Curtis Stone on family, fame and cooking hacks

Stone is our homegrown celebrity chef who plates up Michelin star magic all over the world.

And yet he still finds time to help us at home with a range of tasty cooking tips and hacks.

When he's not running around, Sydney's surprising fans at Coles,

like he did this morning on Sunrise, Curtis is also raising some serious talent.

Under his own roof alongside his wife, Lindsay Curtis, is he with us?

Hello. How you doing?

He's sticking around our few big shopping spree this morning.

That was so fun. It was crazy, but it was fun.

What are some of the Aussie things you love to do when you come home?

Because LA is your base.

It is, but I spend a bunch of time in Sydney and my family are all down in Melbourne,

so I'm down there a lot as well.

I love being home. I love hitting the beaches.

You know, we've got the best beaches in the world.

The food here is fantastic.

Aussies have the best sense of humour of anywhere that I've been.

So yeah, I love being here.

How's the pressure with what you do with the restaurants all over the world

and just keeping that standard up?

Yeah, look, it's one of those things that you set a standard for yourself in restaurants.

And then you're accountable to them every single day, you know?

And you can't be in every spot every moment of the day,

so you've got to have an incredible team.

You've got to empower them and you've got to make sure that you work really closely together.

But I love it. I still wake up every morning and excited to do what I do.

So I think when you've got that gift of love on what you do,

it's actually quite easy. Yeah.

Yeah, we saw you at Coles this morning just sort of shopping.

But you've been with them for ages now.

What? 17 years. Yeah.

Incredible.

So what do you love most about this job?

Look, I think as a chef, you love cooking for people and you love, you know,

having people taste your food and the footprint I get with Coles

is I get to sit down with the board and talk to them about how we source ingredients

where they come from. I'm a huge advocate for Aussie grown.

I love supporting Aussie farmers and making sure that we have as much.

Coles sold 97% there about of what they sell is grown here in Australia.

And I'm super proud of that back. It's fabulous.

And you know, so and then I get to develop recipes for them

and home cooks all over the country get to try them.

So yeah, it's a fun job.

You've cooked for plenty of celebs over the years.

Yeah.

Heaps, right?

Is there one that's really surprised you?

Because they actually know what they're doing?

Oh, you know what? I cooked recently with Terry Hatcher

and she was on a show that I was hosting and she's a really good cook.

And I was like,

Hey, you're amazing.

She's like, actually, after desperate housewives,

I enrolled in culinary school and I'm like,

Oh, wow.

And she became a chef like a legitimate.

She went all the way through the course

and she's, yeah, so that blew me away.

But look, I've been lucky enough to cook with celebs all over the joint.

So, and lots of them are good and lots of them are terrible.

And they're both fun.

Who's terrible? Who's the worst one?

Yeah.

Well, geez, who did I cook with?

I cooked with Dalton Goodrum, just a lot on my last trip back here.

She's a terrible cook.

But you know, she heard me certain.

She talks about that freely and I love you, Dalton.

But you don't know where the sink is in your home.

And that's all right.

You know, I can't cook but can sing.

Can sing.

Can sing.

Can sing.

Yes, he's doing good.

He's going to be like a bit of a movie star.

I tell you what, he's just open to anything, honey.

And he's a talented kid.

He's a musician.

He's in a band and he got this phone call about Camp Rock.

And they asked him to do it.

And that premieres later this year.

So, he's, he's dived in and I'm kind of like, mate,

you don't want to be an actor, do you?

You've got to be a chef and work with me.

But no, he's, he's finding his way in the music.

And he's going to be a chef.

He's going to be a chef with me.

But no, he's, he's finding his way in the music business.

He's in a studio every night after school.

He absolutely loves it.

So, I'm, I'm happy for him.

But he's got Mum's gene set to fabulous actress in Lindsay.

Yep.

And her gene.

She, they fit the same genes right now, which is quite...

But they are.

Yeah, she, I mean, she can sing.

The thing most people don't know about Lindsay.

I'll be mad at her.

Yeah, she's a summer writer and she's got the voice of an angel.

And, um, and, you know, I attribute what he's got in music.

In some ways to her because she sang to them every night

when they're going to sleep and she's a beautiful mum.

And, uh, and he's turned into this incredible little

vocalist as well as a guitarist.

I'm just got the sad vision of my head.

You're in the kitchen on your own at home peeling carrots.

While everyone's in the other room singing songs and dancing.

And I couldn't be more tone deaf.

If I whistle, my wife's like, yeah, I'm a king.

I'm like, how can you ever king whistle in?

It's just whizz, I'm just being happy.

But, you know, my, my music is, um, I like listening to it.

Let's put it down.

Yeah.

So, isn't that interesting?

Do you, um, like, are you happy to be in the kitchen

though they're off their singing?

Do you know what I mean?

Like, that's kind of really cool.

It's a hardhouse to take a conference call from.

I'm not going to lie.

Yeah.

My little guy's playing the drums.

Honey's always on the guitar lens.

He's belting at tunes once and a while.

Yeah.

Um, so it's, uh, it's a tough joint to, uh, get a bit of peace and quiet.

But I love it.

I mean, music and food.

They're the two, two of my favourite things in the world.

I can't ask how things in L.A.

after the fires and everything now.

How things settling down in?

Yeah, it's coming down.

Look, we're a year on from the fire.

Yeah.

And poor old palisades are still just starting that rebuild.

So, it's taken a minute to get going.

So, you have a fabulous farm sort of upmall of the finish way.

Yeah.

That, that was all okay.

Yeah.

We, we, we skated around it, thank goodness.

Yeah.

But the, the neighbourhood's been really devastated,

which has been challenging.

Um, but yeah, we're, we're getting back on our feet.

Yeah. Good.

Just on a lighter note, as we say, goodbye.

Uh, you've got to give us some tips for dinner time, right?

Yes.

I think that we need to have in the closet.

It was, what's the called a pantry, probably?

Uh, that's the closet in the kitchen called.

That's the end of the door.

I hope you like it.

I'm pretty sure it's called a pantry.

You know, when you get to the kitchen, right?

Yeah.

Where the sink thing is, and you open those doors.

Yes.

Is that called a closet?

That is called a pantry.

What's the one thing we need to have in the pantry?

Well, you know what?

I think, take something you love.

You, for instance, Larry, you love whiskey, right?

Okay.

You've got this incredible new whiskey.

If you love an alcohol,

you can create a dish with that booze.

Whether it's wine, or whether it's a spirit.

And I think that just having one thing that you attach to,

it's always easy.

If someone says, I want you to come up with a dish with chicken.

You're like, cool.

I know exactly what to do.

Yeah.

If they say, just make anything.

Then you're like, oh, God, that could be so many things.

So choose one ingredient you like, like you for whiskey.

There's a lot of things you can do with whiskey.

Can you see real?

Yes.

All right.

That's a good tip.

We'll go with that.

I made great to see your happy travels.

You want to off to Melbourne, right?

I sure am.

I'm going to be with the Grand Prix.

All right.

Great to see you.