Tobie Puttock began his cooking career at Melbourne’s Cafe e Cucina, before traveling to picturesque Lake Como, Italy to work at the Hotel Florence. After years perfecting his culinary skills, Tobie travelled to the United Kingdom to work at the famous River Café. Here Tobie found himself cooking alongside a young Jamie Oliver, who shared his passion for simply cooked Italian food, and the two became close friends.
Current work
At the beginning of 2018 Tobie proudly accepted the role as Creative Director of Jamie’s Ministry of Food Australia where he will focus on scaling up the reach of the foundations good work to help even more Australians eat a healthy and balanced diet.
Currently Tobie consults for Prahran Market in Melbourne and is a proud ambassador to Jamie’s Ministry of Food Australia. As well as these ongoing roles Tobie has featured in major campaigns for Heinz, Woolworths, Fisher & Paykel, National Australia Bank, Oliana foods and many more.
Previous experience
Restaurant: In 2000 Tobie returned to Melbourne, after further stints in Italy and Switzerland, to set up restaurant ‘Termini’. In 2002 his old mate Jamie offered him a new challenge - to return to the UK and become Head Chef of the first Fifteen Restaurant, a social enterprise to teach under-privileged youths to become chefs in a gourmet environment. Tobie seized the opportunity and was instrumental in helping Fifteen London become ‘Tatler's - Restaurant of the Year' in 2003.
Charity: Tobie returned home to Melbourne in 2005 to establish Australia’s own Fifteen Restaurantand Charitable Foundation. Opening in September 2006, Tobie continued Jamie and the Fifteen Foundation’s work giving 15-20 under privileged Australian youths each year the opportunity, training and support to become qualified chefs.
TV: Tobie’s honest, light-hearted approach and passion for topics such as organics, sustainability, seasonality, and ethical eating, has seen him in high demand as a guest on some of Australia’s favourite television programs, The Circle, Good Morning Australia and Ready Steady Cook as well as writing for Australian publications such as Good Taste Magazine, Delicious and Sunday Life. Tobie also appears regularly at major food events around Australia including the Good Food and Wine Show, Organic Expo, Great Barrier Feast and The Gluten Free Expo.
Since returning to Melbourne, Tobie has featured in the Channel 10 hit series, Jamie’s Kitchen Australia (2006) and Lifestyle’s FOOD TV series, Tobie and Matt - Europe and Asia (2008) as well as several years as a Guest Judge with Channel 7’s ratings hit My Kitchen Rules, and most recently co-hosting ‘Wonderful Indonesia Flavours’ Season One and Two for the Asian Food Chanel (2015).
Author: Tobie has written and released four best-selling cookbooks, Daily Italian (2006), Italian Local (2008), Cook like an Italian (2010), and The Chef Gets Healthy (2015), which sees Tobie take a new direction toward healthy eating and a balanced lifestyle. His most recent publication, Super Natural features entirely plant based recipes. He has also created a series of short format video cook eBooks that are available via iTunes in 25 countries.
Foodie: Tobie has taken a huge interest in plant-based cooking describing himself as “plant curious”. Tobie is not vegan but is deeply concerned of the impact our current food system has both on ourselves, animals and the environment.
