Australian celebrity chef Ian Parmenter has died. He was 79.
The Consuming Passions chef's death was confirmed by his former employer Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), citing close friends.
The beloved TV host was the face of Consuming Passions from 1992 to 2001, becoming one of the most popular cooks in Australia during that time.
Despite his fame as a chef, the London native was trained as a journalist on Fleet Street. He also worked in advertising before making his way to television at ABC, working in various production roles before landing his own show.
Lacking professional experience, Parmenter turned his personal passion for food into a successful media career, publishing numerous books and reaching TV audiences in nearly 20 countries. He was a natural on camera who was known for his colorful and fiercely individual personality, former ABC colleague Verity James said.
"But he could also be incredibly introspective," she told Michael Tetlow on ABC Perth. "So thoughtful and so compassionate."
"While he was very flamboyant, he was also quite strongly opinionated," James added.
For most of his show's run, Parmenter filmed at his cottage in Margaret River, a town in Western Australia known for its wineries that he grew to love. He preferred simple, homey recipes.
"A lot of the development of the recipes for the program came in the cottage," he told ABC local radio in 2017.
"I never got into areas of high speed food processing and complex things...If it couldn't be done in the cottage, it couldn't be done at home, basically."
In 2011, Parmenter was awarded the Order of Australia for his service to the food and tourism industries.
He was strongly attached to Margaret River, where one resident remembered him as an "incredible bloke" and an "ambassador" for the region who brought the community together. "I think he had many sides to him. There was obviously his very public character with his beret and moustache, and his big booming voice," Susie Ormonde said.
"But he just really encouraged us all to value what we have down here, and realise the importance of community and the small, deep connections we can make in towns," Ormonde added.
"He loved connecting people, an ambassador for the region … an incredible bloke."
