In the culinary world, competition is not just about the final result; it's about the journey and the lessons learned along the way. Throughout my years on the cookery scene, spanning two continents and over two decades, I've experienced both triumphs and setbacks, each teaching me valuable insights about resilience and determination...

Winning Chef of the Year 2024 was not the first accolade I aimed for, nor was it the first competition I entered. Like many chefs, I've faced disappointment and frustration when my efforts didn't yield the desired outcome. It's disheartening to pour your heart and soul onto a plate or into your preparation, only to fall short of your goals. However, with each failure, I made a conscious decision to rise again, to push myself harder, and to continuously strive for improvement.
One thing I could never understand is the chefs who would walk away from a venue mid-shift, abandoning their responsibilities at the first sign of difficulty. For me, tying my identity to the title of "chef" meant embracing the challenges that came with it, including long hours, sacrifices, and the occasional setback. It meant recognizing that success is not guaranteed, but earned through dedication, perseverance, and a willingness to learn from both successes and failures.
Many chefs, myself included, have experienced the emotional toll of dedicating countless hours to our craft, only to feel overlooked or undervalued. It's easy to become disheartened, to question our worth, and to contemplate giving up. But my advice to fellow chefs facing similar struggles is simple: keep going. Keep networking, keep honing your skills, and keep pushing yourself to be better than you were yesterday.
When I finally achieved the title of Chef of the Year 2024, it was a moment of validation for years of hard work and dedication. But it also served as a reminder that success is not the end of the journey; it's just the beginning. Now, armed with this newfound recognition, I'm on the lookout for new opportunities and challenges to further elevate my career. And yes, winning this title does give me something to dine off the back of, but more importantly, it's a testament to the power of perseverance and the belief that with determination, anything is possible.

The pop up restaurant Good Fat By Australian Avocados in Surry Hills is the latest of my consulting gigs. It was in the old Marque restaurant site. The revamp looked amazing, from the green neon to the fun feature wall of avocados, a great deal of thought and work had gone into the look of this project.
I was called four days into the event, after the opening Saturday was busier than expected and the pop up was left without enough food to open on the following day. I managed to manoeuvre some of my existing commitments, but of course, I had to jump at the opportunity to have arguably the most popular ingredient to any Australian cafe menu as one of my largest clients. To be able to showcase the avocado in a manor fitting for such an incredibly diverse and versatile ingredient was important to me. The beloved ingredient is often the victim of just smashing and spreading on toasted sourdough.

With such short notice, a "dynamic" menu and an immediate start date, we had to work smart to reign in the last three weeks of this month long activation. Luckily, I had plenty of ideas. 
It was a fast paced, intense scenario which can be a recipe for a lot of pressure. I have been involved in my fair share of openings, kitchen restructuring, menu/recipe development and high paced, stressful environments. With more than fifteen years experience including 3 Michelin-starred restaurants, I felt quite comfortable taking the helm. As any professional in the industry will understand, there is a lot of work involved in taking something over that has already started and serving food that is up to your personal standard.

I made a checklist of recommendations essential to the workflow and quality required, whether it was recipes or dishes. My personal favourite was adapting the avocado and tarragon salsa into a real avocado-based Bearnaise sauce. An extensive list of changes was executed to refine the offering. Well aware that there was only three weeks left and not wanting to create too much of a ripple, the client and I decided it would be best to not overhaul the entire menu but to instead make the necessary tweaks and adjust the costings. It didn't take too long to get the kitchen running smoothly and with the help of an amazing team, we were serving up food within the 10-15 minute window, even on the busiest of days.
Next time I'd like to be there from the beginning and have my personality, style and dishes deeply reflected throughout the activation. Regardless, I got to work with an amazing group of people that involved several very talented chefs: Jason Ludwig (Passion Ate the Chef), Rosco, Elai amongst other rockstars that came in when they could, and Sam Bartolazo, a young and enthusiastic chef who is very capable. It is always a pleasure seeing people grow and develop in front of your eyes and we could see it everyday. With this team, there were plenty of ideas and philosophies thrown around and I think we all left with a greater appreciation of our trade and each other.

It was great working with the various stakeholders and showing them what is achievable, even at the last minute. It felt good to bring my expertise, stability and direction to match everyone's creative ability and enthusiasm. Overall, it was an enriching experience to be apart of and I made many professional connections, fully organised and systemised the kitchen, participated in live and recorded radio interviews, developed ingredient-specific recipes, styled several of the new and refined dishes to camera and held live demonstrations. Whatever needed to be done! And despite the last minute nature of things, I really enjoyed myself.
If you have or know someone who owns a cafe or restaurant that needs professional guidance, please do not hesitate to get in contact. For more information visit www.cheftommyprosser.com

I had a couple of consulting gigs last year where I helped cafe owners install systems, recipes, dishes, new menus and workflows, to either help their business run more effectively or implement brand new procedures into brand new cafes opening acting as their head chef until we were able to train someone up to fill the role, it has been rewarding educating and  helping these owners get more out of their businesses. I got a great write up by broadsheet in regards to my food, especially the bacon and egg roll that broadsheet dubbed the best in Sydney (I think they like my bacon...and the combination of flavours) unfortunately there was a typo when describing the sauce but we'll forgive them. We are now serving, an upgraded variation at Espressory downstairs in the hunter connection great response and we usually sell out on so get in early...

To help see in the New Year, I helped put a lamb on a spit and make a slurry, to baste the lamb whilst it cooks, for our good friends & foodies, Soufi and Dan (Musician / Keys / Writer / Producer from east of eli) these guys love quality things in life so we had a few whiskeys this night. This seems to be becoming a bit of a tradition as it was the second time I helped.

​Last year seemed to be the year of the lamb on the spit for me, I think I cooked 4 for different occasions, functions and celebrations, from wedding day feasts at the Kangaroo Valley for our good friends James and Nikki to a smorgasbord of delights for an Australia day feast for Alex Olsson. I will go into more detail in a specific blog post, where I will include my slurry recipe and talk about the steps involved.

​My darling Jess, got me a extra special present for my birthday, she organised a big party for me with my nearest and dearest in Australia. On top of this she organised an inspiring trip to Vietnam, think resort lifestyle!! The food and experiences there were amazing, we saw their 300-year-old organic gardening techniques, had a cooking lesson with Helen, went to the fresh food markets and ate some delicious food and dodged thousands of scooters playing frogger on the road and footpath. We have introduced a lot of these influences into our meals since we have been home.

If you have been following my social media you will notice our good friends Deborah and Theo (their instagram is sustainablevitality), have been a huge influence and inspiration to both Jess and I, with their amazing outlook on life and eating very passionate people, with 90% of their food either being grown in their amazing garden, hunted, fished, speared or foraged whether they are fermenting, pickling or preserving their garden veggies or getting honey from their bees they are mindful, sustainable and organic. We have been butchering the venison that Theo has shot, curing it into bacon, making stews, meat sauces and BBQ the cuts. They have introduced and shared skills with us that now mean we have our own kitchen garden with veggies growing, this has given Jess and I a stronger connection to where are food is coming from and these guys will be popping up regularly throughout the site in either recipes or blog posts.

We were also lucky enough to have my parents over for a month, we got to spend lots of time together eating great food, drinking some of the local beers, fishing, seeing some of the sights, camping with Sue & Graeme Jess's parents. We went fishing and caught some decent flathead and bream that made it onto the dinner plate. So many memories that will stay with us forever.

​There have been many cooking demonstrations representing Australian mushrooms at the royal Sydney Easter show, live paella cooking classes at gift and home wares Taren point and a lamb dish at Parramasala in Paramatta. Cooking classes at Jess’s school celebration cooking. A pop up I have been operating at Espressory at the basement level hunter connection with Peter Chan who makes the best coffee in the CBD and an amazing gift with remembering peoples names, here we showcase the Best bacon and egg roll as voted by broadsheet (same Roll different venue).

AND even with all of this going on I have been able to keep up a fairly regular training regime at all the different Boxing works locations in Sydney. Larry, Ally and Toula are definitely keeping me fighting fit. With Larrys coaching and techniques I took home a couple of golds and a silver in BJJ competitions last year, maybe we should do some more competitions before 2017 is out.

​There is another half to my specialist savoury side, that would be my specialist sweet Queen Jess AKA The Chocolate Artisan. Since delving into the world of smoking and curing she has been by my side throwing ideas and ingredients into my smoke box…

On such collaborations, we have developed some pretty tasty treats and the idea of mixing savoury and sweet, excites the imagination as much as the palate.  The first bacon chocolates came about from a private function I got flown out to the Philippines to cater for, which involved 1 day and a 5-course dinner for 30 people, that I cooked by myself. Prior to leaving Australia I crisped up some bacon and turned it into a crumb before handing the reigns to Jess, where she tempered chocolate and mixed in some smoked salt and the bacon and set it in the moulds.

​Since then, there have been lots of joint adventures, plenty of great meals, experiences, experiments and learning.  We hosted a good friends birthday party at the school Celebration Cooking with Jessica Pedemont on a chocolate appreciation evening, customized for her party, Souffie appreciates the finer things in life, whiskey, chocolate and of course bacon. So naturally customising this party was easy (you can’t go wrong with top quality ingredients that go together hand in hand).

​I oven baked some handmade bacon, until it was golden brown and crispy, with some I made some bacon crumbs, ready for Jess to make some of our now legendary bacon chocolates. We got a bottle of Johnnie Walker, Platinum label Whiskey from the birthday girl, as she is somewhat of a whiskey connoisseur and set to work infusing it with bacon, keep posted for more info in, The Bacon Infused Whiskey blog, coming soon.
 
On the evening of the party, everyone got around and watched a video on the process of chocolate from bean to bar, to get them in the mood for the journey ahead, they then had a sensory overload touching, feeling, smelling and tasting the cocoa bean at different stages, before learning how to temper and dip different ingredients into this chocolate, they rolled up their sleeves and got involved, they where drinking the bacon infused whiskey, which was subtle and sweet but with a definite finish of bacon. Dipping the bacon crisps in chocolate, finishing with a sprinkling chocolate coated pop rocks. 

The evening was great fun for everyone involved and they all got goodie bags to take home with enough rations to last for weeks. A fantastic celebration, where all the guests came together, worked in teams to produce their own treats!
Get in contact to book your private function today!

​Growing up in the south east of England I was spoilt with amazing produce to the south is the sea and in all other directions within a 10k radius there are farms, butchers, greengrocers and fishmongers. Of course England is the motherland of bacon we have been producing it since the Middle Ages.

​It is simple really, after landing on Australian soil something didn't quite fit right and it wasn't being cold in July. It did take me a while to put my finger on it… it was the quality of bacon available in Australia!!! It is more like a ham made out of the loin or belly, it takes a week to make from start to finish including delivery (this is a fast turn around) most producers go from raw pork to “bacon” in 2 days and use pork that is imported meaning they can charge less for “bacon” than they can for the raw product? This didn’t make sense to me. I’m used to bacon that takes at least 2 weeks made from local pigs. 

There are a few inspired souls out there making bacon with integrity that rivals what I had in abundance growing up, but unfortunately in the land Down-under they are few and far between. One of these food heroes is based in Melbourne, Peter Bouchier, they have a high quality butchers shop that specialises in beautiful meat, sausages and also amazing dry cured cold smoked bacon, I have said for years the best in Australia.

​So began my quest to make honest, real, comforting, family breakfast bacon that I had grown up with. Where Pups would make a fry up and the smell would pick you up and carry you down the stairs to those wonderful weekend mornings, spent with your family unit.
 
I suppose I just want to pass on that feeling to those around me far and wide so they can make those memories for their children, it takes more than just bacon but it is a great start on cementing that memory for years to come.
 
Recently I have been introduced to Charlie at Pialligo Estate, Canberra and his bacon, It is safe to say there is a new challenger in town who has perfected his recipe and it reminds me a lot of the bacon I grew up with. Charlie’s passion is incredible and inspiring, he has a wealth of knowledge and I cant wait to head down to see him one day soon, his product is also available in Sydney.

​My mission has already taken me to many great places, taught me a lot and given me many great experiences. I have met many artisan producers all over the world, spent time with the amazing people, worked at The Weald Smokery ( Read the Blog here) a traditional smoke house in the south east of England, and had many great conversations with passionate people. I can’t wait to see where it takes me next.

​When I first built my cold smoker, we were chucking everything in there, from bacon to tomatoes, flour to oil and sugar to apples, among a plethora of other ingredients just to satisfy our inquisitive minds.
Some things worked perfectly, others needed some refining, some things didn’t work and others just kind of sat there waiting for the right time to experiment further with the product.
            The flour was one of said products, I had used it for a couple of applications like, dusting my chicken with it before frying to get a smokey crust, or using it to thicken soups or sauces. The main vision I had for this smoked flour was to make a French country style loaf, the pane de campaign.

​Despite our best intentions and due to busy schedules we never got around to making our sourdough. So when we met John and Steve from Textbook Patisserie and got talking with them, we found they were like minded souls who had wanted to play around with smoked flour, they had the facilities to knock up a few batches and to refine them, I personally love working with talented like minded people who are willing to push the boundaries to a common goal. No task seems too big or unachievable then great things happen, I believe that great things have happened in the form of the smoked sourdough. 

Here are a few words from Steven Anderson about his experience working with the smoked flour:
 
“I knew maintaining flavours and aromas within a loaf of bread through the long, often harsh, process of baking is difficult, but we gave it a go,” Steven said.
 
“I simply used the recipe and process for Textbook’s white and wholemeal sourdoughs, and where the recipe called for white flour or wholemeal flour, I used the smoked flour provided by Tommy and Jess.
 
“Mixing the dough, I observed the characteristics of the dough, water absorption and gluten development. It seemed to be coming together with no issue. Through fermentation and shaping, all the dough characteristics were the same as regular sourdough bread.”
 
Then began the long wait until the following day for results. The dough had developed and proofed well overnight, then after placing the dough into the oven there was still a great smokey aroma coming from the loaf – subtle, but present.
 
“The baking process is 45 minutes long with the final stage having the damper open to create a crispy crust. Upon opening the damper, the sweet, nutty and smokey aroma filled the entire bakery.  It was such a pleasant moment! Never as a baker have I experienced this aroma from an oven of bread. Upon opening the door of the oven the aroma smacked you in the face – almost like the steam does if your face is too close,” he said.  
 
“We cut into the loaves and did the baker thing; hold the loaf close to your nose, squeeze and breathe in. Wow, that same nutty, sweet, caramel, flora, smoke aroma was present and when chewing and savouring the bread, it all just came together – the chewy moist crumb and the crisp crackling crust just made the experience complete.
 
“The flavour kept building as you ate the white bread, so we have dialed down the smoked flour in the recipe. We no longer use 100 per cent smoked flour, but have found the slightly lower percentage allows for a longer lasting appeal.”

​Textbook is now working with the white and the wholemeal at the moment, and is keeping the bread as a weekend special. As I write this, the boys are two weeks in, and have already had people asking for the bread specifically.
 
I personally like the smoked sourdough to be served as a feature in a cheese and tomato toastie, so each component can come together in harmony, and give you a unique sandwich experience.
 
To read our full articles on, smoking, sweet and savoury treats click on the links below.

Thanks for reading everybody if there is anything you would like to get my opinion on please don't hesitate to get in contact, more than happy for suggestions on blog posts.

As some of you may already know we did our first BMB Black Market Bacon and egg roll pop up hosted by our friends at Textbook Patisserie, John Ralley and Steven Anderson. Who we have collaborated with on other projects, and continue to do so with a very exciting "Bacon Festival" stay tuned to my social media pages to see more details.

The flour had been smoked for the buns, this gives them a beautiful savoury flavour and makes them really special. It is an ongoing project that peaked my interest when I first built the smoker, and felt the need, to make a beautiful pane de campaign, country style loaf. before I go into too much detail, I will be doing a blog on this in the next couple of weeks.
 
I wanted to have a sweet and spicy note for my relish, after eating one of my favourite bacon and egg rolls at my friends café sagebrush and silver, definitely the best cafe you'll never eat at! But I didn’t want to rip off their filling, I wanted to take the concept and make it my own and obviously tie in with my English roots somewhere along the way. So I got to work perfecting my spiced mango relish, this took a couple of attempts before I struck the right balance of sweet, savoury, acidic and spicy to really excited the palate and separate my roll from the thousands on offer in Sydney!
 
This was accompanied by an old favourite of mine a house made Japanese style mayonnaise to bring it all together, and really get people hooked.

The day was a success we had over 100 buns, and almost sold out by 11.30 so we started using the smoked sourdough loaves instead! I was touched by the encouragement of our friends and families who came down and showed support, and especially those who helped out before the event. So I would like to thank, Jimmi Prilis the mind behind Zois Embroidery, who spent a lot of time with me developing and printing our amazing T-Shirt's, Vincent De Gouw owner of Adgraphics and our neighbour and world class artist, made a beautiful illustration of my bacon and developing a new logo for the BMB business. William Maitland for the first professional photo of my bacon, which has been used for my business cards and now turned into a piece of art. The boys Steven and John Textbook Patisserie for helping to make this vision come to reality.
 
Of course none of this would have been possible without my 2 helpers on the day, both of which have supported, and offered me guidance leading up to this event, on many occasions prior and I’m sure for many years to come, they were my good friend Wellington (Willy) Takakura and my beautiful partner, Jessica Pedemont.
 
Thanks for reading and stay posted to see what the next big event will be!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everybody, now that my schedule has quietened down a little I will tell you about my live cooking demonstration, showcasing what the great produce suppliers down at Miranda Westfield have on offer, this was on behalf of the guys at the Hospitality Establishment who do an amazing job, it is always great to work with such a professional company who have exacting standards! The demo kitchen is well stocked with great equipment from DeLonghi, Kenwood and Braun.

We were trying to inspire the Christmas shoppers to support the small businesses in the area, taste things they would not necessarily consider and maybe inspire them to try cooking something new over the festive period or anytime for that matter. The recipes were specially developed to showcase what these stores had on offer, seasonality was important, so we could really showcase these ingredients at their best.
 
I developed the recipes pretty much the evening before each event so I could have a chat to the guys and girls working in the store to find out what they really wanted to showcase. It was inspiring talking to these foodies, finding out what they found special and cooking in my style, to show them different a different interpretation of their produce. Also as what happened on some of the days sell the product that was being showcased I found that really satisfying.
 
I will be releasing the recipes on my recipe page over the next few weeks so make sure you stay tuned for each as they appear, please send me pictures and feed back of what you create and I will do a blog post on them when I have enough content…
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I created a recipe for a chicken liver and apple parfait, after we had an unforgettable experience on Fiona and Adams family farm, Buena Vista down in Gerroa, it is just amazing how they relocated from the city to live the country life dream, on land that has been in the family for generations. 

The day was focused on poultry, how to raise, care for and process chickens, there are two types "layers" and "meat birds". These Guys embodied Free Range with a passion, they rear the happiest animals,  they put in huge amounts of care, love and attention into every stage of the animals life, and have the animals well being at the top of their agenda, I mean check out the view that all their animals get!!!
Our day was focused on the later! After spending the morning learning so much about what goes into the life of these birds, we were served up a delicious lunch, consisting of a beautiful chicken liver parfait, an amazing chicken salad and a delicious apple and rhubarb crumble with clotted cream!!!

We then learnt how to catch and process our own birds,then all of the usable parts were divvied up between everyone before we went our separate ways.

We scored:

•    our 2 chickens
•    chicken feet
•    and of course the freshest chicken livers I had ever seen!

One of the other guests got all the hearts!! (he informed us of how he was going to BBQ them up for a little treat).

As a chef who has been working in the industry for many years it was important for me to go through the whole process from the hatchling, to the free range bird living in the paddock to the last moments of its life, it was an eye opening experience and one that will stay with me. I am thankful for the guys at Buena Vista farm as they give people the opportunity and the privilege, to get to know the farmer, the providence of your food, how it is cared for, raised and slaughtered.

The recent trip back to the UK, apart from seeing my family, was powered by my passion, in what some would describe as that holiest of meats - Bacon.

With the limited quality of bacon made available to the average Australian, they are not given the opportunity to fulfil their God given right to dine on the king of meats, prepared with centuries old technique for making traditional dry-cured, cold smoked bacon, understanding that hot days are not your best friend for cold smoking might explain this. It doesn't explain the imported pork and sped up process.

We’ll cover some of the pitfalls later, and try and come up with ways to keep the temperature and humidity down inside my own custom built chamber.

I had very specific standards of the smoker that I wanted, and to work at it had to be;

a)    Inline with the traditional age-old techniques that work.  I believe that a good foundation provides proper understanding of the ‘whys’ so that you are able to experiment safely with a much higher percentage of success later

b)   Professional, clean and hygienic. 

The Weald Smokery was easily both so it was number one on my list. Independently owned by Andrew who has now had the company since 1990, achieving one of his life goals of having a food business. With production manager Ian and Head smoker Wayne joining the team way back in 1996 there is a wealth of knowledge and an integrity to staying traditional that you just can't help but admire.

My original plan was to head here learn the traditional way of making the bacon I grew up with as I have been making it at previous employers for over 3 years and I thought there had to be a better way, I was right. I left with much more knowledge than I could have ever imagined...

I'm not here to spill the beans on their trade secrets and recipes, as this is their business and they have competitors, but I will share my own recipes and techniques for what I create at home.

Thanks for reading 

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