Anna Gare is an Australian musician, cook, television personality and author.

Anna Gare
Born (1969-03-10) 10 March 1969 (age 55)
NationalityAustralian
Occupation(s)Musician, author, cook and television personality
TelevisionConsuming Passions
Chef's Christmas
The Best in Australia
Junior MasterChef Australia
Destination WA
Spouse
(m. 2008)
Children2
Websiteannagare.com.au

Biography edit

Gare was born 10 March 1969 in Subiaco, Western Australia[1][2] and grew up in Fremantle. She attended the Lance Holt School, where as a student she ran a canteen for students and staff.

I had a friend who was a year older than me and together every Wednesday we would set up the classroom downstairs as a restaurant. We would have a three-course meal for $1. It was chicken noodle soup, chicken and salad and jelly and ice-cream for dessert.

— Anna Gare[3]

Musician edit

Gare started off her career as a musician when she was twelve[4][5] when she formed an all-female band with her sister Sophie and two friends, Jodie Bell and Lucy Lemann, called the Jam Tarts.[5][6] The band was managed by their mother, Kate Gare.[5] For ten years the Jam Tarts were a successful touring and recording band within Australia and performed at international music festivals. They performed live on NBC's Today Show, at the 1987 Edinburgh Fringe Festival,[7] and toured with Rik Mayall and Jonathan Richman.[8] The Jam Tarts also played as part of a larger band in combination with the Nansing Quartet, a six piece band whose members included Lucky Oceans, Adam Gare, Sam Lemann, Peter "Biff" Vincent, Peter Bell and Neale Austin. In 1986 she featured in an Australian film Pursuit of Happiness, as a 15-year-old who sings in a rock band and opposes American nuclear submarines being harboured in Australian waters.

Whilst Gare was in the Jam Tarts, she supplemented her rock and roll lifestyle with cooking, where she worked in various restaurants around Australia.[4][6]

In 1993 she had a small role in Stark, a British-Australian television miniseries.

In 2004, Gare was inducted into the Western Australian Music Industry's Hall of Fame, as she had previously been inducted to the Rock 'n' Roll of Renown in 1993.[9]

Cooking and television edit

In 1991, after a decade in rock and roll, she decided it was time for a change.

At 25 I had two children and didn't feel like doing the rock and roll thing any more – even the thought of playing in a smoky pub (as they were in those days) was not on.

— Anna Gare[5]

In 1999, Gare formed a small catering business, Deluxe Catering,[6][10] which she operated until June 2007.[11]

She went on to present her own cooking segment on the magazine chat show Perth at Five.[5] The program was shot live and ran weeknights for four months. She also presented a documentary on Fremantle, some segments on Today Tonight, and cooking segments with Perth DIY show Nuts and Bolts.[4] She featured in, and narrated, a five-part series, Chefs Christmas,[5] for The LifeStyle Channel.[4] The series involved various Australian chefs and cooks, who invited viewers into their homes to share their festive season entertaining "secrets".[12]

In 2007, Gare co-starred with chefs Ben O'Donoghue and Darren Simpson in The Best in Australia on The LifeStyle Channel.[5][10] The show was filmed in her parents' home, a converted church in North Fremantle.[6] It was positively received and Gare shot a second series which premiered on The LifeStyle Channel in August 2010. Best in Australia was syndicated in the United States on the Vibrant TV Network.

Gare was nominated as "Favourite Female Personality" at the 6th Annual ASTRA Awards in 2008.[5][13]

In late 2008, she was approached by the producers of Masterchef Australia and auditioned for the position of mentor, host or judge on the show. However, she pulled out of the audition process, deciding to spend more time with her family, because the show was being filmed in Sydney.[14] She subsequently appeared as an additional judge on the first series of Junior MasterChef Australia, which premiered on 12 September 2010.

In 2013, Gare co-hosted an Australian reality television baking competition, The Great Australian Bake Off, with Shane Jacobson.[15][16] In 2017, she began presenting a cooking segment in Destination WA, a Nine Network program.[17]

Personal edit

Anna is the daughter of Bob and Kate Gare, and is one of four children. Her father is an architect and her elder brother Tom is an artist. Her eldest brother Adam is a musician and member of The Nansing Quartet, and her sister, Sophie, is married to English comedian and author Ben Elton.[5][18][19]

Gare married a fellow Perth musician and had two children. In 2008 she married former Australian and NBA player Luc Longley,[5][10][14][20] who has two daughters from a prior marriage. Since 2015 the couple have lived in a property near the coastal Western Australian town of Denmark.[19]

Awards edit

West Australian Music Industry Awards edit

The West Australian Music Industry Awards are annual awards celebrating achievements for Western Australian music. They commenced in 1985.

Year Nominee / work Award Result
1993 Anna Gare Rock 'n' Roll of Renown inductee

Published works edit

  • Eat In published 2013[21]
  • Delicious Every Day published 2016[22]

References edit

  1. ^ "Anna Gare". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 20 August 2009.
  2. ^ "Anna Gare interviewed by John Bannister in the Perth Independent Music project". Retrieved 10 August 2009 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ Brown, Pam (9 April 2007). "Cookin up the best". The West Australian. West Australian Newspapers Limited. Archived from the original on 30 August 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
  4. ^ a b c d "Anna Gare". The Lifestyle Channel. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Szabo, Sarah (Autumn 2010). "Recipe for Happiness". Scoop Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 November 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d Ganska, Helen (22 June 2007). "The best in Fremantle". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  7. ^ "Gilded Balloon Programmes and Awards". Gilded Balloon. Retrieved 10 August 2009. [dead link]
  8. ^ Freeman-Greene, Suzy (3 April 1987). "Permutations of prolific jammers". The Age. Australia. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  9. ^ "WAM Hall of Fame". Western Australian Music Industry. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  10. ^ a b c Kelly, Jim (7 June 2007). "Anna combines two passions". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  11. ^ "Deluxe Catering". Deluxe Catering. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  12. ^ "Chefs Christmas". The Lifestyle Channel. Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  13. ^ Knox, David (26 March 2008). "2008 ASTRA nominees announced". tvtonight.com.au. Archived from the original on 24 February 2009. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  14. ^ a b Williams, Gail (25 July 2009). "Top WA chef Anna Gare chooses family over Masterchef fame". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  15. ^ "The Great Australian Bake off". Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
  16. ^ "The Great Australian Bake Off". IMDb. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  17. ^ "Destination WA". Guruproductions Pty Ltd. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  18. ^ Halliday, Claire (15 November 2002). "Ben's lowdown on the high life". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  19. ^ a b Fleming, Katherine (14 March 2015). "Home scores on many levels". The West Australian. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  20. ^ Hampson, Katie (9 April 2007). "Longley rushed to save kids". The West Australian. West Australian Newspapers Limited. Archived from the original on 17 April 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  21. ^ "Eat In". Murdoch Books. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  22. ^ "Delicious Every Day". Murdoch Books. Retrieved 13 September 2018.

External links edit