Hugh Hamilton

Curtis Stone is an aussie chef who's gone from apprenticing with Marco Pierre White in London to a show on Australian television (Surfing the Menu) to a show on US television (Take Home Chef).....some days my job is even more wonderful than usual. Go and shoot a chef at home in the Hollywood Hills...and he'll cook for you. It'll be sunny, there's a pool.

There's shrimp on the barbie even.

For the Australian edition of OK.

I've known Anthony for nearly ten years now. I've known his wife Gia for what seems like forever. We met when I was a pa on a film she was the female interest in (it was a car film - the main interest was of course, the cars....). Anyway, I get the email late tuesday night to shoot Anthony on Friday. he's starring in an aussie film called Balibo, about the killing of five australian journalists during the indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975. Its a very controversial subject in Australia, but I don't have space to go into that now.Its enough to mention that this story has been trying to be told since 1975. Suffice to say, although the Hollywood machine swung into action (ie Anthony's publicist) and started ordering stylists etc he shut it all down, saying it was a low budget film, a personal project in the best sense, and our shoot should reflect those values. Which is how we end up in a Venice backstreet behind a crack house with my assistant spending most of her time guarding the equipment rather than helping me. My favorites were the last shots, with Anthony enmeshed in a passionfruit vine we found. But no on else likes them. So unseen they will remain.