Good Food & Wine Show Joburg presents food celebrities

Celebrated pastry and dessert chef Adriano Zumbo of MasterChef Australia fame.

'Royal' treat

Parker Bowles - the only son of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwell - is a respected cook, TV personality and author who is in demand around the world for his food demonstrations and talks. He is the Mail's on Sunday's food critic, as well as food editor of Esquire Magazine and a contributing editor to Conde Nast Traveller and Departures (US). He is currently a judge on the Channel Nine Australian cooking series The Hot Plate, which will broadcast in the second half of 2015.

His latest book - published at the end of last year - is Let's Eat Meat, which was an instant hit with critics and the public as he advocated eating less meat but better quality meat and the book is filled with superb recipes and helpful hints when buying meat. He is married to South African-born Sara Buys who is the editor for the British magazine Harpers & Queen. They have two children.

MasterChef founder

Australian born John Torode's big break came after moving to London and having a chance meeting with Terence Conran. Soon after he started working at top restaurants owned by Conran, which included Quaglino's, Pont de la Tour and Mezzo, where he was head chef.

In 1996, he started doing television work, and he was on ITV's This Morning until 2000. In 1997, he co-wrote the best-selling Mezzo Cookbook and in 2000, he opened the successful Smiths of Smithfield restaurant, specialising in simple but classy meat dishes. He is the author of 10 cookbooks.

Torode - along with Gregg Wallace - launched the updated BBC show MasterChef in 2005. By 2011, the show had been sold to 25 countries and was named 'the biggest food-related television show worldwide' spawning spin-offs such as MasterChef Australia and MasterChef SA as well as Junior MasterChef and Celebrity MasterChef. Torode has said that he enjoys that the show is unscripted and that the cameras are just there to capture the genuine interactions between the judges and the contestants.

Fairy-tale confectionery

Adriano Zumbo, now Australia's most celebrated pastry and dessert chef, is known for his croquembouche tower, V8 cake and fairy-tale house on MasterChef Australia. He opened his first shop in 2007, and began selling confectionary-as-art.

Zumbo says he became a regular on MasterChef "by accident." He was asked on to the show to help design a 'croquembouche challenge' but soon found himself in front of the camera and has been invited back nearly 15 times. The trend in desserts internationally is away from tricky molecular gastronomy, with the focus now on classic desserts such as crème brûlée, tiramisu and lemon meringue.

His latest book is The Zumbo Files. "Readers will find a lot of sweets, sections on mastering the basics of pastry and a chapter of savoury offerings as well. I love creating new mash-ups and flavour combinations, so readers will hopefully be surprised by the result. One that's come to mind is my sausage rolls with Earl Grey tea..." he says.

More culinary draws promised

"We are delighted to be bringing Tom, John and Adriano to the Johannesburg show. They are not only well known personalities but also well-respected and established chefs in their own right and each of them will be bringing something new and different to this year's Good Food & Wine Show," says GM and the new driving force behind the Good Food & Wine Show, Heidi Warricker. "In addition to these three top celebrity chefs, we will be announcing some other top culinary draw cards for the Johannesburg leg of the show."

Tickets are R130 for adults, R110 for pensioners, R110 for children 13-18 years old, R50 for children 7-12 years old, free for children under the age of six and may be purchased through Computicket (www.computicket.com) or at the door. For more information, go to www.goodfoodandwineshow.co.za.