Chef and media personality Jared Ingersoll is perhaps best known for his restaurants Danks Street Depot (Waterloo and Sydney International Airport) and Cotton Duck (Surry Hills) before making the decision to step out off the kitchen to focus on numerous, delicious projects, events and to apply his skills and knowledge to primary industry as well as Brand & Product development.
Previous experience
Michelin: Before going out on his own, Jared was head chef at Bayswater Brassiere, after working in London at Mezzo (So-Ho), Hillaire (South Kensington) and two Michelin starred The Square (Mayfair).
TV: Out of the kitchen, Jared’s media profile continues to grow. He has made regular appearances on Network 10’s Ready Steady Cook and Network 7’s The Morning Show, Channel 9’s Morning Show as well as appearance on the first series of Master Chef and has also written for publications like Good Living, NZ Cuisine Magazine, Home Beautiful Magazine, Ciao Magazine, House and Garden, Vogue, Vogue Living, Open House, Hospitality Magazine to name but a few.
Ambassador: Jared also has experience in ambassador roles for brands such as the iconic whitegoods label Bosch, James Squires, Horticulture Australia, Food Wies, Oz Harvest and Stevia Corp in a supporting role for Coca-Cola release of sugar free Coke as well as traveling to Sri Lanka to create video content for Dilmah Tea’s international campaign Chef and the Tea Maker. During his time at Danks Street Depot he was the media ambassador for the annual Danks Street Festival which was hosted by the City of Sydney. But Jared is most proud for being selected to represent Slow Food Australia at Terra Madre back in 2006 and then being voted in as president (though for a short time) for Slow Food Sydney.
Events: Jared has applied his skills and knowledge by developing and assisting numerous food events including Siteworks with the Bundanon Trust, the subject of which was ‘The Future Of Food’ which explored the multi-faceted subject of sustainability. Dark Mofo in Tasmania where he constructed a ‘Wall Of Fire’ to roast whole animals for roughly 600 people, Art & About Sydney in Martin place for the City of Sydney. A short term pop-up restaurant at The Powerhouse Museum. As well as collaborating with other’s in bring to life the Long Breakfast with Fergus Henderson and the launch of the Culinary Think Tank in Newcastle & Lola’s Pergola as a part of the Adelaide Festival. In addition to this Jared has worked on numerous events with chefs and celebrities spanning almost every environment and brief imaginable. The largest single event over seen was the F20 - Food Securities event at the Carriage works as a part of a global workshop highlighting opportunities in Agriculture which fed about 2000 people in a market style event encompassing numerous different farmers, restaurants and producers.
Guest chef: Internationally, Jared is in demand as a guest chef having cooked at the iconic Sevva restaurant in Hong Kong and most recently being the guest of honour Oigen at their food festival in Oshu, Japan and for collaborating with 10 Chefs from around the globe at the Chef and the Tea Makers dinner for company founder Merril J. Fernando in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Pop ups: Jared has also delivered a few really exciting Pop-up concept’s such as Barrel and Beast which operated for 6 months in Pyrmont before growing into Barrel and Beast in a new underground location in Surry Hills. Both locations were complete sell outs! Hot on the heels of these pop-up Jared collaborated with journalist Anthony Huckstep to bring to life a project of passion called METALMOUTH which encompassed both of their joint passions for fine dining and heavy metal music! (METALMOUTH will be touring across capital cities and collaborating with celebrated chefs and metal heads throughout 2017)
Author: A published award winning author, all 3 of his cookbooks have been extremely well received. Danks Street Depot was published in 2006 and was won Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Award for the best hard cover cookbook. Sharing Plates was published in 2007 and was awarded Best cook book under $36 at the Australian Food Media Awards in 2008. Slowfood was published in 2011 and was also very well received.
Speaker: As a guest speaker, Jared has spoken at a number of corporate events such as for property finance and investment company Ashe Morgan and Winthrop and was key note speaker at the NSW Farmer’s Association AGM. Future of Food City Talks with the Lord Mayor Clover Moore and selected international guest speakers. Jared has also offered his perspective on a number of industry based panels and discussion groups including offering thoughts, research and demonstrations for Food South Australia, MLA, Sydney Fish Markets, Department of Primary Industries as well as leading tours through Flemington markets. He has held Master of Ceremony roles a number of times most recently for Nature Conservation Council as a part of their annual fundraising activities as well as the occasional short movie judge. He also presents annually for Rabobank to farmers as a part of their Farmers Direct programme to help educate industry about needs of the market place and consumer trends.
Products: In recent years, on top of numerous ‘Projects of Passion’ he has been working full time on delivering Australia’s first Cultivated Seaweed to market by working closely with academics in understanding market potential, brand development and product development. The first product made for market ‘Phyco Salt’ was nominated as product of the year by 2015 Delicious Produce Awards. After that Jared joined Seagrass Boutique Hospitality Group as Brand Development Chef and worked closely with design team to take concept to market Hunter and Barrel and most recently Butcher and the Farmer, both multi venue brands with a strong international focus that are enjoying great success.
Sustainable: Jared works hard to celebrate the efforts of small scale and local producers by presenting food and drink across all of his enterprises with passion and integrity. He is committed to ethical and sustainable food principles working with the Nature Conservation Council on their sustainable seafood projects and launching The Green Peace GM Free Chefs Charter at DSD in 2008 and then the GM Free Kids Charter in 2011.
Nutrition: Jared is also very passionate about educating people about the importance of enjoying life with delicious and nutritious food in an ethical and sustainable manner. Working and presenting ‘taste’ workshops for groups such as Slow Food, Week Of Tastes & is ambassador for a number of school garden projects as well as working with a few local schools educating both kids and carers about the importance and ease of good eating.
Charity: For his whole career, he has always made time for Charity works and has supported directly in numerous organisations including Smith Family, ALNF (Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation), in fund raising activities and other direct actions
