12.15pm, March 5th, 1987. My grade two teacher decided that the class would have an ‘It’s a Small World After All’ lunch party and bring in food from their country of origin. I brought vegemite and we were in a pretty small anglo-centric town so most kids had party pies or chips, but there were a few Greek, Italian and European kids and it was the first time I’d seen, or even heard of things like brie, olives and salami.

I couldn’t believe there were so many amazing flavours from around the world and made it a bit of a mission then and there to get my hands on more. I kind of figured mum’s ‘Beef Curry’ with sultanas, carrot, celery, Keen’s Curry Powder and undercooked brown rice probably wasn’t particularly authentic, but this was well before the Internet, and we lived in a small country town in coastal NSW, so it took a while to start finding more exotic ingredients.

It wasn’t until I’d finished uni and back-packed around the world that my eyes and nose were really opened. The first time I smelt the spices on the streets of Singapore I knew I wanted to make cooking a major part of my life, and journeying through rural Italy and France tasting the local cuisine and learning how to order from the village markets in my early 20s cemented that passion.

Food runs in the family genes of course. My brother is a chef who owns his own small, but increasingly successful/award winning cafe. My parents have always been dedicated horticulturalists with a penchant for organic vegies and my grandparents were farmers and missionaries who lived off the land. I work in advertising and I run a couple of specialist marketing consultancies, which I absolutely love, but the dream is to focus more on food and wine marketing and help people with food dreams to make their businesses a reality. I’m getting there. I’ll have my own restaurant one day, but not for a little while yet. This blog is rungs in the ladder.

If you’d like to get in touch catch me on Twitter @mattsterchef

Cheers,
Matt