Cravat-A-Licious - Preston, Matt

The Selected Works of the MasterChef critic

Australia knows him as the cravat-wearing critic and hulking soulful judge on TV's crazily successful MasterChef Australia but it's his writing that has had the food world talking for the last ten years.

Here are all his best stories and columns. A collection of Matt's irreverent, intelligent, and amusing adventures in food.

This book will take you from the best restaurants in the world to grungy hole in the walls on the wrong side of town; from the ritual of a traditional pig annual kill to lunch at a Sikh temple in the suburbs; basically wherever the world's best food can be found.

There are Matt's insightful interviews with some of the world's most influential food thinkers, romps across continents in search of the world's finest salt and sugars, and more than a few insights - from the compelling to ther completely bizarre - from the set of Australia's biggest TV show, MasterChef.

You'll also find simple solutions for making everything from jam to the perfect risotto - even how to create an authentic Seventies soiree - each told in Matt's unique style.

It's all here. The stories that won him the title of Australia's Best New Food Writer in 2000, those that subsequently saw him win top national awards for both his food and recipe writing and the pieces that earned him his current title, that of the Le Cordon Bleu World's Best Food Journalist.

Now read what's inside to see if that's a title he deserves.

"Matt Preston is dangerously close to becoming a fetish," Miranda Devine, Sydney Morning Herald.

"MasterChef judge Matt Preston ¡K has earned near-cult status on the back of his dandified turn on the show," Ros Reines, Sunday Telegraph

"Debonair and cultured, this master critic is winning over Australian audiences with his wicked sense of humour," Rove, Network Ten

And dont forget to check out the Masterchef DVD and Masterchef Cookbook.

About Matt Preston

Matt Preston is a food journalist and restaurant critic. Best known for his weekly restaurant column in The Age newspaper's food section, "Epicure", and as a judge on MasterChef Australia, Preston is also an editor of Vogue Entertaining + Travel and delicious magazines, and a former Creative Director of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.[1].Preston was educated in Sussex and graduated from the University of Kent with a BA Hons in Politics and Government. He began his career in the sales and marketing departments of British magazines, including City Limits where he wrote the "Backhanders" column for five years. He then spent four years with UK magazines, TVTimes and What's on TV, becoming head of their promotions and marketing department.In 1993 Preston moved to Australia where he worked as an Australian soap opera correspondent for British magazines What's On TV, TVTimes and Women's Own.In 2009 Preston joined Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris on the judging panel of the first season of MasterChef Australia, a reality television competition to find Australia's best home cook.Preston is a contributor to The Age Good Food Guide and Food and Wine (US). He has appeared on Network 10's 9am with David and Kim as well as SBS's Blue List, Channel 9's Postcards and Channel 7's Absolutely Melbourne.Preston has appeared on radio as a guest on Denis Walter's show on 3AW, and on 774 ABC Melbourne, where he has also co-hosted a number of times. Previous positions include five years as the National Chief Judge for Restaurant and Catering's National Awards for Excellence, contributing drink editor to Good Taste magazine and as the "secret reviewer" on series one of Channel 7's My Restaurant Rules.In 2003, 2004 and 2006 Preston won Food Media Club of Australia awards for articles which appeared in the "Epicure" section of The Age, and in 2008 he won the Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards, Food Journalist of the Year Award for articles published in delicious and "Epicure".