A chef by sheer accident

Cooking was purely a means to fund a passion for snowboarding for award-winning celebrity chef Tobie Puttock. But food ruled supreme for this down-to-earth Aussie, whose close mate Jamie Oliver is among his favoured advocates.

"I fell into cooking purely by accident," says Puttock, who will be in Perth next month for the Good Food & Wine Show, from July 19-21 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

"I had no idea what I wanted to do and my father suggested I start with cooking, so I applied for a job at Caffe e Cucina in Melbourne.

"I ended up in food prep, which in hindsight was great because I cleaned vegetables and squid and got among the chefs, so this is where my passion for food really came from.

A chef by sheer accident

"I didn't think I'd make a career out of it. I went to Italy with plans to become a professional snowboarder. The idea was to work in the kitchen to fund my snowboarding dream. So I headed to the Italian Alps and got a paid job snowboarding for the season. But in the end I guess I got bored."

A stint at London's River Cafe is where the Oliver-Puttock friendship flourished.

"I met Jamie just before his career was about to explode. I think he found it really strange that an Aussie bloke was so into Italian cooking."

Puttock ran award-winning Melbourne restaurant Termini before Oliver approached him to set up a Fifteen Restaurant in the Victorian capital.

"It was probably one of the most challenging times of my life. We were not only running a restaurant but trying to raise $1.2 million a year to fund the kids.

"It was a massive learning curve. In the first week we had more calls per day than Tullamarine Airport. It was insane."

Puttock will be hosting his Real Food presentations on July 20 and 21.

"The focus will be on a balanced, nutritious diet that's low in fat, sugar, dairy and gluten and doesn't send you into a food coma," he says.

Visit goodfoodshow.com.au for more information.

Source: The West Australian, 14 June 2013