Grass Tree Kitchen School

OUR CHEFS


Dominique Rizzo

Dominique Rizzo - Resident Chef
Dominique's natural passion and deep desire to develop innovative food using quality, safe, clean, fresh produce and her Sicilian heritage and love of Italian cuisine, inspires a culinary journey of world food flavours.

Dominique is a long standing chef on Channel 10's Ready Steady Cook & The Circle and her first cook book focuses on simple family recipes with Sicilian/Italian influences.

Dominique's goal within her Grass Tree Kitchen classes is to present you with healthy recipes and the skills to recreate these dishes in your own home. Dominique's philosophy is that once you gain the skills to prepare healthy foods you will also gain a conscious awareness of all aspects of your eating habits, including the effects and impact your decisions have on you, your family and your surrounding environment.

"I love the essence of clean, simple whole food cooking. It is so wonderful to be a chef and to have available at my fingertips an amazing palette of different flavors and textures to create what I like to call little mouthfuls of flavor explosions. Let me share this with you at Grass Tree Kitchen."


Chris Walton

Chris Walton - Professional Chef & Consultant
Chris is a professional Chef and Consultant with over 30 years experience in a broad range of disciplines including food preparation, design and running a successful catering business.

Chris specialises in chocolate, patisserie and pastry and has completed many training courses including Lindt Switzerland & Sollich German, Poilane Bakery Paris, Roux Brothers - London and William Angliss Institute in Melbourne. After participating in Regional Cooking Schools to Italy, Ireland and Spain for over 7 years, Chris joins Grass Tree Kitchen Cooking School bringing with him a wealth of knowledge, expertise and passion.

"My passion is the gastronomy (chemistry) of food and cooking. I have always had a strong interest in kitchen science, history, cultural influences, traditional methods and techniques of all cuisines. Researching all aspects of food technology through travel and working in this dynamic industry has stimulated my enthusiasm and I look forward to sharing these experiences with you at Grass Tree Kitchen".


Tony Ching

Tony Ching - Professional Chef
Tony is our "character in the kitchen". If you are looking for an exuberant and entertaining trainer, then Tony's Certificate 1, 2 and 3 classes are the ones for you! Tony will not only keep you engaged and enjoying your Certificate training program, he will also give you the skills you need to achieve that next level in your cooking education and experience.

Add to an engaging training session, the fact that Tony is a highly experienced chef and teacher and you have a certain recipe for success. Tony comes from a background of Executive Chef in 4 and 5 star International hotels, along with high level accreditation as an industry recognised cookery trainer.

Tony is articulate, friendly, cheerful and of course highly professional. We are very proud to have Tony as one of our chefs at Grass Tree Kitchen.


Andrew McKenzie

Andrew McKenzie - Professional Chef
A Classically trained chef originally from Victoria, Andrew has worked in many hotels and restaurants in Australia, including Mietta’s and the Hotel Windsor in Melbourne, the Sydney Opera House as Sous Chef for the Bennelong Restaurant and Executive Sous Chef at the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast.

More recently Andrew has been a Cookery trainer helping train our young apprentices in the basics of cookery, but more importantly developing a passion for food and where it comes from.

Andrew’s cookery training also extends to teaching school children and adults the art of bread making. Andrews’s love affair with French and Italian Breads began after a backpacking holiday with his wife through Europe some years ago, savouring the delights of eating crusty Baguettes with cheese for lunch and Pizza on the Spanish Steps in Roma. Since that holiday Andrew has been perfecting his bread making skills and recapturing the Parisian feel of freshly baked crusty baguettes, batard, ficelle and brioche.

Like most chefs he likes to work smarter not harder, hence the recipes he uses are simple and not complicated to prepare - demystifying the art of forming the bread.


Javier Codina

Javier Codina - Professional Chef
Javier is the owner, head Chef and food inspiration behind Brisbane’s exquisite Moda restaurant located in Edward Street in the city. Join Chef Javier as he shares his Spanish secrets at Grass Tree Kitchen’s old Deagon Bakery.

Grass Tree Kitchen will come alive with the delicious sights and smells of Spanish cuisine as Javier's inspired, inventive dishes capture the essence of his cultural influences - Catalan, French and Italian - meshed with his professional expertise and the freshest local produce.

A native of Barcelona, the ever relaxed and charming Javier will inspire you whilst you sit back and enjoy a glass of wine and learn a new style of cuisine.

Javier is acknowledged as a leading figure in the dynamic local food industry, gaining a host of awards and most recently invited to host the presenters dinner for the Brisbane Hilton Masterclasses & also present to an enthusiastic audience at the Masterclass Industry Day.


Vicki Bright

Vicki Bright - Professional Chef
Vicki's career was influenced greatly by Joan Campbell, Food Director of Vogue Entertaining, who led the way to how Australians think about food. Vicki assisted Joan with food preparation on photo shoots for the magazine and became involved in the exciting changes in the culinary world at the time.

Starting a small restaurant in a yacht club in Rushcutters Bay, Vicki went on to win a long term contract catering for the Lord Mayor of Sydney, as well as business lunches, cocktail parties, plus numerous leading corporate boardroom and social functions. Vicki was chosen to create recipes for a cookery manual and teach low fat nutritious cooking to patients at the Diabetic unit at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, along with running cookery classes in her Woollahra kitchen. The highlight of Vicki's career was being personally chosen to cook lunch for the Dalai Larma during his recent visit to Australia.

Returning to Brisbane, Vicki went on to manage a leading cooking school for many years and now teaches cookery 111. Vicki also chefs in private homes.

"My greatest excitement is to explore markets for new season produce bringing home wonderful things, combining quality ingredients to then create fresh, simple, divine meals that leave lasting memories. I can't think of anything better than to teach, cook, eat and share these moments".