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Adelaide South Australia +61 423 276 646 

annoliver.com

1991 Les Crayers

Mistress Augustine’s 1889

Chef Paul Prudhomme 1983

Shanghai 2004

Referees

Daniel Sparr,
Managing Director CEO Sparr Group, the Sebel Playford Adelaide, and Windy Point Restaurant, South Australia…email

Robert O’Callaghan and Pam O’Donnell,
Rockford Wines…email

David Wilson,
General Manager, Waldorf Astoria, Dubai….email

Ray Mauger,
Executive Chef-Owner Red Ochre Barrel + Grill and River Cafè, Adelaide, South Australia….email

Biography

A regular monthly newsletter, constant recipe exploration and writing them up. Add to that the growing of food and painting. A shoulder injury in February meant no painting or heavy gardening until June and painting is still restricted to a low-level easel.

This has put behind Ann’s work on her next painting project ‘The Bush’ which she now does not expect to be completed until mid 2025. 

The cuisine-extreme monthly newsletter is well received and Ann always attempts to bring new and interesting ideas and news to the newsletter … not just food and recipes, but the arts, books and gardens.

The occasional restaurant review on cuisine-extreme.com has been well received. Ann is grateful to friends who support these reviews by financing many of the dining visits.

Ann continues to be inspired by the produce she grows and is constantly writing and publishing new recipes on cuisine-extreme where she is again publishing occasional restaurant reviews that are being well received.

For the first time in many years Ann has committed to SALA this year. Full details, exhibition history and work for sale can be found here.

 

A long wet winter has seen Ann struggle with painting as everything has been so slow drying. Her first exhibition in 2022 “Miscellaney”, an on-line exhibition will be launched the last week in September.

An avid cook Ann continues to research and publish recipes on her web site cuisine-extreme

A consultancy for St. Ann’s College, Adelaide. Working with principal Denise Von Wald…. involving selecting a catering firm for the college and guiding the terms and conditions of the contract. Advice on the new kitchen started mid-2020, where unlike many consultancies the advice was accepted and a new kitchen seamlessly installed at the end of 2021 in the only two weeks of the annual calendar where there are no students on the property. Also significant savings by purchasing equipment before all of the post pandemic increases in equipment and logistics hit and storing it. Ensuring that everything was on-site for the kitchen installation.

Ann has spent most of 2021 painting and writing [no, not a cookbook] and exploring new recipes.

A devoted gardener she finds an abundance of inspiration from the produce she grows and the produce she purchases from farms like Patlin Gardens and The Food Forest.

‘Mainly Flowers’ Ann’s first solo exhibition in some years will go live on this web site the first week in December after having been available to a limited list for 10 days.

Ann Oliver and Kaaren Palmer continue to explore their fascination for tasting and matching food to Champagne and constantly building on their extensive knowledge. Kaaren with her technical and tasting knowledge and Ann with her ability to correctly profile the palate, mouth feel and length to food.

A post pandemic consultancy for the Cruising Yatch Club of South Australia…moving them forward.

A promising start to 2020 has resulted in tumultuous change for the hospitality industry worldwide. Australians, like citizens of many other countries have been asked to stay home in an effort to slow the spread of the pandemic.

A time to paint, write and garden and comfort those whose lives are so suddenly changed….and to be generous and kind with what you have.

2019 has brought a year of great change for Oliver. Her plans to travel and visit friends and make new ones across the broad landscape of Australia had to be postponed because of family and personal matters. 2020 is the new date. A competent photographer, writer, artist and web developer, Oliver is keen to celebrate the exceptional, the unusual and the iconic, but keen to focus on the people in the culinary world who so often go unnoticed by the press. because they are labelled too eccentric. She jokes, that of course, she will fit right in.

Oliver maintains many skills that are art related and is constantly working on her web site designing and building skills. A keen photographer and a competent writer she works hard to stay abreast of the latest software and web building developments. Ann has picked up her brushes and working toward a solo exhibition in 2020.

Ann Oliver and Kaaren Palmer continue to collaborate with Champagne education and Oliver’s undying passion for the best effervescent drop sees her constantly working on food matches for specific Champagne styles and houses. Oliver’s interest in wine is broad and she is highly regarded for her ability to match food to wine.

Oliver acknowledges, although retired, her love of food and cooking hasn’t simply stopped and says it drips constantly from her brain like some sort of torture that needs to be succumbed to or go completely crazy. Luckily, she has found a repository for this continuing passion in her web site
cuisine-extreme.com

Is there a cookbook coming….. “definitely not!”

annoliver.com and cuisine-extreme.com are designed and built by Ann Oliver.

Oliver continued to cook occasionally for Penfolds at their exclusive Kalimna Homestead located in the Barossa Valley. A ten year love affair with the role, and a life long passion for the Penfolds brand, the catering at their homestead will be in the safe hands of the Magill Estate Restaurant team led by Scott Huggins. Ann will continue to cook and consult very occasionally for a small group of long-term clients from the wine industry.

Much of 2018 was spent gaining new web design skills and she completed new web sites for Thorn Park by the vines, in the city and on the island thornpark.com.au and also gave Oliver and an opportunity to focus on her new web site cuisine-extreme.com

The plan to migrate the significant content from the 10 year old www.galaxyguides.com to the new site cuisine-extreme.com progressed slowly. Kaaren Palmer has a new site which is exclusively devoted to Champagne kaaren-palmer-champagne.com

After three years Ann finished at Chianti Adelaide at the end of June 2017 and continues to cook and consult to a handful of favourite clients with occasional work. She is pursuing a number of creative projects including a very exciting rebrand for Galaxy Guides that will go live November 1, 2017.

For the first time since 1981 when she opened Mistress Augustine’s restaurant, Ann is finding the time to explore the dozens of culinary ideas that have been set to one side for a long time. Of course, writing and painting are high on her list.

In 2018 Ann hopes to travel in wild Australia looking for crazy cooks, professional and domestic…expect something very sideways!!

Ann Oliver continues to work on a regular basis for Penfolds at their Barossa property in the Kalimna vineyards.

Additionally Ann has stayed with the Chianti Adelaide team as their consultant chef with a very hands-on role. She has also expanded that role to take on marketing, press/media which also encompasses web site and social media for Chianti. It is clear that the Favaro Family and head chef and part owner Tobias Gush have developed a strong bond with Ann and she is equally loyal and invigorated by the critical success of their relationship.

A stable venue at Chianti, and indulgent management has allowed Oliver to participate in many great lunches and dinners since 2014. The success of these events has continued to grow…to see the 2016 program please CLICK HERE. For general events including Giro d’Italia dinners and lunches CLICK HERE to subscribe to the Chianti list.

Galaxy Guides Champagne editor Kaaren Palmer will launch her book about Champagne in Reims, France, in April this year.

There will be a Champagne event at Chianti hosted by Kaaren later this year.  Places for Kaaren’s Champagne events sell out very quickly. Subscribers receive a one week advance notice before they are available on the web site and social media. To subscribe to

KAAREN PALMER’S CHAMPAGNE list CLICK HERE

Galaxy Guides recipes continue with consistent traffic and there are plans to completely re-brand at the end of 2016…so stay tuned.

Art may seem rather on the back burner for the minute, but, Ann is working towards her first large exhibition in many years, most likely early 2017. However she is participating in a 2016 SALA exhibition in August 2016…EAT OUR ART..at BAR TORINO (sibling to Chianti). This is a group exhibition from the many Chianti and Bar Torino staff who participate in the arts.

Ann Oliver plays and active role in the world of food and wine. She continues to work for Penfolds at their Barossa Valley Kalimna homestead, is planning several fine wine dinners showcasing the very best of old and new world wines in particular Champagne for 2014.

Champagne continues to be a passion for Oliver and this year she has worked with Chianti Classico team to do a brunch for Billecart in March and in June a very special dinner introducing the stunning Besserat Champagnes to devotees.

Oliver is currently consulting to Chianti Classico in Adelaide and continues to work as a graphic artist, artist and web designer. Add to that her main web site www.galaxyguides.com where she is both food editor and publisher  continues to grow and develop.

After the success of her 2013 exhibition EAT MY ART as part of the annual SALA 2014 (South Australian Living Artists Festival) Ann will exhibit her work from August 4 to 22, 2014 at Chianti Classico, 160 Hutt Street, Adelaide South Australia.

Ann continued to work extensively for Penfolds wines at their Barossa Kalimna Homestead. One of the highlights of her year for her was to stage the launch part for Milton Wordley’s ‘A Year in the Life of Grange’. This superb homage to Penfolds Grange is now nominated for multitudinous awards across the world.

The Galaxy Guides COOKS’ CLUB continued to expand and with Galaxy Guides Champagne editor Kaaren Palmer they staged a number of applauded Champagne dinners and classes focused around Champagne.

As Galaxy Guides continues to grow it becomes more and more demanding time wise, but after six years it is an established leader in concise professional restaurant reviewing, recipes that work, and fabulous contributions from knowledgeable contributors.

In July Ann staged her first EAT MY ART an exhibition of her watercolours and oils and co-timed lunches with matched food and wine.

Oliver runs a busy schedule that encompasses all of her many skills.

Brought new challenges for Ann Oliver and unsurprisingly a reinvigorated passion for cooking with her role for Penfolds Wines complimenting Magill Estate Restaurant with a rural South Australian Penfolds experience at their Kalimna homestead. It doesn’t go unnoticed by visitors that they are reverentially visiting what is believed to be the world’s oldest vineyard, Block 42, nor does the sheer beauty of the Barossan view from the homestead ever fail to enchant the guests.

Ann continues to work on her priority web site www.galaxyguides.com delivering precise dining reviews and good information for travellers with a sense of adventure and a willingness to experience from the smallest to the most expensive price. This is not to say there is something for everyone, there is not, however if you are obsessed about food, wine and travel your are bound to enjoy!

Amongst her many assignments in 2012 she particularly enjoyed rediscovering The Riverland while preparing for their annual Chefs of the Murray Dinner. Ann also conducted cooking classes at the Renmark Hotel. Subject matter, well citrus of course, cooking with roses (of course) and a hands–on bread class.

At the time when most people would be thinking about slowing down Ann Oliver’s energy and passion for food wine and travel remain undiminished. She continues to work at the highest level for the wine industry and also continues to cook for smaller private functions and the corporate sector.

Web design and maintenance in the hospitality and tourism industry continues to be a significant area of Ann’s work where she has carved herself a niche being in the unique position of being able to build, design and maintain web sites, take quality images and be able to write food, wine and tourism click here to see some of Ann’s other sites.

This year Ann has branched out into events within the galaxy guides In April this year Ann worked with David Laris at Sinan Mansion in Shanghai conducting a very successful South Australian promotion click here for full details. 12 Chairs, the main focus of the promotion has subsequently been awarded best fine dining in Shanghai. Next week Ann will be the guest chef for the annual South Australian Champagne Bureau Dinner at Windy Point Restaurant click here to see the menu and Champagnes. Sunday October a second organic and biodynamic lunch at Paxton Vineyards Cellar Door.

Ann Oliver’s COOKS’ CLUB continued to grow in popularity because of the in–depth teaching and passion behind detail and seasonality and imparting a skill by driving home the maths and chemistry of cooking with a great deal of passion and creativity click here for class details.

March cold + hot + sweet and offal Ann’s Adelaide Festival Supper Club at the Red Ochre Grill 47 soufflés on the last night Ann described it as lot of fun.

Ann continued to contribute to the Adelaide Independent Weekly until it stopped it’s conventional print paper at the end of November 2010. Consulting and recipe development and images for many clients.

This year Ann has completed new web sites for The Conservatory Garden and Home and Red Ochre Grill and River Cafè and Adelaide Luxe Beach House and Beach House Studio and Fermentasian a new Barossan restaurant.

Ann continues to do recipe development, images and maintain the Southern Rocklobster Limited web site and is food editor for CHEF NEWS for Southern Rocklobster Limited USA.

Ann is devoted to her main web site www.galaxyguides.com where she has extensive restaurant reviews and recipes and there is new food, wine, travel and recipes every week.

Ann worked extensively with chef owner Justin Miles at Windy Point Restaurant and for two months until the end of 2010 Ann cooked the weekly Rockford Stonewall Table Lunches in the Barossa Valley.

Ann plays many roles in the world of food and wine, but whether it be food and travel writing, restaurant reviews recipe development, taking images, building web sites or painting food, her drive and energy for the world of food and wine remains undaunted!

A revamped web site for Paracombe Wines and a brand new web site for Mitchell Wines.

Ann continued to publish weekly content in the Independent Weekly and food editor for Southern Rocklobster LimitedChef News where she is responsible for developing recipes, producing their html newsletter whilst at the same time helping develop the American market for the company.

In January Ann added food to Galayx Guides where she has the dual roles of food editor and publisher. 2010 will see a brand new web site for Galaxy Guides, fully searchable recipes and restaurant reviews and also expects to complete Australia .

In August Ann exhibited mixed works of photography, water colours and oils at Rockford Wines as part of SALA (South Australian Living Artists). Ann also added the national store Wheel&Barrow to her client base doing photographs and recipes for their Christmas stock.

Ann is currently consulting in a creative role to the Sparr Group’s restaurants Windy Point Restaurant and Café, Red Ochre Restaurant, River Torrens Café and the Sebel Playford Hotel Adelaide.

About to start work on a new web site for the beautiful Conservatory Home and Garden shop Ann is also working on a promotion for the 2010 Adelaide Festival of Arts a supper club in Adelaide city.

2008 started with an assignment in Chengdu for the Changfu Group where Ann was engaged to teach the group’s master chefs some western cuisine.

On going commitment to Southern Rocklobster Limited playing a key role in the company’s entry into the high-end restaurant market in America. Ann is responsible for the recipe and technique development for the company and also edits their html newsletter CHEF NEWS.

Ann continued to design and build web sites, most recently Thorn Park by the Vines the superb reincarnation of Thorn Park Country House.

Ann continued to write a week restaurant review for the Independent Weekly

Many cooking assignments for the wine industry.

Ann continued to devote huge energy to Galaxy Guides as food editor and publisher.

2007 started with the ending of an assignment opening Buskers a cute little café catering to tourists and locals at the head of the Adelaide Rundle Mall. The next day it was off to Shanghai to do the launch party for the American company TOUCH MEDIA. A huge and ritzy event for 600 people it was a challenge. A massive five days prep a couple of days catching up with friends in Shanghai and collecting material for Galaxy Guides and it was back to Adelaide.

2007 was a year of great assignments, mass recipe development, especially for Australian Southern Rocklobster Limited.

in2 food – weekly contribution of complete pages for Adelaide Independent, 2007 is the fifteenth year of weekly contributions to food pages in Australian press

Especial highlights were

• Rockford Wines Stonewall lunches while their chefs took holidays

• Cooking classes for Willabrand Figs and Thorn Park Country House

• Olive oil judging – Olives SA  and Fiesta McLaren Vale Show

• Fiesta event at Talinga Grove ‘come to the casbah’

• The Lucia’s family wedding eight courses all cooked on site (including the bread) at Bird in Hand Wines

• And of course no kitchen to speak of, the Annual Clare Valley Winemakers lunch

• Multitudinous large events for the wine and food industry

• Web sites for The Miner’s Cottage and maintaining, Windy Point Restaurant and Café, Paracombe Wines,

Lucia’s Fine Foods, Sauchin, Coates Wines, Willabrand Figs

• Continued contributions to Australian Southern Rocklobster web site and taking on the role of food editor for a series of CHEF NEWS aimed at the high end of international cooking

• Liang Tang (T8 Shanghai) and Lily Wang (Laris Shanghai) our first traineeships with more to follow.

• Reviewing for Galaxy Guides in Western Australia, the Margaret River and Brisbane

A great year full of diverse assignments and stimulating challenges.

• October 2007 A collaboration with the Associates in Glass Blowing at Adelaide’s prestigious JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design’ Centre – an official TASTING AUSTRALIA EVENT

Amongst many assignments including food for the Adelaide Independent.

A hard copy Galaxy Guides, a collaboration between Dr Alex Burridge and Ann Oliver was a successful entre for both into independent restaurant reviewing. For the food and wine obsessed Oliver and Burridge cover a broad spectrum of price ranges and cuisines with a refreshing lack of generic reviews.

Visit the web site www.galaxyguides.com and join the newsletter. Not a great deal of time for painting and a lot of new web sites developed by www.annoliver.com

Oliver can write the words, take the photographs, do the design and then build the sites. She loves it!

After spending three months in Shanghai in 2004, three exhibitions and a promotion at Steven Hansen’s River Café in Singapore Ann returned to freelance assignments in Adelaide. Between assignments she worked on her own food, wine and tourism web site, a restaurant guide for Adelaide with Dr Alexandra Burridge and a new exhibition that was an official TASTING AUSTRALIA event. Widely supported by the South Australian wine industry she finds inspiration from wine and food and is never short of new ideas inspired by her travels.

The Independent Weekly gave Ann a reintroduction to weekly food pages where her respected recipe writing quickly re-established her readership.

After completeing her contract to open the Ramada Plaza Pier Hotel, Ann spent three months painting and held another exhibition The Other Side of Me. Mid November 2003 she left for Jordan where she assisted Jordanian national Yazan Akeel to collect thesis material for a Masters in the Art of Gastronomy with Le Cordon Bleu at the University of South Australia. His topic, ‘The changing diet of the Bedouin’ focussing particularly on their inability to be truly nomadic due to the vastly changed border situation. They spent significant time in the desert (in Jordan on the border of Syria and Iraq) visiting and staying with tribes and collected extensive material.

Ten days in Athens collecting material for a pre-Olympic dining story and material about wild foods and the history of hunting for ASSA was followed with five weeks in Shanghai and Beijing collecting food and travel material. In particular Ann investigated wine sales, consumption and palate preferences in the burgeoning Chinese middle class.

After returning to Australia in February 2004 Ann continued cooking at a very high level specifically for food and wine, and concentrated on the preparation of the sauchin04 web site and project management of a South Australia China Wine and Food Promotion in Shanghai spanning some 10 weeks from September to November 2004 – sauchin

After visiting Jordan and cooking a couple of high profile dinners including a dinner for the Australian Ambassador nd his guests including some palace officials, and another at the home of Awed Akeel Ann was invited to write food features for the Jordanian Times. This assignment ended some 18 months later when the editorial were able to find a Jordanian resident to take over. To Ann’s great disappointment they were invited to the palace to cook on the day they were leaving.

This promotion was an affiliation with David Laris and Laris Shanghai which was subsequently number one restaurant in China for two consecutive years.a

MAY 2002 – JUNE 2003

Opening chef/Executive chef Ramada Plaza Pier Hotel, Glenelg, South Australia. The venue has three restaurants a small functions facility and coffee shop. As part of the pre opening period responsible for staff employment, accoutrements, menu costing, recipes development and documentation staff training etc. Played a very hands-on role in kitchen management.

Regular writing assignments maintained with The Adelaide Advertiser Food and Wine section

WINESTATE magazine, tourism and other publications.

HIGHLIGHTS the Hardy Wine Company post vintage technical conference 120 pax 6 days in the South Australian Flinders Ranges, three semi-trailers of food and wine…performance dinners, breakfast, morning and afternoon smoko, lunch and dinner….and Oliver, despite about tree seconds sleep a day didn’t miss a beat!

Ann joined e-wine exchange in 2001 as their food editor and worked with colleague winemaker Jane Paull to develop and extensive food and wine web site for them. Whilst this was an extremely demanding position Ann continued to write a weekly column for the Adelaide Advertiser, where by this time she had developed a very strong following.

From this position Oliver was lucky enough to develop skills with building web sites and coding and added this to her graphics background. Sadly the company was caught in the collapse of the NASDAQ and was unable to continue its operation.

During this time she also attended the Slow Food Symposium and the Salon del Gusto in Bologna Italy.

2001 July – Guest Chef Laffite Restaurant the Shangri-la Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

September 1998 – October 1999

Opening Radisson Hotel and Suites Adelaide

Responsible for main restaurant and special prestigious events including extensive catering opportunities for the group while there

highlights of the year

Mitchell Wines 25 year celebration – Clare Valley, South Australia

Wedding for 300 for Bill and Evanka Mouradellis – Riverland, South Australia

Michelin Food and Wine Writer’s dinner under the TASTING AUSTRALIA banner

WINESTATE wine of the year dinner

Regular contributor Advertiser Newspapers Limited Food & Wine.

Photographic design and food styling consultant

Consulting Sparr Group

Catering and special events

Guest Chef Balke’s restaurant, Hyatt Regency, Adelaide

Guest Chef, Rockford Wines Steam Powered Cruises

Co-editor 2nd edition DINE an independent South Australian restaurant guide published by Wakefield press

Regular contributor Advertiser Newspapers Limited Food & Wine pages

In February 1996 while on Kangaroo Island organizing a cooking class Ann had a serious car accident and in the end to speed up her recovery and escape the cold weather she went to Greece in September and returned in January 1997.

In February 1997 she returned to full time work.

Part-time Chef Astor Hotel as part of an agreement with their receivers Ernst and Young Ann was employed to restructure the operation.

Cooking classes for David Jones Limited that proved to be extremely successful and found a very large following.

Regular contributor Advertiser Newspapers Limited Food & Wine pages

Owner Chef/Restaurateur Mistress Augustine’s Restaurant

Executive/head chef, hands-on plus all facets of restaurant management. Ann became well-known, because she was a constant at South Australia’s wholesale vegetable markets securing the very best available produce. It was in the ‘growers’ shed’ where she found the most amazing produce, produce at the time that no one else had on their menus.’ She loved these ‘old boys’ and they returned her love with treasure from their own organic gardens.

In very modest surroundings Mistress Augustine’s restaurant achieved a two hat rating in the National Good Food Guides and a reputation for cutting edge food, fantastic produce and legendary desserts.

Mistress Augustine’s became a destination for all national and international visitors to Adelaide.

Late night suppers during Festivals of Arts, Grand Prix and large concerts the restaurant often stayed open till daylight.

1989 – Adelaide Advertiser Food & Wine Guide Chef of the Year

Courvoissier’s Top 100 Restaurants in the World

Prior to opening Mistress Augustine’s Restaurant Ann Oliver worked as a scientific illustrator and graphic artist. Her starting point EMI Electronics where she worked on various restricted programs for the Australian Government that later led her to ISI International and from there she moved to Teknis Pty Limited where she was responsible for all the documentation. A cutting edge electronics business she worked closely with engineers on highly complex and innovative projects including railways signalling systems for the mining industry.

During this period she also conducted a small graphics business Ingleberne Graphics and did several small magazines including the South Australian Science Teachers Journal, The South Australian English Teachers Journal and the Australian Physicist for many years.

During much of this period her art was directed to fabric  printing and sewing garments from that fabric.

After 40+ years in the world of food and wine Ann insists there is always something new to be learned.

Oliver also says her cooking is the sum of the many people who have shared their skills with her.

1998 – MG Garage, Sydney Australia – chef Janis Krytsis

1991 – Harvey’s London UK – chef Marco Pierre White – Michelin *

1991 – L’Esperance, Verzalay France – chef Marc Meneau Michelin ***

1991 – Les Crayeres, Reims France – chef Gerrard Boyer – Michelin ***

1988 – Chez Panise, San Fransisco USA – chef Paul Bertoli

1984 & 1988 – K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, New Orleans USA, chef Paul Prudhomme

Copyright © text and images Ann Oliver 2023