About — Pip's Plate

Cooking has taken me around the world and back but living in Byron has reminded me how important food experiences are in bringing people together.

Reared on a rice, grain and sheep farm in the Riverina, I am fortunate to belong to a family who appreciates good food and where it comes from. At a young age I would invite friends over from school, take lamb chops from the chest freezer, light a fire in the orchard and cook them over an old tractor plough dish. Flavour was added with much flourish from surrounding citrus and herbs. In my mind this was my very own cooking show and I’m not really sure my friends knew what they were in for - not your average after school play date.

Despite my love of cooking, I headed to The Big Smoke after school to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree at Sydney University. It was a 3 month work placement in Vietnam which eventually led me into a career in food - the new spicy flavours and aromatics ignited my senses and food became an obsession. Following a brush with Masterchef in 2013 I began my travels, working as a chef in France, Spain, Indonesia and Fiji. Returning to Australia I spent a year in Mudgee working at Gilberts winery. The Gilberts allowed me to design a fire pit and so began the concept of ‘Food over Fire’, a long immersive lunch sourcing and promoting local produce.

“Pip has created such beautiful and immersive food experience.

On your way home with the scent of smoke in your hair, you will talk about the different foods, the flavour combinations, the local produce, all cooked in a way that is as old as humankind but we have somehow forgotten the feeling of gathering around a fire.

Surrounded by your friends with the backdrop of the magical hinterland. Your sit down restaurant experience will be forever challenged.”

— Yvonne Deitch

These days Byron is my happy place - thanks to its beauty, the ocean and abundance of excellent local produce, combined with a food-focused community. Cooking has taken me around the world and back but living in Byron has reminded me how important food experiences are in bringing people together.