Dominique Rizzo

A soul woman chef, Dominique possesses a passion for creative world food, fuelled by her Sicillian heritage and a deep desire to develop innovative cuisine using quality, safe, clean, fresh produce. Dominique has 15 years experience as a Chef and 7 years as Head Chef and business partner in the award winning Mondo Organics restaurant in Brisbane's West End. Not surprisingly, Dominique is also a celebrity chef involved in the dynamic Ready Steady Cook series on Network 10. She has also appeared on Lifestyle Food, Great South East, as well as being featured on Food Lover's Guide to Australia and ABC Radio.

For direct contact with Dominique Rizzo:
Email: dom@learncookdine.com
Website: www.dominiquerizzo.com

Paul Mills

Paul Mills qualified as a Chef under the supervision of City & Guilds of London Institute. Paul's Hospitality career has taken him to many parts of the globe with the highlight working back in London at the prestigious 5 Star Hotel Quaglino's of St James's Square. Paul has also owned many facilities in the Hospitality industry, one of which was CC's Bakehouse which supplied Honda Indy 1988 on the Gold Coast with vast amounts of bakegoods for the Indy event along with a line up of other major chains such as Zarraffas Coffee, Gloria Jeans, Aromas and a large number of independently owned and operated Coffee Shops, Restaurants and Hotels. Paul today owns and operates Kitchenware Plus with Partner Ian Dunkley and regularly demonstrates the attributes of the products he now sells, along with hosting Lunches, breakfasts, and even Wedding Teas at the Kitchenware Plus facility which is fully Licensed to serve alcohol with food. The cooking school Learn Cook Dine was conceived from inception and officially opened in February 2007, three years after the store opened.

For direct contact with Paul Mills:
Email: paul@learncookdine.com

Peter Arnold

Peter Arnold who is a local resident of Logan and is also currently the Corporate Executive Chef for the entire Asia Pacific region for one of the worlds leading commercial kitchen equipment suppliers; Angelo Po Grandi Cucine S.p.A.. With in excess of 28 years professional chefs industry experience, Chef Peter has conducted cooking classes and demonstrations in many corners of the globe including Russia, Italy, India, Germany, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Dubai, The Kingdom of Bahrain, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand and all over Australia of course.

For direct contact with Peter Arnold:
Email: paarnold@bigpond.net.au

Jackie Thompson

Jackie Thompson has been a qualified chef and pastry chef for over 20 years. During her career she has spent most of her time in the south of England. Jackie has worked and travelled through Europe and was a patisserie chef at The Sheraton Hotel in Munich, it was here that she got her passion for specialised cakes. The last 4 years before emigrating, Jackie worked for a catering company, Champagne and Caviar. The company had the contract to supply catering for the BBC, when filming on location in Eastbourne, Brighton and the South Coast of England. Then in 2004 Jackie emigrated to Daisy Hill and started working as a head chef at a restaurant in Thornlands meanwhile building up her own cake and catering business from word of mouth and now has left the restaurant to concentrate on her business.

For direct contact with Jackie Thompson:
Email: jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au
Website: www.contemporarycakes.com.au
Class Schedule: Click Here for Schedule

James Buntin

James moved to Australia in 2000 from Scotland where he worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years. Born in Edinburgh and raised in Perthshire, just a stones throw from some of the most famous and picturesque distilleries of Scotland, has given him an early love and appreciation for all things scotch. Then Having had the opportunity to travel the globe and work with some of the world's most prestigious brands has taught him that different arts achieve different flavors - each distillery takes great pride in its own methods of production and maturation. James was previously the Ambassador for the International Whiskey Experience educating and entertaining audiences around Australia with his enthusiastic and passionate approach to his favorite dram. He is now embarking on a new tasting adventure, The Luxury of Time, which has been designed by Chivas Regal Master Blender, Mr. Colin Scott. This new mentoring program takes guests on a journey through time as James looks at the luxury Chivas Regal 18 Year Old Gold Signature blend and its maturation in hand picked oak casks.

Alison Taafe

Alison's career took off when she was accepted into the highly prestigious Westminster Hotel School in London. After Alison graduated at the age of 20 she landed her first Head Chef position. Alison then travelled all over the world and cooked for royalty like Queen Elizabeth and political figures like George Bush Snr. Alison came to Australia in 1988 where she was appointed as chef for the VIP lounge of World Expo '88. In 2004, Alison was the first ever chef to win a prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship. Then in 2006 Alison was named 'Outstanding Educator' for the graduate program she wrote, which enabled chefs to further their careers. For the last 12 years she has been a Leading Vocational Teacher of Professional Cookery at Southbank Institute of Technology. Recently Alison has released her first cook book 'Fun Fast and Fabulous Food'.

For direct contact with Alison Taafe:
Email: alison_taafe@hotmail.com
Website: www.alisontaafe.com

Kelly Lord

Kelly was only 15 when he started his career as a kitchen hand in a Brisbane restaurant, before being offered an apprenticeship. Over the next 12 years Kelly worked in a number of hotels in Brisbane and worked his way up to Executive Chef at the Stamford Plaza Hotel, cooking for many celebrities along the way including U2, Madonna and the Queen. In 2003 Kelly moved back to small restaurants and in 2004 took up the position as Executive Chef at the critically acclaimed Spirit House restaurant on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. After 4 years, refining his passion for Thai and Asian cooking, Kelly began combining his kitchen duties with teaching in their very popular Spirit House Cooking School and co-hosted several Spirit House Tag-a-long trips to South East Asia before eventually deciding to concentrate on teaching. Kelly continues to teach at the Spirit House Cooking School as well as conducting classes at the new Sticky Rice Cooking School in the Adelaide Hills. Together with teaching, Kelly also still consults and designs menus for the Spirit House and other smaller restaurants.

For direct contact with Kelly Lord:
Email: thymetocook@optusnet.com.au
"Kelly Lord Coming Soon"

Tony Ching

Tony Ching is an experienced chef. That combined with the fact that he is an experienced teacher gives him the added bonus when it comes to teaching cooking. He is articulate, friendly, and cheerful and of course highly professional and we are proud to have Tony as a guest chef.