Born in Melbourne and raised on the Gold Coast, Pete’s passion for cooking was discovered because of his love for the great outdoors, any job that would see him working at night and surfing or fishing all the day was fine with him!

A surfer, fisherman, tv personality, author and chef, Pete, brother Dave, and Daniel Vaughan opened their first restaurant, The Pantry in 1993 when Pete was 19.

In 2008 the latest in a chain of venues for the Hugos Group, Hugos Manly, opened and shares no less than eight Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide chef’s hats, 21 ‘Best in Australia’ titles and a World’s Best Pizza award at the 2005 New York Pizza Show.

Along with his restaurants Pete has been in front of the camera for the last 9 years as a TV presenter. February 2010 saw the premiere of My Kitchen Rules in which Pete and his good mate Manu Feildel head up the judging panel. Its state versus state, plate against plate, as five teams of-two from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane attempt to out-dine and out-wine each other to see whose kitchen rules.Pete’s other work includes over 400 episodes as the host of Australia’s number 1 cooking show “FRESH” on Channel 9, 60 episodes of “Home” a lifestyle program, a one-hour behind-the scenes documentary, “Cooking For Our Princess Mary” and the series “FISH” which saw Pete & his fishing mad brother in-law ‘Udo’ travel around Australia sourcing & cooking the freshest catch. Pete is currently filming a new project that has him cooking for the worlds best parties.

Pete has a passion for writing and his first book “Fish” a collection of over 130 fish and seafood recipes from Australian and New Zealand species, was published by Murdoch Books in August 2007 and is currently up to its 4th reprint. His second book is titled “My Table – food for entertaining” and was released in November 2008 and his most recent book, “My Grill” is all about the art of barbequing and is already into its 2nd reprint as well as been sold into Germany for release in 2010.

He's currently writing a book on “cocktail food & drinks” for release in mid 2010. Pete also writes a monthly column for the Australian Womens Weekly along with being a contributor for Selector magazine. Pete has a range of cooking products hitting the shelves in May 2010 and also is the Ambassador or Gold Week for the Sydney Childrens Hospital and the Ambassador for the Pink Ribbon Breakfast for The National Breast Cancer Foundation.

For more info on Pete www.peterevanschef.com.au