Culinary Director and Head Chef - Thyme Food School
Named as one of Sydney's 'most visionary young talents' when he was working there, the passion for food hit English-born Daryll Taylor at the very young age of 3, when he started cooking with his Great-Grandma. No surprise then that he had his own vegetable and fruit garden by the age of 6.
Growing and cooking food came naturally to him and at age 9 he started foraging. He would pick mushrooms before he started school, regularly went trout fishing and also started making jams at this age, with wild plum a particular favourite.His professional training took in a City and Guilds qualification at Newbury College, as well as time at the Ecole de Cuisine Française. He worked stages in Provence and with Franco Taruschio at the famous Walnut Tree near Abergavenny. He also worked with Gary Rhodes at his acclaimed Greenhouse Restaurant, London for 2 ½ years.
He moved to Australia before the turn of the century and opened ‘The Jersey Cow’ in Sydney, which won rave reviews in The New York Times and was one of the top 10 best restaurants in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics. Daryll was named one of Sydney’s five ‘most visionary young talents to watch’ by Maggie Alderson in Food & Wine Magazine (USA).
He went on to open ‘The Sea Cow’, an extremely up market fish and chip shop which also received great reviews including one in the Australian ‘Vogue’.
Whilst in Sydney he did some TV work, taught various cookery classes and became the food editor for ‘Belle’ Magazine.
Family reasons brought him back to the UK in 2004, since when he has worked at the the King Alfred’s Head in Wantage. Passionate as ever about foraging, raw ingredients and cooking, he is bringing his many talents to Thyme at Southrop, where he will be teaching a number of classes over the year.