My other nomination is David Thompson after I finished watching his series “Thai Street Food With David” on SBS TV recently.
He is a great presenter and unpretentious despite being considered by many to be the world’s leading authority on Thai cuisine.
+1 for David Chang. Seems to have stayed very humble after achieving so much. His Ugly Delicious series on Netflix is great!
Not to mention his cameos in Treme…
Ottolenghi and Thomas Keller… Yotam has a new book out and I trialing new dishes.
Back to baking so Thomas Keller ad hock at home is out again. Making pickles again as well.
An interesting article regarding him.
A suggestion for simplifing choosing the winning chef, at least from those chefs who present their own TV series.
If someone can nominate a chef with their own TV shows who has not said “I can hardly wait”, “I can’t wait”. “I just can’t wait” and so forth on their TV shows, then they are the winner.
Whilst I was watching Justine Schofield yesterday on SBS TV, I heard her say it 3 times in just 1 segment of a 30 minute episode.
It will probably be just as hard to win as a tagged fish competition my old grandad told me about when I was young.
He said that it was held in the Wild River which flows through Herberton in FNQ, and despite the large prize money on offer, no one caught the tagged fish.
Some time after the event, someone found a dead tagged fish in a wire cage in the river.
Does Matt Preston qualify?
He did a few segments on Master Chef, one with a tin of baked beans that was highly relatable to many everyday kitchens. No BS in that offering?
Or does Matt qualify for the Best Celebrity Chef’s Fashion Award? Note that fashion is also likely to be as divisive as Matt’s take on breakfast.
Can we use that idea for the next challenge? 
I can picture Matt Preston in that outfit - with a cravat.
I wish now that I couldn’t.
Many years ago, I did an internet search for chorizo recipies and one result was for Peter Russell Faark for “F… Chorizos & Eggs”.
I am not sure whether it was a parody or whether it was ever supposed to be posted online, but it was certainly hilarious.
As far as his TV appearances go, my favourite was one of his ads for Australian dairy products which featured him walking near a group of people in white lab coats with a mechanical cow to promote butter over margarine.
Oh bravo with all those comments! 
Depends which series. The last one done she did when she was still married was way overdone. After what came out in public court proceedings, I wasn’t surprised. She was going through a very horrid time and was acting. Given how good her books are, I can overlook that one series.
The last series she did, she is much less over doing the oohs and aaahs. Much better viewing.
Not a celebrity, but my favourite cooking writer has to be Tess Mallos
She died a few years ago, but her Complete Mediterranean Cookbook remains, after many decades one of my “go to” cookbooks. I have pretty much destroyed one copy and am working hard on a second.
Others include
Nathan Myhrvold who, while I haven’t cooked much of his directly, has completely reassessed my cooking practices.
Kenji López-Alt is another who explains the “why” of cooking in a way that is much more approachable.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned Paul West. I liked him in the Aus version of River Cottage. I also like Maggie Beer and Simon whatsisface… no fuss with any of them. Oh yeah, and Mark Olive for his use of native ingredients. I’m dying to try some finger limes which I had never heard of before Mark talked about them in one of his early shows.
The Finger Limes have juicy little pearls in them. They separate easily out of the skin and are a delightful mouth feel and taste when they crunch and spill the juice into your mouth. There are several flavour varieties and I like the Red Champagne ones the most but I also like the Pink Ice one. You can grow them in large pots but be warned they are thorny so a decent pair of solid gloves are advised when trimming the plant, weeding and harvesting.
My mouth starts drooling whenever I see them. And, I had NO idea that there were so many varieties. I wont be growing any, wish I knew where I could buy the fruit, I have never seen in a fruit and veg shop.
It’s an interesting diversion, and definitely off topic, but still a gourmet item.
They are seasonal. The fruit does not store for extended periods. We’ve seen them at our local F&V (Glass House Mountains, Qld) in very small quantities. You will find them next to two large armed security guards (only joking).
https://anfab.org.au/main.asp?_=Finger%20Lime
They are a temperate/subtropical understory rain forest plant that grows best on the fringes of the forests. Like the native Macadamias we’ve nearly succeeded in eliminating the various varieties from the wild through forest conversion to agriculture and urbanisation. My native plants bible suggests for SE Qld they are not common and found in the Beenleigh, Beechmont, Mt Tamborine areas. Also found in Northern NSW, IE the bit near the Qld border, and not just any where further from Sydney than Woy Woy.
Fortunately some bright sparks have been producing grafted varieties for backyard and large scale planting.
There are numerous guides to growing on the web. This one if you skip to Finger Limes explains something of the issues.
https://www.ausbushfoods.com/bushfoodsonline/backissues/Issue3/Issue3_1.html
They have their own - on trend foodie niche and may well become one more super food to add to the list, (super food - anything not a burger and fries).
Red Champagne store reasonably well, I think they are one of the best in that regard. Pink Ice is also another good one but I find it is best eaten fresh but it will store for a bit (it is often one of the more commercial croppers)…
