Lynton Cooking Adventures
Like many of the best, Lynton’s story starts around the campfire. Growing up in the Northern Territory Lynton’s family owned and ran remote cattle stations, both of which were 230km from the nearest town, covered an area of 750 000 acres and ran over 20 000 head of cattle. As featured on Sixty Minutes in 2008. In Lynton’s own words “My father would fly a helicopter and my mum, my sisters and I would ride horses alongside the jackaroos”. It was quite a childhood with mustering cattle, sleeping for months in a swag, cooking around the campfire and living a true Australian outback experience.
After graduating high school at Toowoomba Grammar School with exceptional marks Lynton went on to study vet science however as his family ran into hard times with changes to cattle export law he had to leave University, unable to receive any kind of government assistance to stay. Moving home to help the family, he began managing the cattle stations at the age of nineteen. The changes in law proved fatal however and the family lost the stations. After this Lynton began pursuing a carpentry apprenticeship, however, tragedy struck the family again when his little sister Emily was involved in a horse riding accident leaving her a paraplegic. Lynton changed course yet again to become her full--time carer: cooking for her and moving to LA to attend the Project Walk’s Steps to Recovery program.
In 2013, after much encouragement from friends and family, Lynton entered MasterChef and was selected to compete on Series 5. Touted as the ‘Stockman’ Lynton throughout the show always referenced his Northern Territory heritage and became a firm fan favorite. Quickly building a social media following to over 20,000 there was much outrage when he came in runner up. However, ever the gentleman Lynton was gracious in defeat and took his second place with great pride. He and winner Emma Dean have forged a strong friendship and continue cooking together and supporting each other’s career.
Since then, Lynton has worked establishing himself as a cooking identity around Australia. He currently works at famed Melbourne restaurant Pei Modern. In addition, he is also busy appearing at cooking demonstrations, events, festivals and more including at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival with Gary Mehigan (Masterchef Judge) and Kylie Millar (Masterchef Season 4) presenting a cooking demonstration on the banks of the Maribyrnong at Gary’s restaurant The Boathouse.
Lynton is currently is working on a recipe book, a TV pilot and continues building his cooking experiences by working in a number of great restaurants. He has become Foodbank Victoria’s first ambassador and recently spent time travelling to the bush fire affected areas of Victoria delivering food. He also acts as an ambassador for Tourism NT, most recently focusing on Tourism Australia’s new initiative Restaurant Australia. Lynton is a proud country boy who is doing everything he can to promote and bring awareness to Australia about the tireless food producers of not only the Northern Territory but Australia. To book Lynton, arrange an interview or have Lynton as a guest at your event contact bronwen@littletrain.com.au, 0413 221 252.