Emmanuel Feildel (born 26 March 1974) is a French-Australian chef, restaurateur and television presenter trained in England, who is best known as one of the judges of the competitive television cooking show ''

My Kitchen Rules ''My Kitchen Rules'' (often abbreviated as ''MKR'') is an Australian competitive cooking game show broadcast on the Seven Network since 2010. The show is currently hosted and judged by chefs Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge, with Feildel being ...

''. Manu achieved a solid reputation as head chef at the restaurant Bilson's before moving to open his own restaurant, Manu at L'Étoile, in 2009. The restaurant closed in March 2014.

Biography

In spite of a history of professional chefs in his family, including his father and a grandfather, Feildel decided to join a circus school at age 13 and learnt

juggling Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...

unicycling A unicycle is a vehicle that touches the ground with only one wheel. The most common variation has a bicycle frame, frame with a bicycle saddle, saddle, and has a human-powered vehicle, pedal-driven direct-drive mechanism, direct-drive. A two spe ...

, clowning and some

acrobatic Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro ...

s. He stayed for three years and then decided that cooking was his first love and moved to London where he studied at the

Cafe Royal A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, Caffè americano, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually ...

restaurant. He then worked at Les Associes, the Cafe des Amis du Vin and popular seafood restaurant Livebait.

Career

Feidel relocated to Australia in 1999, he worked at a number of restaurants for several years before opening the kitchen as head chef at Bilson's on invitation of its owner, offering contemporary

French cuisine French cuisine is the cooking traditions and practices of France. In the 14th century, Guillaume Tirel, a Court (royal), court chef known as "Taillevent", wrote ''Le Viandier'', one of the earliest recipe collections of medieval France. In ...

. According to ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', he was a key factor in Bilson's "three-hat success". ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' indicates that it is for his service at this "exceptional fine diner" that he has fame among food lovers. Feildel began appearing on ''Ready Steady Cook'' in 2006 and on ''MasterChef Australia'' in 2009 and has co-hosted ''

'' since 2010. Also in 2009, Feildel left Bilson's and opened his own French

bistro A bistro or bistrot (), in its original Parisian form, is a small restaurant serving moderately priced, simple meals in a modest setting. In more recent years, the term has become used by restaurants considered, by some, to be pretentious. Style ...

, Manu at L'Étoile. However, the restaurant closed in March 2014, with Feildel citing a "nightmare year" with too much happening including his ''My Kitchen Rules'' commitments and increased competition that had hurt his business, meaning he could no longer afford to stay open. In 2010, he was the celebrity contestant in the first episode of the short lived Australian version of '' Beat the Star''. Feildel won the 2011 series of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

'' and appeared at the 2011 Good Food & Wine Show. He was also nominated for the Most Popular New Male Talent at the Logie Awards of 2011. He hosted the reality dating series

Dinner Date ''Dinner Date'' is a British dating game show, which first aired on ITV from 9 August 2010 to 28 December 2012, with subsequent new series airing on sister channel ITVBe from 8 October 2014 to 4 June 2023. The programme format was created by ...

in 2011. Following the closure of his Sydney restaurant, Manu at L'Étoile, Feildel in partnership with chef

George Calombaris George Dimitrios Calombaris (; born 4 October 1978) is a Greek Australian chef and restaurateur and television personality. Calombaris was one of the judges of the Network 10 series ''MasterChef Australia'' from 2009 to 2019. Prior to his role ...

opened a new restaurant Le Grand Cirque in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, which closed 4 months after opening, in August 2014. In April 2014, Feildel hosted a two-part travel-cooking documentary entitled '' My France with Manu'' which follows Feildel travelling through western France, highlighting the local food, scenery and his memories of France. The show originally screened on the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

. A fictional parody of Manu has appeared as a recurring character on the

Aunty Donna Aunty Donna is an Australian surrealist comedy group formed in Melbourne in 2011. The group currently consists of performers and writers Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane, alongside writer and director Sam Lingham, director Max Mill ...

podcast, where he is portrayed by Zachary Ruane. Feildel appears in the 2018 film '' The BBQ'' as French chef, Andre Mont Blanc. In 2019, he became a judge on the revived version of ''

Australia's Got Talent ''Australia's Got Talent'' is an Australian reality television talent show. The show is based on the '' Got Talent'' series format that originated in the United Kingdom with Simon Cowell. The first six seasons aired on the Seven Network, from ...

'' for the

. It was announced on 23 October 2019 that Feildel would join former

MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking show television format created by Franc Roddam, which originated with MasterChef (British TV series), the British version in July 1990. The show aims to discover the culinary talent of chefs of varying sk ...

judges

Gary Mehigan Gary Mehigan (born 12 February 1967) is an English-Australian chef and restaurateur. Mehigan was one of the original judges of the Network 10 series ''MasterChef Australia''. Career Chef Mehigan trained at The Connaught (hotel), The Connau ...

and

Matt Preston Matt Preston (born 21 July 1961) is an English-Australian food critic, writer, food journalist, television and radio presenter. Preston has a weekly national food column that appears in NewsCorp's metro newspapers. He is also a senior editor ...

in 2020 on a new cooking competition show called ''

Plate of Origin ''Plate of Origin'' was an Australian competitive cooking game show that was broadcast on the Seven Network. Celebrity chef Manu Feildel hosted the series alongside former ''MasterChef Australia'' judges chef Gary Mehigan and food critic Matt Pre ...

''.

Community work

In March 2013, Feildel trekked the

Kokoda Track The Kokoda Track or Trail is a single-file foot thoroughfare that runs overland – in a straight line – through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The track was the location of the 1942 World War II battle between Japane ...

to raise money for

CanTeen Canteen most often refers to: * Canteen (bottle), a water container * Cafeteria, a type of food service location within an institution in which there is little or no waiting staff table service * A complete set of cutlery comprising knives, forks, ...

, the Australian organisation for young people living with cancer. Each participant donated $5,000 to join the trek. Feildel is also an ambassador for

Camp Quality Camp Quality is an Australian non-governmental and non-profit organisation with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle and Brisbane, offering cancer support nationally. Camp Quality's programs and services are designed specifica ...

, a children's family cancer charity whose motto is "laughter is the best medicine".

ANZUP Cancer Trials Group

In 2019, Manu took part in the ANZUP Cancer Trials Group's Rude Food campaign. Manu prepared a selection of "rude" looking dishes to raise awareness for "below the belt" (penile, prostate, testicular, bladder and kidney) cancers. In 2020, Manu joined ANZUP Cancer Trials Group as a Below the Belt Ambassador. Manu participated in the 2020 Below the Belt #YourWay Challenge in September 2020, completing 854 kilometres on his bicycle and raising $987 for cancer research. In 2021, Manu participated in ''

'' on

. Manu announced at the beginning of the season that his nominated charity was ANZUP Cancer Trials Group.

Personal life

Feildel and his wife Veronica Anne "Ronnie" Morshead (b. Kingston, 1969) separated during 2009, after 12 years together. They have one son Jonti. Feildel became engaged to Pattaya go-go bar manager Clarissa Weerasena in November 2013, and they married in January 2018. The couple have a daughter Charlee born in 2015. Clarissa is a cook on Better Homes and Gardens.

References