Bill Granger, chef who brought avocado toast to the world, dies at 54

Mr Granger had an early interest in food, serving his parents 'silver service' breakfast in bed from the age of five and working his way through recipe cards in magazines, before turning his attention to food writers Elizabeth David and Margaret Fulton. He relished Melbourne's rich and varied cuisine, eating dim sum with a childhood friend's Chinese parents, and sought out Lebanese kofta, African curry and “the most pungent” Parmesan cheese, he wrote in his latest cookbook, Australian Food (2020). .

Like his father, he went to Menton Grammar School, a private boys' school at the time. In high school, he struggled and excelled – he made three attempts to graduate but scored top grades in art. He then spent a few months studying architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

He said the field finding was “very rigorous.” “Grilling” podcast in 2021He dropped out and moved to Sydney where he attended art school. These studies were also ultimately short-lived, but traveling to Japan, waiting tables, and working in kitchens eventually inspired him to open his own restaurant, Bell's.

“I had no formal training as a chef and I always said that, ironically, that was great training,” Mr Granger wrote in Australian Food. “I wasn't bound by any rules about food and good food. I didn't even know what rules I was supposed to break. It puts me in comparison with the Australian way of eating: blissfully lacking in fixed assumptions or strict culinary histories.”

The real work of breakfast has begun for the Bills. When he found a few landlords willing to rent any location to a 22-year-old with no business experience (and just $30,000 AUD, borrowed against his grandfather's insurance policy), he settled on a location with a few dozen seats, no liquor license and a restaurant. The mandatory closing time is around 3pm, and he begins transforming it into the shared dining space of his dreams.