australia

Even though his breakout 2006 debut album is called Food & Liquor, we weren’t sure how big of a food guy Grammy winning rapper Lupe Fiasco was. This all changed when his reps reached out to Food Republic to see if we’d be interested in publishing some of his food writing from his current tour of Australia. Here’s is the first installment of Lupe Fiasco Does Food Down Under Blog.

During our January trip to Melbourne, Australia, we kept hearing the praise of Attica chef Ben Shewry. Not only did his high-minded “back to nature” cooking catch everybody’s attention—including the Pellegrino 50 Best judges—but the guy had the reputation for being the nicest guy.

In Australia, reality cooking show Master Chef is big. No, Master Chef is massive, airing as many as six nights a week during the season that runs between May and August. There’s a popular magazine dedicated to the show. René Redzepi even got in on the action during the 2011 finale. And it was clear that, like Top Chef in the States, if you do well on the show, your future in the food world is pretty much sealed.