Celebrity Profiles
Lamont, Kate
Kate Lamont has more than two decades of experience in the food and wine industry, principally in Western Australia.
As CEO and managing partner in the Lamont’s family business, an integrated food and wine operation incorporating grape growing, wine production and sales. The business also operates restaurants in the Swan Valley, Margaret River and East Perth. Kate opened a fourth wine and food venue in Cottesloe in 2008.
As one of Western Australia’s most successful chefs, Kate was named Industry Icon by Vogue Entertaining & Travel, has written bestselling cooking and has contributed to various books and magazines including The Weekend Australian and is an occasional columnist for The West Australian colour magazine. She is a regular guest presenter on ABC radio. Kate is currently working on a fourth book.
Kate has represented tourism and hospitality interests on the Western Australian government’s Skills Formation Taskforce which recommended significant changes to trade training in 2007. In recognition of her contributions to the hospitality industry, The Restaurant and Caterers Institute of Western Australia awarded her its highest accolade in 2007, membership of its Hall of Fame.
Kate was appointed to Tourism Western Australia’s Board of Commissioners in May 2004 and then as it’s Chairman in September 2006. Prior to the WA Tourism involvement, Kate was a Director of the Australian Tourism Commission (now Tourism Australia).
Kate Lamont is a past state winner of the Telstra WA Business Woman of the Year, and in 2006, was a Finalist in both the National Veuve Clicquot Woman of the Year and The Perth Citizen of the Year Awards.
Lethlean, John
John Lethlean is restaurant critic for and co-editor of The Weekend Australian Magazine's Food and Wine pages and food editor with The Australian.
A winner (in 2005) of the World Food Media Awards citation for Best Restaurant Critic, John's work appeared for many years in The Age and Australian Gourmet Traveller, and his specialty, for more than 14 years, has been writing about restaurants, their people and the goings on of the local industry, for papers, magazines and guide books.
Liew, Cheong
Cheong Liew, Consultant Chef to the Grange Restaurant at Hilton Adelaide, was acknowledged in the Queens Birthday List on Monday 14 June 1999. He was awarded an OAM - Medal of the Order of Australia - in recognition for “service to the food and restaurant industry through involvement in developing and influencing the style of contemporary Australian cuisine”.
This honour recognises a talent long known in Australia - Cheong Liew, the Malaysian-born Chinese whose fusion of Asian culture, Australian ingredients and classical French technique has made his name synonymous with cookery at the crossroads.
His art is a seamless blend of east and west that French-based American judge Patricia Wells found irresistible when naming the Grange Restaurant Australia’s best in the 1998 Remy Martin/Australian Gourmet Traveller Award. “My cuisine is about understanding and appreciating cuisines of different countries and then cooking it from the heart” Cheong explains.
Cheong Liew, recognised as “an original genius” by no less a critic than the late Don Dunstan, returned to front-line cooking only in 1995 after several years at the Regency Hotel School. Inspiration ...Innovator ... founder of the Australian cuisine ... master chef ... guru ... are many of the superlatives used to describe Cheong.
Consultant to the Grange Restaurant, he has been recreating the amazing blend of boundless imagination with flawless perfection, which first saw him gain national recognition. Regarded as one of Adelaide’s treasures, Cheong has been recently honoured by the prestigious United States magazine Food & Wine as one of the 10 “hottest chefs alive”.
Cheong’s passion for local food and wine has seen him become involved with promoting South Australia with the Tourism Commission on an advisory role. Furthermore, he has been instrumental in co-ordinating the two days of Food and Wine Sessions to be held at Hilton Adelaide during Tasting Australia in 1999 and 2001.
At the World Food Media Awards held October 1999, Cheong Liew was announced the National Inductee into the Hall of Fame receiving a standing ovation and Gold Ladle. In April 2002 and 2004, Cheong was invited to be Guest Celebrity Chef at the prestigious Cherry Blossom Gourmet Festival at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. He promoted Australian cuisine to 800 - 1,000 VIP guests. Additionally, he also conducted a wondrous food promotion at Restaurant 21 at Tokyo Hilton Hotel.
Married with four children, Cheong lives at Fullarton and has been resident in Adelaide, South Australia for 30 years.
Lloyd, Kris
Kris Lloyd is CEO and Head cheese maker of Woodside Cheese Wrights. Woodside Cheese Wrights is a specialist cheese maker of goat and cow cheeses,
producing fresh, white mould and matured cheeses. Production is around 60 Tonne per annum
with distribution throughout Australia.
Kris is the Head cheese maker supported by a passionate team of cheese makers producing cheeses to traditional methods resulting in plenty of flavour and individual character. Kris has also pioneered a range of seasonal cheeses, with innovative packaging and presentation, to take advantage of seasonal variations in milk supply.
Kris works closely with high profile chefs around Australia to develop cheeses exclusively for their menus. In 2004 Kris established the South Australian Specialist Cheese Association “Cheese SA” to promote specialty cheese and introduce industry driven education and training programs in South Australia. Kris is currently the Chair of the association. Kris is also the Director and Founder of CheeseFest, Australian Alfresco Cheese Festival designed to raise awareness of specialty cheese and celebrate the Cheese Maker. Kris is a Board member of the Dairy Industry Development Board which aims to deal with Dairy related issues in the State. She also forms part of The Premiers Food Council Executive. In 2008 Kris was nominated to chair the Industry and Business Capability Pillar which forms part of the Premiers Food Council and State Food Plan initiatives.
Kris has a passion for the visual arts and co chairs the Scotch College annual art exhibition primarily involved in selection of artwork, she also has a regular segment on Radio Adelaide discussing all aspects of cheese.
Woodside Cheese Wrights has won numerous cheese awards throughout Australia, including the Grand Dairy Award in 2004, and has won the South Australian Premiers Food Award in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Late 2008 Kris was awarded the Zonta Womens Achievement Award for an Outstanding Entrepreneur.
Woodside Cheese Wrights was awarded 1 gold and 2 silver medals at the World Cheese Awards judged in Dublin and Canary Islands in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Woodside was the only Australian cheese maker awarded a gold medal in 2008 and the only South Australian cheese maker to receive gold in 2009 at these awards.
In 2007 Kris was invited by the Italian Slow Food Society to present her Cheese at the Italian Cheese Festival in Bra, Italy, her presentation was translated in French and Italian, she was asked to present again in September 2009 at the same festival. Kris was a finalist in the 2009 Telstra Business Womens Awards in the Commonwealth Bank Business owner category. Kris travels widely throughout the world to help benchmark her products, to learn new techniques and gather product ideas.
