The Cook and the Chef

Episode 1

Add a Bit of Spice

25 mins

It's Valentine's day, and while neither Simon or Maggie will confess to being big partakers of the day that Simon calls the "day of international silliness" it is an excuse to share food, and Simon and Maggie have some recipes that'll sweep you off your feet.

Episode 2

All Fired Up

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 3

It's Presentation

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 4

The Right Ingredient

26 mins

Are Simon and Maggie fussy about their produce? Absolutely. A great recipe is nothing without good quality produce, and the philosophy of fresh food, of seasonal produce, of finding the "right stuff" informs everything our cook and chef do.

Episode 5

Too Many Tomatoes

25 mins

Simon and Maggie paint the town red (and a range of other colours) when they celebrate a backyard fruit that's become a foundation stone of so much cooking - the glorious and gorgeous tomato - with innovative recipes that are as fresh and simple as they are scrumptious on the tongue and easy on the eye.

Episode 6

Fabulous Figs

26 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 7

Duck

26 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 8

An Easter Breakfast

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 9

Pears

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 10

Mediterranean Style

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 11

Apples and Onions

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 12

Fish and Eggplant

26 mins

Tonight Maggie and Simon are celebrating traditions. Simon follows some rules and breaks others to come up with a Penang Laksa that separates the true laksa lovers from the rest, while Maggie does her take on a traditional Sicilian dish called Caponata.

Episode 13

Eggplant and Bananas

26 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 14

Pheasants and Mushrooms

26 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 15

Pumpkins and Hazelnuts

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 16

Year of the Pig

26 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 17

Middle Eastern Cuisine

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 18

Hand Food

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 19

Macadamia Nuts and Pasta

25 mins

Maggie's grandchildren harvest some of her macadamia nuts so she can incorporate them in a delicious biscuit, while Simon uses the nuts to coat a bitey goat cheese. Maggie then puts together some satisfying pasta and sauce combinations to demonstrate how choosing the right pasta can maximise a meal while Simon discovers that pasta is more than a meal for the Collingwood football team.

Episode 20

Slow Food

25 mins

A weeping Maggie Beer is forced out of the kitchen by Simon's 13-chilli vegetarian jungle curry. Fortunately, Maggie recovers in time to share the secrets of her slow-cooked saltbush hogget - a glorious dish imbued with the flavour of the Australian Outback. Simon's also soldiering on - with red chilli paste in his eye.

Episode 21

Food for a Cold Winter

26 mins

There's Italian sunshine and some chilly Australian surf in this mid-winter episode. Simon reveals his Englishman's love of visiting the beach in cold weather, while Maggie recalls her sunny days spent living in Tuscany. Best of all, they delight us with their favourite dishes for winter-warmth and full-on flavour.

Episode 22

Kids in the Kitchen

25 mins

Rolled sleeves, flour covered fingers and chocolate smeared grins - its winter school holidays and the kids are in the kitchen. Join Maggie as she shares her grandchildren's favourite recipes, chicken wings and cup cakes, while Simon harks back to the good old days of trade school with classics such as Trout Amandine and Profiteroles. What mark will Simon score for his Trout?

Episode 23

Soup and Rice

26 mins

Maggie and Simon often start out with the same ingredient and end up in very different places. They're taking different approaches to cooking with rice, so while Simon reveals the secrets to one of his favourite Chinese dishes, Maggie tackles a true Mediterranean classic.

Episode 24

Winter Menus

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 25

Oysters and Pastry

25 mins

For Simon this week's show is all about pastry, while Maggie heads off on another food adventure, hunting for great oysters on SA's Eyre Peninsula. Oysters and pastry may seem an odd combination, but once again the Cook and the Chef blend unlikely ingredients to create unique and delightful dishes.

Episode 26

Tasmanian Fresh

26 mins

Maggie travels to Tasmania and samples some of the wonderful produce that the Apple Isle has to offer. Magnificent Bruny Island, an hour drive south of Hobart is a place Maggie has wanted to visit for over thirty years and it's now the home of her friend Nick Haddow, a traditional cheese maker.

Episode 27

Desserts & Tagines

25 mins

From a Dutch oven to a casserole dish many cultures boast a pot for slow cooking and for the Moroccans it's the cone shaped Tagine. This week Maggie and Simon celebrate the spirit of the Tagine with a slow cooked beef dish and a hearty vegetable mix. Simon also uses the last of the seasons Myer lemons to create a tangy tart while Maggie fills a bowl to overflowing with luscious trifle.

Episode 28

Baking

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 29

Quails and Momos

26 mins

Maggie and Simon demonstrate how a little bird like quail can pack a big punch. Simon's chilli quail is a crispy explosion of flavours and Maggie uses quince paste as a luscious yet delicate compliment to her roast quail. Simon then looks to the simplicity of Buddhist vegetarian dumplings, momos, while Maggie shares her recipe for preserved lemon.

Episode 30

Truffles

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 31

Cattle Drive

25 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 32

Sunday Night

25 mins

The duo reveal their idea of the perfect Sunday dinner - and their choices couldn't be more contrasting. For Maggie, it's a chance to make a simple meal - such the perfect steak sandwich or the ultimate gourmet toasted cheese sandwich. For Simon, it's his one day off work - and that allows him to sleep in, indulge his love of reading, and cook a long and complex dish solely for his own pleasure.

Episode 33

Spatchcock & Terrines

25 mins

Spatchcock and terrines are on the menu this week as Maggie and Simon share with us some of the traditions and ingredients that have influenced their culinary lives. The Barossa valley is rich in history, with wine and food very much at the heart of it. For Maggie, it's these traditions that have played such a major part in her life and cuisine.

Episode 34

Sugar

25 mins

This episode is all about sweetness and light, in the form of sugar and glorious North Queensland sunshine. Maggie and Simon begin with a couple of racks - Maggie's rack of lamb and Simon's rack of sugarcane prawns - before getting down to some truly sweet stuff. Maggie bakes a delicious chocolate brownie with a sour cream parfait while Simon dazzles us with some sugar work.

Episode 35

The Alice

24 mins

Maggie takes us to the heart of Australia for the Alice Springs Desert Festival. Maggie was invited to the Festival to help judge one of its major events, the Wild food competition. Her experiences of the local foods became the inspiration behind this week's cooking, with both Maggie and Simon demonstrating different ways to cook the desert camel before enhancing cake and scones with the exotic coffee flavours of the wattle seed.

Episode 36

Prawns

25 mins

We follow Simon as he travels to sunny North Queensland in search of Black Tiger Prawns. Passing through Townsville, he ends up at an ultra-modern prawn farm nestled right in the shadow of Hinchinbrook Island. Maggie doesn't have to travel far for her main ingredient - she uses vine leaves from her own Barossa vines to wrap fish for the barbecue.

Episode 37

Favourite Dishes

25 mins

Maggie and Simon cook up a few favourites. Simon masters a salty-sweet-sour balance with a vegetarian Pad Thai, while Maggie combines tender squid with capers and leek in a delicious spring salad. Vodka, a favourite beverage of Simon's then features in a jelly, and Maggie makes a creamy barley risotto using a favourite spring vegetable, asparagus.

Episode 38

Party Time

25 mins

Maggie and Simon show how to prepare excellent cocktail food for a stress-free party. The Cook and the Chef share their secrets about what to make ahead of time, and how to prepare some dishes with the help of some shop-bought bases and toppings.

Episode 39

Best Of

26 mins

Self-taught cook and successful restaurateur Maggie Beer joins Simon Bryant, a highly trained professional chef in The Cook and The Chef. Celebrating the best of Australian produce, see how to use these ingredients to create beautiful dishes in your own home. Maggie shows you how to deliver the wow factor from the simplest of dishes and Simon brings his fantastic technique, broad knowledge and cheeky attitude to the table. Both generously share their cooking secrets so that you too, can make their sensational dishes.

Episode 40

Christmas

25 mins