Speakers Profile - Kylie Kwong










Travels From:
Sydney

Fee Range: E


Kylie Kwong was born into a fourth-generation Australian-Chinese family, in Sydney. She learnt the fundamentals of Cantonese cooking at her mother's side, and then went on to hone her skills with several of Australia's most respected chefs. After working at some of Sydney's finest restaurants - Rockpool, Wockpool and Restaurant Manfredi - Kylie realised her dream of pouring her heart and soul into her own restaurant, billy kwong, in Sydney's Surry Hills.

Kylie's television series, Kylie Kwong: Simply Magic, is an eight-part series, Kylie travels to the heart of the country that has inspired all her cooking, to two of the world's most exciting cities, Hong Kong and Shanghai. There she finds the origins of the recipes her grandmother taught her and finds inspiration for new dishes. Back home in her beautiful Sydney kitchen, Kylie shares her wonderful new cooking ideas with us; showing us how we can simply cook authentic Chinese recipes at home, using ingredients available at any local supermarket. The accompanying cookbook, Simple Chinese Cooking, was published in March 2006.

The first television series Kylie Kwong: Heart and Soul premiered in October 2003 and has since been sold worldwide, as has the accompanying book. Her first book, Kylie Kwong: Recipes and Stories, introduced her family and the food that binds them together.

Kylie's latest book, My China: A Feast for all the Senses, reflects on experiences gained while exploring Chinese culinary delights, while taking a deeply personal journey into the history, culture and peoples of China and Tibet. An accompanying TV series is nearing completion.

For Kylie, food is both a way of life in the present and a link with the past and her family heritage - especially for her extraordinary great-grandfather Kwong Sue Duk, who was lured to Australia from his ancestral village in China by the promise of gold. As she says ��by sharing the experiences of my family, I hope to enhance the understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture, particularly within Australia, and to express my pride in my Chinese heritage.'