The Cook And The Chef

Take one inspired cook with a national and international reputation for mouth-watering home cooked creations. Add one chef who creates five star restaurant masterpieces on a daily basis. Mix the magnificent setting of the Barossa Valley in South Australia with the abundance of local seasonal produce and garnish with plenty of good humour.

Based in South Australia's Barossa Valley, Maggie Beer has taken the region's food to the world and won acclaim everywhere. Maggie's cooking celebrates what is growing around her and she revels in the food each season of the year produces.

In The Cook and The Chef Maggie Beer introduces Executive Chef Simon Bryant to her home region and the people who supply her with the produce she has used to create her culinary reputation. Simon shares her joy of good produce and also shares with viewers the secrets of cooking restaurant meals.

Each week, in each season of the year, The Cook and The Chef visit local producers whose crops are ready for the table and then take the produce back to Maggie's kitchen. Maggie and Simon transform the fresh ingredients into dishes that everyone can cook, along the way providing helpful tips on how food is best bought and prepared.

"What I am able to do and perhaps it's because I've never been taught, is to show people how they can get the wow factor out of the simplest of cooking. Whereas what Simon brings to the table, besides his wonderful cheekiness, is his fantastic technique, passion and knowledge of food." Maggie Beer said.

Simon and Maggie use Maggie's kitchen as a kind of laboratory as they share their skills and love of cooking together. In each episode, The Cook and The Chef produce dishes that are easy to replicate in our own kitchens, introducing new products and new ways to work with traditional ones.

The Cook and The Chef is a program about the joy of using good basic food to create great dishes. It's two people whose lives revolve around food inviting us into their passion.

He might be a chef and she might insist on calling herself a cook but together they will take us into a world of food that might just change the way we eat. (Source: ABC)