Matthew Evans is a former chef and food critic turned Tasmanian smallholder.

He fattens pigs, milks a cow, tends a garden and writes about food from his office overlooking the silver birches atop his cottage on Puggle Farm, in the gorgeous Huon Valley.

Matthew is the author of nine books on food, including the authoritative Real Food Companion, his autobiography Never Order Chicken on a Monday, and the recently co-authored Gourmet Farmer Deli Book. He writes regularly for Feast magazine, and spends much of his week setting up another 70 acre piece of land as a mixed farm under the name Fat Pig Farm. Matthew attends markets and food festivals, sometimes in his hot red 1980s Fat Pig food van, specialising in old and rare breed pork. He has recently finished filming the third series of the SBS television series Gourmet Farmer which will air on SBS on 14th March 2013.

Matthew’s other project is A Common Ground, an artisan Tasmanian foodstore he co-owns with Nick Haddow, which also specializes in regional produce events.

Matthew is a strong believer in Real Food; food where the provenance is known and the producer valued. He believes in home cooking, using the seasons and your geography as the guide. It is his hope that more and more people will try to grow their own food (just start with parsley and go from there), or know exactly where their produce is coming from.