Born: Melbourne, VIC
History: Tim picked up the bug for cooking from
Mary-Gabriel Fitzgerald at Kingswood
College in Box Hill. He
started his apprenticeship at Tolarno Bar and Bistro with Iain “Hewi” Hewitson
five days after his last V.C.E. exam. After completing his apprenticeship at
Tolarno and Box Hill
College in 1999, Tim left Melbourne to travel the gourmet regions of the
Mediterranean before living and working in England.
Tim worked as a pastry chef at Cheznico at 90 Park Lane for
almost two years, then settling in Faversham in Kent to work at David Pitchford’s
renowned restaurant, Read’s. During his time at Read’s, Tim competed in the
Gordon Ramsay scholarship, as well as taking the opportunity to do stages at
many of England’s
best restaurants of the time.
Returning to Australia
in 2003, Tim lived in Townsville before returning to Melbourne three years later to complete the
circle and help Hewi and Ruth Allen open up Barney Allen’s in St Kilda. Tim
then moved to Daylesford in 2009 with his partner Janet, after joining the team
at Sault. He then joined Gourmet Larder in 2010.
Have you always wanted to be a chef?
Despite having loved to play and experiment with
food from a young age, Tim says that he had never entertained the idea of
becoming a chef. It wasn’t until late high school, under the guidance of
Mary-Gabriel, that Tim realized his love for food could become his profession.
Now, cooking runs through Tim’s and he can’t entertain the though of doing
anything else.
How would you define your style?
Tim’s style can be defined as rustic yet
contemporary, with strong influences from the French, Italian and English
cultures.
Obsessive Compulsive about?
Cooking with love. It doesn’t matter if you give
a chef the best produce, if the cook doesn’t love the food they’re cooking, or
who they are cooking for, then there is no way that the chef can improve on
mother nature; she does a pretty good job to begin with.
Your greatest culinary inspirations?
Firstly, Hewi has always been one of Tim’s
sources of inspiration, as well as (in no particular order) Stephanie
Alexander, Charlie Trotter, Frederic Bau, the Roux brothers and Michel Bras.
Most ‘eyebrow raising’ menu item?
Tim hopes that most of his food is the same, not
challenging but interesting.
Signature dish: Crispy cider confit of pork
belly, though that might be different tomorrow