Ben Milbourne

Ben Milbourne

Secondary School Teacher

State: TAS

Age: 30

School teacher Ben is incredibly passionate about what he does - he doesn’t do his job for the paycheck.

Some of Ben’s fondest childhood memories lie with his grandmother, she used to bake for the 40 plus tradesmen employed by the family business each morning. Ben remembers making scones with her after school every week - which is what sparked his love for cooking.

“She was an amazing cook . a true grandmother. Before you said hello to her you’d be in the pantry looking at what she’d baked.”

The outdoors also inspire Ben and living in Tasmania allows him to make the most of this.

“As a child I used to go on family camping trips and we would take out Dad’s boat, go fishing and cook the fish. We still go trout fishing on the great lakes in Tassie most weekends.”

Ben has a cookbook that features recipes from restaurants in Tasmania, and alongside his best mate, he recently did a week long trip around the state which followed all the restaurants featured in the book.

“We travelled around for five days on our motorbikes and stayed over at various places and ate in a different place each night.”

Ben’s food heroes include his Grandmother and Jamie Oliver. “I like that he demystifies everything and makes things easy.” He also admires the Gourmet Farmer, Matthews Evans, who recently moved to Tasmania.

Ben’s strengths are in Mexican and Asian cooking . he believes his concept of flavours will help him in the competition. His weakness is desserts.

Other than cooking, Ben loves AFL but his favourite thing to do is spend time with his family.