We've recently published Brendan Murphy's new book and it's packed full of food and travel stories drawn from his 30 year career in the hospitality industry. Brendan Murphy qualified as a Chef in 1983. He lived, travelled and worked extensively throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia during the ‘80’s and ‘90’s before qualifying as a TAFE Lecturer at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia in 1995 and as a Freelance Travel Writer in 1997.

From the Author:

“Someone should write a book about this crazy Industry!” 

I have heard that exclamation many times over the last 30 years in which I have been employed as a Chef in the Hospitality Industry. And yes, a few books have been written, but not quite like this one! This is not a cookbook from a Celebrity Chef, but more of an exploration of what it’s really like to work in the Hospitality Industry, and especially as a Chef. Combine this with traveling and working all over the world as a Chef, Lecturer and Writer and somehow keeping nearly 30 years of diaries to research from! 

The Hotel and Catering Industry worldwide is full of the same crazy characters that even the best imagination would be hard pressed to dream up! My Diaries are full of them, as well as true drama, humour and travelling that enthralled me over the years. From my College roots in Manchester, England, to the City of London, from the ski slopes of Switzerland and Germany to the Outback of Australia and from the Greek islands to the Thai island of Phuket. I have especially spent over a decade as a Chef in Australia from Sydney to The Great Barrier Reef in Queensland and in Perth, Western Australia where I arrived in 1990, and finally settled in 2002. 

Food and cookery is also about life and culture, and as a chef working around the World I have learnt more about different peoples and their culture than I ever could have at school and college! 
And the best is still yet to be because as a cook you NEVER stop learning. 

Many years ago as an older teenager living in a grim city struggling with massive unemployment rates, I was on the dole and uninspired. I decided to hitch-hike around Europe. Suddenly I got a ‘Taste of the World’, just a taste, but enough to inspire me so much, that I felt unstoppable in my quest to become a fully qualified Chef and travel the world. Thirty years later, I may have slowed down a bit, but I’m still travelling and still tasting! 

This first book in a series is as it is titled, just a ‘Taste’ of the World and probably more of a Travel Book than a cookery lesson. However, the stories are all true and include authentic recipes and a brief cultural profile of each country that I either worked or travelled in. My aim is to mix the essential ingredients of a true Chef-y and Traveller story or cultural experience thrown in the pot with a dash of humour, to hopefully make it a richer experience for you, the reader, who is about to embark on a bit of Chef-Exploring of your own!