Bill Granger defied the rules of TV cooking shows to make fine food accessible

In the television food genre, there are Good Chefs, Great Chefs, Iron Chefs, Naked Chefs, French Chefs and MasterChefs. Bill Granger’s television style was never so ostentatious. His own TV show was simply titled Bill’s Food.

In a sense, that television series – Granger’s first, back in 2004 – gave audiences the clearest understanding of how Granger related to both his kitchen, to food and to his audience. In a genre overpopulated with tempers and overwrought brilliance, Granger’s signature was simplicity. He died on Christmas Day, aged 54.

Bill Granger’s signature was simplicity.Credit: Fiona-Lee Quimby

Television kitchens have a tendency towards stainless-steel architecture. On television, Granger was surrounded instead by earthly wood. Television kitchens are usually colourless, almost clinical spaces. But when Granger cooked, he was never far from a splash of colour.

Television kitchens are also often crowded because program makers (and network executives) tend to think frenetic environments will keep an audience engaged. Granger’s kitchen, in stark contrast, was always an open and welcoming space.

Granger was untrained – a self-taught cook in a world of internationally trained chefs, who still somehow stood head and shoulders above his peers. While the crowd tended to come at food either from an academic perspective or from elaborate cultural traditions, Granger’s focus went first to taste, scent and emotion.

Critically, Granger made the kitchen a less intimidating space. While others focused on knife technique, or following the rules or sticking to the recipe, Granger spoke about finding the best produce and creating mixes of flavours that were, even if unconventional, most pleasing to the palate.

Avocado on rye at bills restaurant in Sydney.

How else do you explain the merger of avocado and toast – two very plain ingredients that nobody had seriously imagined pairing – into the most popular breakfast export of the last two decades? (It helped that he cleverly added a poached egg, crushed red pepper flakes and a dash of salt.)

But such was Granger’s easygoing manner, he was hesitant even to take credit for it. “I don’t like the word invented,” Granger once said, noting that pairing avocado and bread was no doubt pioneered in Mexico long before it was popularised (and then exported) by Australia.