Jared Ingersoll of Danks Street Depot in London, Monday 6 November

Not content to have one of the busiest restaurants in Sydney, Jared has put pen to paper and collated some sensational recipes for his first book, The Danks Street Depot Cookbook. A celebration of flavours, it includes Jared’s favourite recipes from the restaurant as well as special, formerly secret, combinations.

One of the coolest, hidden treasures of Sydney (it’s well off the beaten tourist track) Danks Street Depot was established in February 2002 by Melanie Starr & Jared Ingersoll. In preparing his menu, Jared takes the best that the markets have to provide and then offers his customers beautiful, unfussy and approachable dishes. Australian Vogue declared Danks Street Depot a “must”, critics heaped praise upon this urban gem, and Australia’s leading restaurant awards the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Awards declared “the depot”, Sydney’s Best Café just a year after it opened.

Before setting up Danks Street Depot, Jared worked with in London with Philip Howard at the two Michelin starred restaurant The Square. His classical training is frequently concealed from the casual diner as his creations appear to be so simple and spontaneous but his enormous skill is a wonderful trick. Take his salted, spiced & roasted whole duck. A seemingly simple roast is revealed in his book as artfully prepared, using kitchen wisdom and food knowledge. Ingersoll calls it “how to roast a duck and have time for your wife”. It also happens to be, as he writes, “almost impossible to stuff up”.