Cooking School Chefs

 

Annette Fear

In 1995 Annette joined Spirit House as their first Restaurant Head Chef where she created a Thai inspired food style that set the standard for all the Spirit House chefs who followed in her footsteps. Her gift for creating recipes which reflect her deep understanding of Asian flavours put the Spirit House on the Queensland culinary map. She now works full time teaching in the cooking school

Originally from Sydney, Annette moved to the Sunshine Coast in the 1980’s where she was chef at various Noosa restaurants such as Bistro C and Lindoni's.

Widely traveled in S.E.Asia for over twenty years, Annette delights in imparting her knowledge and love of Asian food to her students. She firmly believes that cooking should be fun and brings that spirit to her cooking classes. Not hidebound by recipes, Annette encourages students to experiment with flavours and ingredients, to interpret and adapt recipes to their own tastes and that of their family. As with all senior Spirit House chefs, Annette travels annually to Asia, each time expanding her knowledge of ingredients and repertoire of recipes.

Annette’s garden is her love, growing nearly all the fresh Asian ingredients that she uses every day as well as dozens of varieties of ginger, both edible and decorative. All are grown on a suburban block, using her ‘neglect technique’ – “a lot of love, but not always enough attention, the same way I raise my son.”

Katrina Ryan

As former Head Chef in Neil Perry's famous Rock Pool restaurant and having owned her own successful restaurants, Katrina joined the Spirit House with a wealth of experience and now shares her detailed culinary knowledge with students in the cooking school.

Katrina commenced her cooking career in 1987 when the glamorous world of chefs and restaurants lured her away from a sensible job as a physiotherapist. She went to work for Neil Perry, first at Bondi Beach’s Blue Water Grill where she met her chef husband Mark, and then to ‘Rockpool’ for 5 years. Three of those years were as Head Chef, overseeing burgeoning apprentices such as Kylie Kwong.

The arrival of children saw Katrina assisting her husband Mark with the running of their two restaurants, The Pig and the Olives, and several stints working as personal chef to Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise.

A sea change in 2000 brought the family to Noosa where Katrina found her dream job as part time teacher at the Spirit House Cooking School. For the past four years she has written a weekly food column for the Noosa Journal and in 2005-2006 filmed a series of cooking segments at the Spirit House for the TV program ‘Escape with ET’.

Kelly Lord

With years of experience leading kitchen teams in 5 star hotels, Kelly has an innate gift for food styling. Originally employed as Head Chef in the Spirit House Restaurant, Kelly has joined the cooking school after spending the last four years leading the restaurant kitchen team.

While still a schoolboy, Kelly worked as a kitchen hand in a Brisbane restaurant, starting his apprenticeship at 15. Over the next twelve years Kelly worked his way up the usual hotel career path to Executive Chef, cooking for numerous celebrities, including the Queen.

Realizing his future hotel career entailed a continual series of daily meetings, but no actual cooking, Kelly decided to take the plunge back into the heat of a smaller restaurant kitchen.

In 2004, Kelly accepted the Head Chef position at Spirit House restaurant. This was the beginning of a huge learning curve in Asian cuisine, a journey that has taken him to Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia. Working with a team of ten chefs and three apprentices, Kelly helps design the Spirit House restaurant menu and takes regular cooking class. In consideration of his wife’s career with Singapore Airlines, Kelly commutes from Brisbane – proof, if ever it’s needed, of his dedication to Spirit House.

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