Playing footy made me a better chef, says Curtis Stone

Aussie chef, author and television personality Curtis Stone has credited the time he spent playing Aussie Rules football in Melbourne as the perfect training for life in commercial kitchens.
In an exclusive interview with Channel Nine’s The Bottom Line, airing on Saturday March 1 at 4pm on Channel 9, Stone tells host and CPA Australia chief executive Alex Malley about how his time playing for North Melbourne Kensington in the Footscray District League prepared him for the harsh realities of life as a chef.
“To be a good leader on the footy field is exactly what you have to be in a kitchen…loud voice, lead from the front, put your body on the line, get in early, train hard, all that sort of stuff and I think somehow, Aussie Rules made me a good chef,” he said.
Stone initially studied business at university but reveals to Malley that his passion for food and travel, mixed with a little Aussie brashness, saw him land the job of a lifetime in London with acclaimed chef Marco Pierre White.
“I just went… and found Marco’s restaurant and walked in the back door, found the kitchen entrance and went and asked for a job.”
While his career now extends to kitchenware, high profile endorsements, writing books and working with Oprah, Stone tells Malley he maintains a simple philosophy across it all.
“Everything I do in business is for two reasons, it’s to bring confidence to people’s kitchen and happiness to their dinner table and I can do that with a book or a product or an endorsement.”
Curtis Stone’s exclusive interview with Alex Malley on The Bottom Line will air on Saturday 1 March at 4pm on Channel Nine