Go Fish

Al Brown, bestselling cookbook writer, is also the chef behind Depot, 2012 Metro Supreme Restaurant of the Year, as well as Metro’s Best New Restaurant and Best Casual Bistro. In 2012 Al was awarded Audi Progressive Restaurateur of the Year. In 2013 he was named Cuisine magazine’s Villa Maria Estate Restaurant Personality of the Year, and the Depot gained a “one hat” rating. He also runs Best Ugly Bagels in Auckland, and was co-founder of the internationally acclaimed restaurant Logan Brown in Wellington, with Steve Logan.

Al is the author of Stoked, Go Fish and Get Fresh. Go Fish won People’s Choice and Best Illustrated Book in the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards (judge Neville Peat described it as a recipe book “with edge and attitude”), won Best Single Subject at the highly regarded International Association of Culinary Professionals Awards in the USA, and won a 2011 Book Quill at the New Zealand Guild of Food Writer”s Culinary Quill Awards. He also wrote Hunger for the Wild with Steve Logan. He is the star of TV series Dishing Up Australia, Get Fresh, Coasters and Hunger for the Wild.

Al gained a Culinary Arts Degree at the United States’ New England Culinary Institute, and then cooked in restaurants In North America and New Zealand. He has hosted master classes at Melbourne Food and Wine, at Savour and at Ruth Pretty’s Springfield Cooking School. Since 2003 he has been a culinary ambassador for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. In 2012 Al was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services as a chef.