Chef extraordinaire Tony Bilson is regarded as the "Godfather of Australian cuisine". For the past three decades, Mr Bilson's career has delighted the hearts and appetites of Australians with his pursuit of excellence. His contribution to Australian gastronomy is boundless and many among the country's top chefs are his protégés.
With a creative and buoyant personality, Mr Bilson is constantly at the forefront of inventing innovative dishes for fine dining.
The Epoch Times: How do you balance your life?
Tony Bilson: I think that life has a natural balance anyway; I don't think in terms of work and non-work. I don't have work. I have my life and I try to enjoy the things that I do and allow people with me to enjoy those things. I think it's very destructive to think in terms of work and play. Work should be play.
If people don't aspire to doing something that is great, than they will only achieve to their levels of aspirations. In a lot of ways, it's up to individuals to find their own way. It doesn't matter about intelligence and wealth; they are not what is important. It's about defining good parameters for your self.
My advice to people in the industry, who ask: "How do we become good?", the first thing is don't work in bad places. It's very simple, but it's essential, you have to exercise discrimination.
ET: What have life's lessons taught you?
TB: That giving is a far better thing that taking. Loving is better than hating. There are a lot of positive things within life that help people to appreciate the depth of experience that's available to them. To be able to transcend and recognise the destructive forces around you and instead concentrate on the positive ones is very important.
ET: What are the most important things in your life?
TB: The most important things in life are my family, people who I've worked with and my friends. Objects and money don't have much importance. Sometimes you're rich sometimes you are poor, art works can be stolen – so material things don't matter to me much.
ET: Who do you most admire?
TB: There are a lot of people in various different fields.
People who are devoted to their craft and who aspire to high levels within their craft are the people who I most admire. Those people are painters, potters, chefs, architects, people who are involved in arts – actors – who are not simply in it from a commercial point of view, but are interested in helping their fellow humans to enjoy life more and appreciate the magic of simply being alive. With chefs, there are a lot of people like Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse and Tetsuya out here; there are some Japanese chefs who I know that are wonderful. There are so many people.
ET: How has food been a key aspect in your life?
TB: Food can be the ingredient for art. When something has the possibility of being an art it is important to me. I was a hopeless painter when I was young and I've just always loved to work with food. It's a very co-operative craft; I call it making mud pies with the boys – cooking is very much like that. It is not something that you do by yourself. It's not like being a poet, it's a very social art, you cook and you give, and it is ephemeral. The good thing about cooking is that your bad dishes don't stick around to remind you, unlike painters who can have garages filled up with bad paintings. It is ephemeral; that's good and it's bad. I had a fabulous meal today that my chef cooked, but now it only exists in my memory.
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