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This Friday, 25 March, would have been Bernard King’s 82nd birthday.
One of Australia’s first celebrity chefs and talent show judges, King was known and beloved for his sharp putdowns, his flamboyance, and his all-but-inedible recipes.
He was as iconic in his own way as Dame Edna or Crocodile Dundee, but he died in poverty in 2002. Today he’s all but forgotten. That erasure of one of Australia’s biggest gay celebrities highlights the tensions and troubles which still exist in a country on the verge of a referendum over same-sex marriage.
Find out more about Bernard King’s life – and the time he poached a fish in a soft drink – over at Marvellous, Electrical.
matt finch / mechanical dolphin 
I think anyone over 45 who grew up in Australia would have their own favourite Bernard King memories. I own his Winter Cookbook. I have cooked from it once but I have read it and laughed over his prose many times. This tells you a lot about his recipes and himself. Ta for the Bernard King reminder 🙂