After a late start in cooking, in Tony’s hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Tony moved to London and after a brief spell at the Intercontinental Hotel, he took a job at the now eponymous restaurant Coast (UK), under the watchful eye of Stephen Terry. Tony Stayed there for 3 and a half years and considers this, his formal apprenticeship. It was during this time at Coast that Tony met and worked with many of today’s most influential chefs of English cooking today - namely Mark Sargeant, Hywell Jones and more notably Jason Atherton.
Tony then spent a year overseas, working in New York (Restaurant Aureole with Charlie Palmer) and Australia (Quay Restaurant with Guillaume Brahimi). Tony then returned to London to help Stephen Terry and Jason Atherton open ‘Frith Street Restaurant’.
The following 5 years were spent working with Jason Atherton in all of his early restaurants. This then lead Tony into the ranks of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants, working at Royal Hospital Road initially, before heading off to Dubai to open the first Gordon Ramsay restaurant overseas called Verre.
Soon, the Australian shores were calling Tony and he left Dubai to take over the head chef position at Marque Restaurant, in Sydney. Tony was there for the two years leading up to the restaurant receiving 3 chefs hats and then moved on as head chef at the ‘Four in Hand’ in Paddington were he was awarded 1 chefs hat.
Tony then spent the next 5 years at Astral Restaurant in Star City casino were he was head chef for 3 years, receiving 1 chefs hat, and Sean’s Kitchen for 2 years and operated as Sean Connolly’s right hand man. In his time with Sean, Tony was responsible for the organizing and running of many high level functions as well as the day-to-day running of the restaurants.
