With equal aplomb Robert Carmack can arrange a rare tour of the Japanese emperor’s private soy sauce brewery, sit down to enjoy a multi-course meal of cobra in a tiny restaurant in rural Vietnam, or prepare a Burmese-style curry with the hill tribes of Myanmar and Thailand.  An inveterate traveller, and despite his Asian focus today, Robert’s training is classical French with a Grand Diplome from prestigious La Varenne in Paris and others from Universities of Dijon and Lyon.  Robert Carmack worked personally for food experts James Beard and Anne Willan, and  graduated cum laude in Communications/Journalism from Washington State University.  

As a food stylist  of some 35 years based in Sydney, Robert worked with leading cinematographers and photographers, including Oscar-winners Dione Beebe, Andrew Lesnie and Russell Boyd, plus celebrities, notably Angelina Jolie (First They Killed my Father) and Lynn Redgrave (Weigh Watchers).  A former food editor at Interiors and Australian Fare magazines,  Robert is author of five books including Fondue, Thai Home Cooking, Vietnamese Cooking.  His first book, Desserts with Spirit! was foreworded by James Beard; best-selling Fondue went into five national editions (Dutch, Swiss, France, US, Australia); while his Vietnamese and Thai books are translated into French.  The Burma Cookbook won Best Asian cookbook at the World Gourmand awards in Yintai China, an international competition under the patronage of France’s Cointreau family.  

For eight years Robert was proprietary at Bric-a-Brac in Battambang, Cambodia; this property was proclaimed Cambodia’s Top Boutique Hotel by Sovrin magazine two years running.  He lives with artist Morrison Polkinghorne in a repurposed century-old church in rural Australia’s Mallee.