Tracey Holderness

Tracey’s grandmother encouraged and inspired her cooking career. “My grandmother’s cooking and baking is very memorable. There would always be trifle. As simple a dish as it is, it was always presented in a glass bowl and would be carried into the room held carefully with both hands. I loved the glory with which it was presented.” Tracey was her favourite grandchild, and although she now has dementia, on a recent trip back to the UK she still recognised her. 

But forging such a successful career in the food industry has come at a cost. “When you’re in the food industry you miss out on things because the hours are so long.” She has missed spending time with her family and has also missed out on having a family of her own. She has recently sold a business in Surry Hills and that will mean the end of a personal and professional partnership that lasted eight years. 

Tracey’s signature dish is pork bubble and squeak, homemade HP sauce and candied apples. She cites pastry and desserts as her weakness in the kitchen, and doesn’t believe in messing with food. “Why would you deconstruct a pea to turn it back into a pea?”