When it comes to cooking, Curtis Stone’s philosophy is to keep it simple and cook with naturally produced ingredients just as Mother Nature intended!

"If you get your hands on good ingredients and treat them properly, you don’t need to do much at all," he says. In his cooking, Curtis likes to concentrate on flavors with a modern European edge.

Curtis was born in Melbourne, Australia and started a Bachelor of Business at Victoria University in 1994. However, his heart was in the kitchen and along with his grandma’s divine fudge recipe he was inspired by a short stint in a restaurant kitchen and the pressures of the kitchen environment so began cooking at The Savoy Hotel in his hometown of Melbourne. With family ties in Yorkshire, Curtis came to Europe to travel but secured a position with the legendary Marco Pierre White in London (who was the youngest man in the world to be awarded 3 Michelin stars).

From Marco’s Grill Room Curtis proceeded to the Mirabelle as Sous Chef and played a large part in putting together the “Mirabelle Cookbook”. He worked there for a further year and during this time the restaurant was awarded a Michelin Star. After winning Marco’s trust and respect Curtis was handed the reigns at Quo Vadis where he received critical acclaim.

Curtis filmed his first major TV series with a tie-in book for the ABC in Australia in 2003 called Surfing the Menu. He went on to film three series altogether which has since been sold to 26 territories worldwide including the UK and US. In 2004 Curtis hosted a major Channel 7 restaurant reality series in Australia, My Restaurant Rules.

For the past 18 months Curtis has been based in America hosting Take Home Chef for the Discovery Networks ‘TLC’ (The Learning Channel). The show has already sold to territories across Europe and Asia. Curtis’s introduction to the states has been a huge success, with recent guest appearances on The Today Show, Martha Stewart, Ellen Degeneres and Entertainment Tonight to name a few.

In Australia in June 2007, Curtis launched his own range of kitchenware under his own name. He calls it a ‘collection of kitchen solutions’ that he has innovatively designed to arm ‘the at home cook’ with all the tricks of the trade. The range will roll out into the U.S. and European markets in early 2008.

Curtis keeps his fans up to date on his wonderful journey throughout the world of food and fun in the U.S. in his monthly column in Australia’s Delicious Magazine.

Curtis is currently based in Los Angeles and working between television commitments and preparing for his next cookbook which will be released in early 2009.