Donna Hay - Australian Celebrity Chef

Donna Hay is one of the most well known chefs in Australia. She has published 14 best selling cookbooks and appeared on Masterchef Australia, breakfast show Sunrise and on the lifestyle food channel.

Her recipes are published each Sunday in the Sunday Telegraph and her books have have sold over 14 million copies worldwide. Her books are suited to both beginner and more advanced home cooks who like fresh, simple menus.

This page will show you some of my favorite Donna Hay recipes to give you an idea of the style of food in her books and televsion shows.

1. Roasted Capsicum, Bocconcini and Basil Tart

   I make this using all sorts of variations, potato and rosemary, zucchini and lemon zest, lamb mince and pine nuts... whatever takes my fancy

2. Feta and Eggplant meatballs

   Possibly the best meatballs ever.... yes I know that's a big call ;)

3. Haloumi Baked in Vine Leaves

   Haloumi - one word - YUM

4. Cheat's Choirzo Paella

   Cheat and Chorizo in the same sentence... good work

5. Strawberry and vanilla macaron trifle

   So, so, so pretty, and a bit of work - a special occasion dessert

6. Lemon Pudding

   These simple individual lemon puddings will impress

7. Pavlova Recipe

   Donna Hay's famous pavolva from the Australian Masterchef TV show

8. Parmesan Crusted Chicken

   My guilty pleasure

9. Flourless Chocolate Cake

   The perfect entertaining dessert

10. Caesar Salad

    A modern take on Caesar Salad from the new book Fast, Fresh and Simple.

The new show began this week

I watched the first episode of Donna's new show Donna Hay - Fast, Fresh and Simple and I really enjoyed it. It looks like it will be a great show for beginner chefs and people who love entertaining but don't like fussy recipes that take hours to prepare.

The first episode featured 5 recipes with my 2 favourites being;

Chicken with Honey and Haloumi and Chocolate Cinnamon Won-tons

I cooked both of these last weekend when I had some friends over for dinner. The chicken and Haloumi was simple and tasted great. The only modification I made was to add 1/3 more honey and lemon. I was not as happy with the Choc Cinnamon Wontons. A couple of things went wrong for me I think. Firstly I used organic dark chocolate and it was a little dry. I am not sure if it is because I cooked it too long or it just had less fat than regular chocolate. Secondly I made up the wontons in advance and sat them in the fridge before the guests arrived. This may also have contributed to the dryness. Every single one was eaten though so they were not that bad ;-)

1. Donna's food is always simple yet looks stylish

2. The instructions are easy to follow and the recipes are not too long

3. She uses mostly fresh ingredients that are easy to obtain - no impossible to buy ingredients