50 greatest changemakers in food in Australia

SBS Australia

23-06-2025

Over the past 50 years, food in Australia has changed like nothing else. To commemorate our 50th birthday, we're saluting the chefs, producers, critics, writers and activists who have transformed what – and how – Australia eats. From Margaret Fulton's Choux pastry puffs to Josh Niland's gills-to-tail fish revolution, these are the people who have changed Australian palates, rescued surplus meals, championed First Nations ingredients, fought for kitchen fairness, and exported Aussie brunch to the world... among other seminal changes. Through their work, whether it's restaurants, cookbooks, TV shows or social change, these people have all championed the same cultural curiosity and inclusivity that defines SBS. Full disclosure: Compiling this list was harder than we expected, and there are many worthy names we weren't able to include. Which is testament to just how many amazing champions of change in food we are fortunate to have in Australia.
Here's the list, in alphabetical order.
Since winning MasterChef in 2010, our own Adam Liaw has become one of Australia's most trusted food voices. With hit SBS shows like The Cook Up with Adam Liaw , bestselling cookbooks, podcasts and a strong social media presence, Liaw demystifies home cooking with clarity and calm. A former lawyer and now UNICEF ambassador, he blends curiosity with social good, whether it's teaching Jimmy Barnes to flambé or advocating for food justice (see: #CookForKids).
From raiding lolly shelves in his parents' Coonamble supermarket to building a pastry empire, Adriano Zumbo turned sweets into spectacle . His gravity-defying croquembouche on MasterChef was known as the 'tower of terror' for contestants, and his daring Zumbarons – Zumbo macarons – a 'fantasy land of macarons' that introduce flavours from kalamata olive to gin and tonic, nudging Australian palates toward complexity and encouraging a generation of bakers to channel their inner Willie Wonka.
Youthful 'blind vision', 'stubbornness' and deeply rooted passion led to Wolf-Taster pave the way for destination dining in Australia. Wolf-Tasker had her ah-ha! moment while working in kitchens of Southern France, where she was moved by the sense of regional cuisine and pride. On returning to Australia, with husband Allan, purchased a blackberry-covered paddock in Daylesford with the intention of creating a regional restaurant . Forty years on, it's an award-winning, resort-like oasis – and a blueprint for provenance, hospitality and following your dreams.
Brunch at Cumulus Inc., late-night snacks at Supernormal, oysters beneath chandeliers at Gimlet: Melbourne-born Andrew McConnell has shaped his city's appetite one dish at a time. Raised by caterer parents, he spent his twenties cooking in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai before opening Cumulus Inc. in 2008. Nine venues later, three Good Food Guide Chef of the Year awards later, McConnel, along with wife Jo McGann, continues to set the bar for clever restaurant dining in Australia.
New-Zealand–born Analiese Gregory left Michelin starred powerhouses like Michel Bras and Sydney's iconic Quay for a 1930s farmhouse in Tasmania's Huon Valley. Childhood years travelling Australia in a campervan with her family primed her for the island's wild larder: she dives for abalone at midnight, scales cliffs for seaweed and ages goat prosciutto in a repurposed wardrobe. Her SBS series A Girl's Guide to Hunting, Fishing and Wild Cooking and cookbook How Wild Things Are document this fiercely – and inspiringly – self-sufficient and sustainable way of cooking and eating.
Ben Shewry , the New-Zealand–born chef behind Melbourne's Attica, has helped propel Australian food to the global stage with consecutive entries into the coveted World's 50 Best list (Attica was the only Australian restaurant to be included in multiple years). White-clothed tables are dressed with saltbush scrolls, bunya-nut miso and possum-sausage sandwiches, honouring Australian native produce and Indigenous knowledge. Meanwhile, Shewry's 2024 memoir Uses for Obsession doubles as a manifesto – he challenges macho chef culture, lays bare the mental toll of fine dining, shares searing honesty on sustainability – and what makes a Bolognese 'obsession-level' delicious.
In 1993, 23-year-old art student Bill Granger followed his passion for food, opening a café in Sydney's Darlinghurst – the venue had no dinner licence, so he served breakfast. The late Granger transformed the meal into a global lifestyle , with iconic bills' dishes like smashed avocado toast and ricotta hotcakes becoming a blueprint for laid-back, produce-led Aussie brunch. Through his cafés in Honolulu to Seoul, TV shows and bestselling cookbooks, Granger's legacy lives on.
Sri Lanka-born Charmaine Solomon helped generations of Australians cook with spice , unlocked home access to everything from Burmese kofta curry to Sri Lankan hoppers decades before such meals were commonplace. Her Complete Asian Cookbook , first published in 1976, remains a foundational text, spanning recipes from Sri Lanka to Japan and reissued more than 25 times. Meticulous recipes and ingredient glossaries empowered cooks to explore Asia's vast repertoire; later editions added gluten-free and vegan notes, keeping the classic current for new generations.
Ask her restaurant alumni how Christine Manfield runs a pass and they'll cite two constants: immaculate plating and a non-negotiable spice rack. At Paramount, mango-saffron kulfi sat beside Sichuan lamb ribs – radical in 1990s Sydney. Dozens of research trips through Asia produced cookbooks such as Tasting India , now core texts on flavour and cultural respect, while her small-group Spice Odyssey tours lead travellers to farms and street carts. Manfield remains a speaker, mentor and writer, bridging global and local kitchens .
Curtis Stone's journey spans Melbourne kitchens, TV hits Surfing the Menu , MasterChef and Top Chef Masters , to Michelin-starred London dining and Hollywood red carpets. In the U.S., his LA restaurants Maude and Gwen showcase single-ingredient menus and whole-animal butchery, while a Victorian regenerative farm and produce line with brother Luke keep him anchored to seasonal Australia. Across media, restaurants and chef-training projects, Stone shows that thoughtful sourcing and chef-driven storytelling resonate worldwide.
Sydney-raised Dan Hong honed his skills in family-run Vietnamese restaurants and elite kitchens Longrain and Tetsuya's before launching Korean-accented Mr Wong, palate-bending Ms G's and casual Mexican cantina El Loco within the Merivale restaurants stable. Hong injects playful, high-energy Cantonese and Vietnamese flavours into the casual-fine spectrum – think cheeseburger spring rolls. His TV shows like The Streets with Dan Hong showcase the same energy. At 29, Hong won the Josephine Pignolet Young Chef title, proving daring fusion belongs on Australia's table.
Since 2013, Dan Hunter has run Brae in Victoria's Otways region as an edible ecosystem. Waste is composted, worms enrich soil, rainwater irrigates orchards, and solar panels keep the stoves hot. Wheat grown metres away is milled for sourdough; olives are pressed for oil; menus feature bunya-nut miso, wallaby tartare and wattleseed desserts. Daily tours show guests why certain crops stay dirty or salt-sprayed until service. That rigour earned Brae the country's inaugural three-star certification from the Sustainable Restaurant Association.
Singularly credited for introducing Australians to real Thai food with his Long Chim group of restaurants (which closed in 2024), when David Thompson arrived in Thailand, he didn't know his Tom yum from Pad see ew. But, enchanted by his first taste of a sour orange curry, which made him nod with pleasure – he went into full immersion mode. Thompson enrolled in language school, studied old cookbooks and learnt techniques from an heir-trained 90-year-old. His rigor earned Nahm the first Michelin star for Thai cuisine and produced Thai Food, now required reading in Bangkok culinary schools.
Donna Hay's minimalist styling and fuss-free recipes have sold more than seven million cookbooks, from Modern Classics to Basics to Brilliance , making her Australia's top-selling food author. At 25 she became food editor of Marie Claire and later launched her own award-winning magazine, TV shows and product ranges, all built on the same achievable aesthetic. Her kids' series passes that confidence on, proving a four-ingredient weeknight fix can still be cooked from scratch.
Best known as one-third of MasterChef Australia's original judging trio, England-born Gary Mehigan together with George Calombaris and Matt Preston can be credited for ushering in a new era for home cooks in Australia, while taking Australian food to the world with the widespread global success of their show. Mehigan worked in leading London restaurants before moving to Australia in 1991, and opening Melbourne's award-winning Fenix and later the laid-back Maribyrnong Boathouse. He has since fronted travelogues like SBS's Far Flung and Masters of Taste . Off-screen, Mehigan supports public health as an ambassador for Healthy Food and the Baker Institute.
Greg Malouf, the late 'godfather of Middle Eastern cuisine' in Australia, helped shape a new language for Levantine cooking. From Melbourne's MoMo and O'Connell's to London's Petersham Nurseries, he brought soulful dishes like kibbeh, fattoush and slow-roasted lamb into fine-dining spaces. His cookbooks with Lucy Malouf made pomegranate molasses and sumac kitchen staples, blending authenticity with elegance and helping Australians cook with – and better understand – the bold, fragrant flavours of the Arab world.
Jill Dupleix was a pioneer of Australia's 'new basics' in the 1990s – lighter, brighter, vegetable-forward home cooking seasoned with global pantry staples. Her witty, accessible food writing across The Sydney Morning Herald , The Times and bestselling cookbooks helped build national kitchen confidence. A longtime collaborator with husband and fellow critic Terry Durack, Dupleix has shaped dining culture as a columnist, editor, restaurant reviewer and TEDx Sydney's food curator – always celebrating flavour, simplicity and the joy of a well-written recipe.
From co-hosting SBS's The Food Lovers' Guide to Australia with Maeve O'Meara to steering the Good Food Month festival, Joanna Savill turns journalism into action. She edited 14 editions of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, wrote travel cookbooks like Around the World in 80 Dinners , hosts industry events and volunteers – currently at FoodLab Sydney, which helps diverse start-ups launch food businesses. Savill's advocacy, festival work and mentoring ensure every celebrated dish also honours its culture and creators.
From Scotland to Adelaide, the late Jock Zonfrillo opened Orana and the Orana Foundation to celebrate Indigenous ingredients , working with First Nations communities to document and ethically commercialise native botanicals. Both on camera as a judge on Masterchef Australia, which he hosted for four seasons before his untimely passing, as well as off, he was warm and funny – sharing kitchen moments with his kids and showing food's power to nourish, connect and honour culture.
Josh Niland is a global revolutionary who has fundamentally changed the way Australia sees and cooks fish. Through his 'fin-to-gill' philosophy, and by treating fish with the same nose-to-tail reverence as meat, he is working towards dismantling decades of waste in the seafood industry. He showcases his craft at his restaurant Saint Peter and The Fish Butchery, as well as at Fysh in Singapore, and now, together with his wife and business partner Julie, is taking his rigorous approach into hospitality beyond food to also run the boutique accommodation at Grand National Hotel in Paddington.
An ex-Formula 1 aerodynamicist, Reid applied wind-tunnel precision to laminated dough, creating Lune Croissanterie, hailed by The New York Times as home of 'the world's best croissant' . Now stretching from Melbourne to Sydney, her patisseries have redefined what Australians expect from pastry and demonstrated that obsessive craft can scale without compromise.
At Billy Kwong, Kylie Kwong served organic tofu and biodynamic greens with soy and ginger long before Sydney caught up. Her biodynamic brilliance and Cantonese flair merged with Indigenous ingredients – pork belly with Davidson's plum, dumplings topped with bush mint from the Jiwah rooftop garden – helping define modern Chinese-Australian cuisine. Now, through Sydney's Powerhouse museum, she works with growers, artisans and communities, spotlighting their stories, safeguarding food knowledge and building cultural bridges via shared meals and public programs.
Lee Tran Lam's work spans journalism , podcasting and public programming, but her through-line is clear: food is never just food. From The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry to SBS's Should You Really Eat That? podcast, she's explored everything from MSG myths to migrant memories. Her curated projects – New Voices on Food , Diversify Your Plate – champion overlooked voices in Australian food. She also contributes to international titles like Eater , and the Powerhouse Museum's culinary storytelling initiatives.
Luke Mangan has made modern Australian cuisine a global offering. From his early days under Michel Roux to opening Salt in Tokyo, he's blended Asian and European influences with local produce in dozens of restaurants worldwide. A regular TV presence and cookbook author, he's also brought restaurant-quality food to Virgin flights and P&O cruises.
Luke Nguyen's most vivid food memory is eating street food in bustling Saigon for the first time – the experience that led him to open Red Lantern. Born in a Thai refugee camp and raised in Sydney, Nguyen's Red Lantern (the world's most awarded Vietnamese restaurant), TV shows , and online storytelling are a crash course on Vietnamese cuisine and culture. Nguyen inspires us all not just to find our next bowl of pho – but to know whether we prefer Northern or Southern Vietnamese pho, and why.
Maeve O'Meara's Food Safari (2006-2013) took viewers deep into Australia's multicultural backyards, profiling Lao papaya salad, Somali spice blends and the perfect gazpacho across 80 episodes. Building on the 1990s hit Food Lovers' Guide to Australia , with Joanna Savill, O'Meara's easy laugh and sharp follow-up questions coaxed cooks to reveal iconic tips and cultural insights. Off-screen, her Gourmet Safari tours steer travellers to baklava factories, halal butchers and yum-cha trolleys, extending her mission to turn unfamiliar dishes into beloved staples.
The verjuice queen, Maggie Beer brought Barossa flavours to Australian pantries. After opening the Pheasant Farm Restaurant in the 1970s, she parlayed regional produce into best-selling product lines and cookbooks. Her show with Simon Bryant, The Cook and the Chef , turned country hospitality into a national ideal. Today, she continues to bring her brand of wholesome cooking into Australian homes, while the Maggie Beer Foundation campaigns for flavour-rich, dignified meals in aged-care homes.
Long before we had food influencers, we had Margaret Fulton . Her 1968 Margaret Fulton Cookbook sold over 1.5 million copies, unlocking garlic, soy sauce and risotto for generations raised on meat and three veg. Over two dozen books followed, each one showing that cooking can be creative, not a chore. 'The best thing in life,' she said, 'is chopping and stirring.'
Mark Olive – aka ' The Black Olive ' – has been a leading voice in Indigenous Australian food for over 30 years. A Bundjalung man trained in classical cookery, he founded Black Olive Catering and starred in SBS's The Outback Café , introducing ingredients like wattleseed, quandong and saltbush to national audiences. Through his work, including regular appearances on The Cook Up with Adam Liaw , Olive advocates for cultural food sovereignty and has worked with tourism boards, TAFEs and government to build Indigenous culinary pathways.
Chef, farmer and restaurateur, Matt Moran may be a fixture on our TV screens, but he is one of the few culinary stars who continues to successfully operate restaurants across Sydney, from award-winning Aria to Chiswick x2 and Barangaroo House. Moran raises livestock on the Moran Family Farm, supplying produce to fine-dining restaurants, including his own. And beyond farming, he's recently revived his hometown's Rocklea pub, recognising a country pub's role in the community. On SBS's Memory Bites , Moran meets musicians, actors and comedians, recreates dishes that shaped their lives and draws out the stories behind every plate.
Cravat-clad Matt Preston turned MasterChef Australia from reality TV into a national classroom, translating tasting notes – 'acid lifts, texture matters' – into quick lessons for millions. A three-time Australian Food Media Food Journalist of the Year, he edited delicious. and wrote weekly columns for The Age and Herald Sun long before the show made him a household name. His cookbooks and continuing features are tethered in flavour and the stories behind it, and in 2025, he has a new show with SBS in the pipeline.
Restaurant critic turned valley farmer, Matthew Evans has documented Australia's food systems from ends of the table. Through SBS's Gourmet Farmer and books such as his 2022 bestseller Soil , he probes meat ethics, soil biology and food costs. Evans argues that regenerating microbial life – not maximising yield – is the path to environmental health, and now lobbies for clearer labelling and fair prices for growers. His Fat Pig Farm doubles as a classroom, recasting chefs as educators and environmentalists.
Melissa Leong cannot be pigeonholed. She's a cookbook co-author, ex-mag editor, reality TV judge and speaker with both razor wit and emotional range. She's brought empathy to food television (MasterChef, Dessert Masters) and rigour to food media (Fooderati, Taste of Harmony). With each role, she's made food a platform for connection, self-reflection – and sharper cultural critique.
Proud Bundjalung woman of the Widjabul Wia bul clan, Mindy Woods traded the Sydney Opera House skyline for Byron Bay's sea breeze, but her mission stayed sharp: put native flavours centre-stage . At Karkalla she serves up dishes like kangaroo tartare with saltbush crisps, that are fiercely seasonal to the region. Woods also co-creates education programs and speaks nationwide on food sovereignty, and in 2025, she received global recognition in the form of The World's 50 Best Restaurants' Champions of Change Award.
From humble kitchen blog to a powerhouse brand, Nagi Maehashi's RecipeTin Eats has changed how millions cook at home. Her recipes – from Sinagoprean chilli crab to Black Forest cake, lamb borek to carbonara, are no-fail, flavour-packed and practical, earning cult status and pushing her debut cookbook to the top of the charts in 2023. Through her charity RecipeTin Meals, she and her team now cook over 130,000 hot meals a year for Sydney communities in need.
Industry visionary Neil Perry has shaped the nation's culinary identity since the 1980s. From his Rockpool empire to Qantas inflight dining menus, Perry's restaurants are benchmarks for quality, nurturing talents and redefining Australian food on the global stage. Perry continues to innovate with new venues, such as his family-run Margaret in Double Bay (winner of the 2024 Good Food Guide restaurant of the year award, and counted among the world's best steak restaurants) while championing social impact – he co-founded the National Indigenous Culinary Institute to empower First Nations chefs. Named as a World's 50 Best Icon in 2024, his legacy bridges fine dining with meaningful change.
A Meriam woman from the Torres Strait, Bero's Melbourne restaurants and product line, Mabu Mabu, put native ingredients like karkalla and mug nuts into sandwiches and pantry jars around the country, while as the recurring NAIDOC week host of The Cook Up , she platforms First Nations food and chefs from a place of truth and authenticity. Cooking classes in schools extend her reach, turning bush-tucker literacy into everyday knowledge and reframing First Nations flavours as pantry staples .
Palisa Anderson is a second-generation restaurateur and farmer, running Boon Luck Farm in Byron Bay and co-directing the Chat Thai restaurant group. She grows over 200 varieties of organic Southeast Asian produce, supplying directly to the group's kitchens. A vocal advocate for food sovereignty, migrant growers and small-scale farming, Anderson connects Thai-Australian identity with ecology, seed-saving and agricultural resilience, a message she has explored in SBS's Water Heart Food .
One of Australia's sharpest restaurant critics and the current creative force behind the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, Nourse is the former editor and critic at Australian Gourmet Traveller . On top of being a trusted guide, he helps shape national discussion through The Age 's Good Food Guide and panels like the World's 50 Best Restaurants.
The creative force at the Fink group of restaurants, including Sydney icons like Quay and Bennelong , Gilmore transforms Australian landscapes into tasting menus : think petal-thin textures, sea succulents and heirloom veg grown to his specs in the Blue Mountains. Celebrated for the 'Snow Egg' and ever-evolving 'White Coral', he mentors young chefs to nurture producer relationships, proving world-class luxury can still taste unmistakably Australian.
Peter Kuruvita blends his Sri Lankan heritage with global storytelling. After founding Sydney's Flying Fish, he introduced Australians to the spice-rich, seafood-forward flavours of South Asia through acclaimed SBS shows like My Sri Lanka and Coastal Kitchen . His cooking is rooted in culture, and his books and restaurants trace the connections between migration, memory and mealtimes. At his restaurant Noosa Beach House, and through ambassadorial work with Sri Lankan brands like Dilmah tea, Kuruvita continues to honour ancestral knowledge while celebrating the diversity of island cuisine.
MasterChef's 2009 runner-up is now back on set as co-host, coaxing nervous contestants with the same grin that won Australia over. Off-camera, Poh runs Jamface at Adelaide Central Market and still paints in oils at 2 am, her canvases exploring identity and belonging. Her food shows ( Poh's Kitchen , Snackmasters ) unravel the mysteries of pandan, belacan and chilli heat with approachability and warmth, earning her a Gold Logie nomination in 2025 .
The former events executive founded OzHarvest in 2004 to implement a simple yet powerful change – curb food waste to combat hunger. Through lobbying, education, and public campaigns, Kahn helped set a national goal to halve food waste by 2030. Her work has inspired both industry and home cooks to see scraps as a resource – today, OzHarvest's yellow vans are a recognised symbol of positive change.
Vegan chorizo, cheese, and cacio e pepe? It's all possible at Shannon Martinez's bold Melbourne kitchens, Smith & Daughters and Smith & Deli . Without formal training – and without preaching – she's made plant-based food irresistible to even the most die-hard carnivores. A hatted chef, bestselling author and two-time cancer survivor, she's also a fierce advocate for gender equity in kitchens, launching the Women in Hospitality Pastry Scholarship in 2024.
A proud first-generation migrant, Shaun Christie-David shows how hospitality can drive radical change. At his restaurant Colombo Social, refugees and others facing barriers to employment serve delicious, authentic Sri Lankan food. Through his Plate It Forward initiative, a 'Pay it forward' system means every meal sold funds meals for those in need, supported by a growing collection of restaurants – including Kyiv Social, and the newest kid on the block, Kolkata Social. With enthusiasm as big as his heart, Christie-David is redefining success in hospitality – measured in compassion, not just profit.
Through her book The Cook's Companion , with its flavour-pairing guidance and practical tips, Stephanie Alexander gave Australians confidence in the kitchen . She extended that into schools via her Kitchen Garden Foundation, now active in over 1,000 primary schools and early‑learning centres. Its veggie patches and kitchen classrooms teach children to grow, cook and share fresh produce – even influencing curriculum, well-being and community engagement across the nation. She is continuing to firmly root food literacy in everyday Australian life through her work.
A chance kitchen shift in 1982 set Kyoto-born Tetsuya Wakuda on a Sydney path that rewrote fine dining. In a tiny Rozelle cottage – later moving to his Kent-Street landmark location – he served cold-smoked Tasmanian ocean trout with kombu oil, micro-diced seaweed salad and truffle-buttered bread, proving Australian produce could carry Japanese precision . The OG fine dining chef in Australia, he has groomed alumni like Peter Gilmore, Martin Benn and the teams behind Sepia, Quay and Sixpenny, who have carried his ethos worldwide, while his Singapore outpost Waku Ghin, now crowned with two Michelin stars, continues the dialogue with coral-trout sashimi and Murray cod grilled over binchotan.
That roquefort you're eating? You can thank Will Studd. Studd spent over two decades fighting to legalise raw-milk cheese in Australia – and won. His landmark court case not only reopened the door to traditional cheesemaking but changed how we think about dairy. Through his SBS shows Cheese: Searching for a Taste of Place and Cheese Slices , books, and retail advocacy, Studd helped elevate the conversation around cheese from supermarket snacking to serious questions of culture, terroir and microbial diversity.
In the 1950s, Swiss-born Koeppen became Australia's first TV celebrity chef, beaming soufflé tips into suburban lounges on The Chef Presents. His continental techniques at a time of tinned-pea dinners, expanded Australian culinary horizons and set the template for today's screen-chef phenomenon. Watch now
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