James Reeson

James Reeson is extremely passionate about his cooking and he loves to use fresh quality ingredients. He has an energetic and inspirational flair that will encourage any home chef – his passion to create delicious dishes really is contagious.

34-year-old James Reeson began his career at the age of 15 in a tiny French restaurant in Bristol, England, where he served as an apprentice chef for two years.
He left the Old Dart and moved to Paris, where he worked as a chef for nine months in a little café off the Champs-Elysées prior to hitching down the coast to St Tropez, Cannes and the Mediterranean where he cooked on private yacht charters for a couple of summers.
In 1993 James Reeson moved to the Channel Islands where experimenting with cuisine was a way of life. After two years of wearing woolly jumpers and in search of a "warmer lifestyle with more than three days of sunshine a year," he moved to Australia and fell in love with the limitless skyline and the people.
Almost immediately he went to work for a prominent Victorian restaurant. But it wasn't long before he got itchy feet, joined an agency and spent the next two years travelling from one corner of Victoria to the other, cooking in everything from backyard tents to five star restaurants.
After two years on the road James Reeson decided to put his whites back on for a while – then called it quits again to pursue a career as a model. His refusal to cut his hair or regularly attend the gym didn't go down too well with the fashion set – so he became a motorcycle courier.
After a near death experience with an oversized four wheel drive, James thought slicing his fingers once a week was much safer and sought sanctuary in the kitchen of his newly-established café and catering business.
Today James Reeson is focusing his boundless energy and passion for food on his latest venture, hosting The Occasional Cook. He says he has found the transition to television challenging.