Curtis Stone

Early life

Stone was born in Melbourne and grew up in the suburb of East Keilor. Stone began cooking with his paternal grandmother, Maude, at the age of four. His father, Bryan Stone, is an accountant, and his mother, Lorraine, is a florist; they separated when Stone was two years old. Stone attended Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School where he took home economics class and then went on to a commercial cookery apprenticeship at a vocational school.

Career

Stone studied for a Bachelor of Business at Victoria University before dropping out and deciding to pursue a career as a chef. He worked in Australian restaurants before leaving to work in London, where he debuted his cooking career at age 18 at the Savoy Hotel. Upon completing his qualifications as a chef at Box Hill TAFE, Stone began cooking under Marco Pierre White at the Café Royal and Mirabelle, and went on to become head chef at White's Quo Vadis.

Television

Stone returned briefly to Australia to make the travelling cooking show Surfing the Menu (on ABC) with another chef, Ben O'Donoghue.

Stone has appeared on a number of cooking programmes in the UK, including Dinner in a Box, Good Food Live and Saturday Kitchen. He also hosted the first season of My Restaurant Rules in Australia. Beginning in May 2006, Stone hosted Take Home Chef on TLC in the United States, which went on to become an international hit for TLC.

On American television Stone appears regularly on NBC's Today. His second appearance in 2007 featured him visiting the home of host Meredith Vieira to teach her how to cook, as her children had complained that she did not know how. On 14 January 2011, Stone co-hosted the fourth hour of Today with Hoda Kotb. He has also appeared on Martha Stewart's show Martha, Access Hollywood, Lopez Tonight, The Nate Berkus Show, The Talk, The Chew, and Rachael Ray. On 7 June 2011, Curtis was a guest on Conan, where he taught Conan O'Brien how to prepare the perfect date night meal.

Stone has appeared on Food Network's Iron Chef America in the episode "Battle Skipjack Tuna", where he lost to Iron Chef Bobby Flay.

Stone has also appeared on several episodes of The Biggest Loser.

Stone was a candidate on The Celebrity Apprentice 3, which premiered in March 2010 and was the third installment to the celebrity version of The Apprentice. The show premiered on 14 March 2010, and Stone was fired on 16 May 2010, placing fourth out of 14 contestants. On the same day (16 May 2010), Stone was co-host of Miss USA 2010. Stone has also made appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Stone appeared on a segment of Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure, a four-day television event that aired in January 2011.

In June 2010, producers of NBC's new series America's Next Great Restaurant announced that Stone would join the judging and investment panel on alongside Bobby Flay, Steve Ells and Lorena Garcia. The first season aired in 2011 directly followed by the fourth edition of The Celebrity Apprentice, where Stone made a guest appearance on the first episode.

In 2011, Stone became host of the third season of Bravo's Top Chef Masters, replacing Kelly Choi. In January 2012, Bravo announced Stone would co-host a new culinary reality show called Around the World in 80 Plates with fellow celebrity chef Cat Cora. The series, which premiered in May 2012, follows 12 chefs competing in a culinary race across 10 countries in 44 days.

Stone also hosted and anchored the judges' table for the Top Chef franchise's spin-off edition, Top Chef Duels, in 2014.

In August 2012, Stone appeared in an episode of MasterChef Australia All-Stars. He returned to MasterChef in May 2015 for a MasterClass alongside Marco Pierre White. Stone began hosting Kitchen Inferno in 2014 and mentored Food Network's debut culinary competition, All Star Academy, in 2015. He appeared on the network again in summer 2015 for two episodes of the show Guilty Pleasures.

In 2015, Stone also made an appearance on the second season of Celebrity Family Feud.

In 2017, Stone co-hosted the FOX reality cooking series My Kitchen Rules. Stone has previously appeared in the original Australian version of the program.

In 2019, Stone's series Field Trip with Curtis Stone began on PBS.

In 2021, Stone became a judge on Crime Scene Kitchen.

Restaurants

On 1 February 2014, Stone opened his first restaurant, Maude, in Beverly Hills which is named after his paternal grandmother. Maude was first awarded a Michelin star in the 2019 Michelin Guide for California and continues to hold its one-star rating as of 2023. Stone opened a second restaurant, Gwen, in Hollywood in 2016, named after his maternal grandmother. Gwen was awarded 1 Michelin star in 2022. In 2024, Curtis opened Woodend by Curtis Stone at the Maroma Hotel in Mexico.

Other projects

In 2007, Stone hosted the Great Barrier Feast Culinary Masterclass event on Hamilton Island featuring other notable Australian chefs, including Geoff Jansz, Shannon Bennett, and Justin North. In 2008, Stone developed "Kitchen Solutions by Curtis Stone," a line of kitchen utensils, accessories, and glassware. He also has written a series of cookbooks, including Surfing the Menu: Two Chefs, One Journey: A Fresh Food Adventure, Cooking With Curtis: Easy, Everyday and Adventurous Recipes for the Home Cook, and Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone: Recipes to Put You in My Favorite Mood. Stone's 2013 cookbook What's For Dinner? became a New York Times bestseller and was translated into Chinese in December 2014. Stone's most recent book, Good Food, Good Life, launched in March 2015 in the United States and Canada and May 2015 in Australia.

In 2010, Stone gave a cooking class and demonstration at the Singapore Sun Festival. In October 2010 it was announced that Stone had created recipes for in-flight meals for United Airlines. In 2011, he was appointed as an ambassador for Cottage by the Sea, alongside big wave surfer Jeff Rowley and Olympian Cathy Freeman. The ambassadors help the Australian charity raise funds to provide short holidays for disadvantaged children. Stone also works with Feeding America, a domestic hunger-relief charity, and Second-Bite, which redistributes nutritional surplus food to those in need.

Stone is best known in Australia for his more than a decade's long partnership with Coles Supermarket where he is the ambassador of their fresh food and recipes. In 2011, Stone described to GQ Australia his relationship with big supermarkets: "I never even thought about working for a supermarket. But there's that feeling you get when you walk down the street and someone comes up and says, 'You know what? We never used to cook fish in our house. Since we’ve tried that salmon recipe we have it once a week.' The feeling that gives you is worth a million other things". Stone and his team create recipes that feature in the monthly Coles Magazine and are very active in influencing how Australians eat, being credited with encouraging the supermarket to improve ethical sourcing. In the early years of the partnership, Stone's recipes were focused on helping Australians create meals for under $10. Winn-Dixie, an American supermarket, took the same strategy and signed Stone by launching "Cooking with Curtis for under $10" in 2015.

Stone voiced the character Todd in the 2016 DreamWorks Animation film Trolls and 2017 half-hour Christmas special Trolls Holiday.

Personal life

Stone began dating American actress Lindsay Price in late 2009 after meeting on a blind date. Stone and Price got engaged in July 2012, and married on 8 June 2013 in Spain. They have two sons, Hudson and Emerson, and live in Los Angeles.

Stone is a fan of the Geelong Football Club.

Publications

• Surfing the Menu, 2005
• Cooking with Curtis, 2006
• Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone, 2009
• What's For Dinner? 2013
• Good Food, Good Life, 2015

References

References

1. "Mr Curtis Travis STONE". Australian Government.
2. (5 June 2019). "Curtis Stone: Everything You Need To Know About Curtis".
3. Zyman, Jennifer. (27 November 2024). "Curtis Stone Heads Back to His Roots".
4. (2024-09-21). "Curtis Stone did the unthinkable to get his dream job".
5. (8 April 2011). "Who the Hell Is Curtis Stone?".
6. "Take Home Chef".
7. "Chef Curtis Stone's Takeout Intervention".
8. "Take Home Chef".
9. (25 April 2007). "Cooking with 'Take Home Chef' Curtis Stone".
10. (14 January 2011). "Bad New Ladies: Curtis Stone Confirms He's Taken".
11. Forbes, Paul. (8 June 2011). "Curtis Stone Teaches Conan How to Cook for Date Night".
12. [[List of Iron Chef America episodes]]
13. "Curtis Stone".
14. (11 December 2011). "Day Two of our Ultimate Australian Adventure in which Curtis Stone Serves us Dinner, We Hang Out With All Ten Tenors and I Make Oprah Cry".
15. Stanhope, Kate. (10 June 2010). "Curtis Stone and Two Others Join Bobby Flay Restaurant Series". [[TV Guide]].
16. [[The Apprentice (U.S. season 11)#Episode 1: Pepperoni Profit. The Apprentice (Season 11): Episode 1]]
17. Brion, Raphael. (13 January 2011). "Bravo: Curtis Stone to Host Top Chef Masters Season 3". Eater.com.
18. (19 January 2012). "Bravo Announces New & Returning Shows Including Millionaire Matchmaker, Flipping Out & Two Housewives Spin-Offs!".
19. Fenton, Andrew. (18 October 2015). "Surfing the Menu's Ben O'Donoghue 'saved Curtis Stone's life' when the pair last went surfing".
20. "Guilty Pleasures Episode Guide".
21. (13 May 2016). "Fox Orders 'My Kitchen Rules' Cooking Series With Curtis Stone & Cat Cora". [[Deadline Hollywood]].
22. "Field Trip with Curtis Stone".
23. Hallock, Betty. (10 January 2014). "First look at Curtis Stone's Maude restaurant in Beverly Hills". [[Los Angeles Times]].
24. (5 June 2019). "Chef Curtis Stone's LA restaurant Maude awarded Michelin star". Good Food.
25. "Maude – Beverly Hills - a Michelin Guide Restaurant".
26. (8 December 2016). "Gwen, a manly restaurant and butcher shop, simply screams 'steak'". Los Angeles Times.
27. "Gwen – Los Angeles - a Michelin Guide Restaurant".
28. (14 July 2007). "Island daze for tropical gourmands". [[The Sydney Morning Herald]].
29. "My Cookware Range - Kitchen Solutions".
30. "Best Sellers, May 5, 2013". The New York Times.
31. "Singapore Sun Festival official site".
32. Haywood, Linda. (27 October 2010). "Curtis Stone Recipes: Braised Short Ribs and Chinese Chicken Salad". The Global Herald.
33. "Ambassadors of our Charity".
34. Kennedy, Lauren Paige. (18 December 2016). "Curtis Stone on Fatherhood and Fighting Hunger".
35. Smith, Nick. (8 February 2011). "Livestyle People: Curtis Stone".
36. Rodell, Besha. (2018-10-23). "The double life of Curtis Stone".
37. Burrowes, Tim. (2013-07-26). "Coles in fresh $10 meals push".
38. White, Nancy. "Winn-Dixie, celebrity chef Curtis Stone launch 'Cooking with Curtis for under $10'". [[The Florida Times-Union]].
39. Trigaux, Robert. (6 January 2016). "Behind Winn-Dixie price cuts, a CEO strategy borrowed from Australia". [[Tampa Bay Times]].
40. Moore, Camille. (2021-05-03). "10 Things You Didn't Know about Curtis Stone".
41. (5 February 2011). "Aussie chef running hot abroad". [[Herald Sun]].
42. Michaud, Sarah. (2012-07-12). "Curtis Stone Engaged to Lindsay Price".
43. Galla, Brittany. (2013-06-09). "Lindsay Price, Curtis Stone Get Married in Spain".
44. Stone, Curtis. (21 November 2011). [https://twitter.com/curtis_stone/status/138782563660603393 "Chef Curtis Stone Twitter post"].
45. Michaud, Sarah. (22 November 2011). "Curtis Stone, Lindsay Price Welcome First Child".
46. (18 September 2014). "Curtis Stone and Lindsay Price Welcome Son Emerson Spencer".
47. (27 August 2018). "Curtis Stone and wife Lindsay Price in LA".
48. (30 April 2012). "PARADE Readers Chat With Curtis Stone".