Stephanie Alexander AO

Stephanie Alexander is the author of 19 books, including the Australian kitchen bible The Cook's Companion, and is a renowned chef and restaurateur. In 2009, Stephanie published the Kitchen Garden Companion, an inspirational family guide to growing and using edible crops. Her 35-year career has spanned books, words, food and young people, and she is now preoccupied with giving back wisdom and experience in meaningful ways. In practical terms, this has meant establishing the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation as a means to convince policymakers that learning about food, how it grows and the pleasure it can bring are vital to a healthy, happy society.

In 2014, Stephanie was named an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) ‘for distinguished service to education through the design and establishment of schools-based learning programs promoting improved food and eating choices for children, and as an author’.