The Stranded Chef

Recipes are inspired by a lifetime of seeking, exploring and experimenting. Think provincial French food of his mother’s kitchen, tangy curries from the back streets of Thailand and sashimi of fish line-caught in pristine waters.

Dennis Tierney’s mother is French, a bush food enthusiast and a chef; his father is Australian, a photographer and a park ranger. With four children under twelve, they sold their home, bought six backpacks and travelled on a shoestring budget through South-east Asia, Turkey and North Africa, before touring Europe in a classic kombi. Coming back to live on a semi-self-sufficient farm in the Byron Bay hinterland among the original hippy lifestylers, this was the first twelve years of The Stranded Chef’s intrepid life.

The Stranded Chef will awaken the senses…

Stand in a vegetable garden with frost between your toes. Feel stranded, water up to your knees, in the engine room of a sinking super yacht. Breathe in the scenes of a slow boat down the Mekong River. Live on the edge near Everest.

Go on. Open up, turn the pages and get lost with The Stranded Chef…

About the Author

If you don’t count cooking with his mum in the family teahouse, Dennis Tierney started his apprenticeship at the two-hat restaurant, Fins, in Byron Bay. There he worked with the incredibly talented Masaaki Saito and under head chefs Dorothy Zagarella, Matt Upson, Phil Woolaston, Shane Clancy and Imrahil Leeder, as well as executive head chef and owner Steven Snow.

With these inspirations around him, it’s no wonder he was promoted to Sous chef half way through his third year. Later, he moved to Sydney and worked in the high-paced, big kitchens of Aria, Bilson’s and Bel Mondo. While at Bel Mondo, Matt Upson offered him a job at five-star resort Capella Lodge on World-Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island. He had never heard of it. But it was hard to resist the idea of a tiny sub-tropical island perched 800 kilometres off the east coast of Australia with more diving, walking and fishing than you could possibly handle.

After six years at Arajilla, Dennis was keen for new adventured that didn’t take him away from his beloved Island. Pinetrees Lodge offered him a new culinary experience specialising in garden to table relaxed fine dining. Dennis’s keen interest in the local environment led him to delve into the world of foraging and this is embraced at Pinetrees. Dennis has kept up to date with modern culinary trends and techniques through workshops with famous chefs for Pinetrees’ food and wine week as well as staging in restaurants such as Benelong and Quay in Sydney. The journey and experiences across the three restaurants has fortified strong friendships and identified Lord Howe Island as a place for The Stranded Chef to call home.