South Australia's food cred featured through 'The Cook and the Chef' and 'Poh's Kitchen' from ABC Adelaide studios
Simon Bryant and Maggie Beer presenting The Cook and the Chef (2006-09) and Poh Ling Yeow on Poh's Kitchen (2010-12) , both shows produced through the Adelaide studios of the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
South Australia’s place in the early 21st Century national food spotlight was enhanced by two programmes produced through the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Adelaide studios: The Cook and the Chef with Maggie Beer and Simon Bryant and Poh’s Kitchen with Poh Ling Yeow.
The Cook and the Chef was filmed at Maggie Beer’s home in South Australia’s Barossa Valley and ran from 2006 to 2009. DVDs (digital optical discs) of the 150 episodes were released and repeats shown on the SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) Food channel. It featured Chris Abbott, Peter Cundall, Dominic Scarfo, Rich Stein and Tetsuya Wakuda as guests.
Despite no formal training, Beer built a career as a chef, food author, restaurateur and food manufacturer. After moving from Sydney to the Barossa Valley, Beer and her husband Colin started the Farm Shop in 1979 that morphed into the Barossa Pheasant Farm Restaurant, winner, in 1991, of the Remy Martin Cognac – Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year award. The Maggie Beer Farm Shop started in 1979 producing gourmet foods that grew into a national enterprise.
Beer's other television appearances have included presenting masterclasses on Channel 10’s Masterchef Australia and being a judge on The Great Australian Bakeoff, shown on the Lifestyle Food channel.
Simon Bryant joined The Cook and the Chef as executive chef at the Hilton Adelaide hotel, following in the footsteps of Cheong Liew who combined class French approach with Chinese/Malaysian cuisine at its Grange restaurant. Bryant later became director in Adelaide for the longest-running national food festival: Tasting Australia.
Adelaide’s Poh Ling Yeow also took her Chinese/Malaysian tradition approach to being a contestant and runnerup on Masterchef Australia. Instead of returing to a quiet life of painting and starting a cottage industry making jams for her local green grocer, she was offered her own cooking show Poh's Kitchen, on ABC1 in 2010. Also that year, she fulfilled a life-long dream by publishing Poh’s Kitchen -– My Cooking Adventures, that stayed in the top 10 Australian bestsellers list for six weeks. The 2011 Poh’s Kitchen on the road went around Australia meeting and cooking with a wide range of food producers and chefs. In 2012, Poh wrote her second cookbook and presented Season 3 of Poh’s Kitchen.