Everett loves food and he loves an audience, so filming in front of RSC's studio audience makes hosting his third series of Ready Steady Cook a dream job for this fun-loving and lovable personality.