About Al

Al Brown is a Chef, TV Presenter, Writer, Fisherman and Restaurateur. His new eatery Depot, opened in Auckland in August 2011.  Depot was named the winner of the supreme award in the Metro / Audi Restaurant of the Year Awards 2012. As well as the Supreme Award, Depot was also awarded Best New Restaurant and Best Casual Bistro, with Al personally being awarded Audi Progressive Restaurateur of the Year.

Al is also co-owner of Logan Brown Restaurant & Bar in Wellington, New Zealand, the 2009 Supreme Winner of Cuisine Magazine's Restaurant of the Year Award.

Al enjoys eating just about anything, but most of all simple food, cooked perfectly. He believes that more time should be spent pleasing the palate than garnishing to please the eye.   

After completing his Culinary Arts Degree at the New England Culinary Institute, USA, then cooking in restaurants in North America, Europe and New Zealand, Al opened Logan Brown Restaurant in Wellington with business partner Steve Logan in 1996. 

Al loves to share unique experiences through the storytelling of food, people and their landscapes. Over the last few years, Al has co-presented the award winning TV series, Hunger for the Wild, meeting great Kiwi characters, chasing down some of New Zealand's finest food, and preparing dishes of wild game and seasonal delicacies.  

Al also presented the TV show, Coasters, which aired in 2011, celebrating our country's coastline and exploring the connection New Zealanders have with the ocean. 

As a culinary ambassador for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise since 2003, Al is also called upon from time to time to help promote New Zealand cuisine overseas.

Al is the author of award winning cookbook Go Fish, which is based around his love of fishing and seafood. Released in October 2009, the book has been reprinted several times and has won Best Single Subject in the prestigious IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Cookbook Awards presented in the USA in May 2010. His book, Go Fish, won two awards at the NZ Post Book Awards in 2010, picking up best Illustrated Non-Fiction book, as well as the People's Choice Award. Al was also awarded the Book Quill for Go Fish at the 2011 New Zealand Guild of Food Writer's, Culinary Quill Awards.

His new book Stoked was released in October 2011. A follow up to Go Fish, it is focused on meat cookery and our love of cooking over wood fires. 

Al's current TV series, Get Fresh with Al Brown, explores ten different regions, each culminating with creating three dishes, which, to Al, represent each province, and finished screening on TVNZ TV1 late in 2011.   His book on the series is due out in October 2012.