salt spring 17

BOLD VISIONARIES
GLORIOUS
FOODIE
WORDS LINDA READ PHOTOS ANASTASIA KARIOFYLLIDIS
COOKING FOR ACTOR Brad Pitt and his family is a job that may make
some people a little nervous. But chef, restaurateur and passionate foodie
Leonie Palmer-Fisher is not easily fazed.
When Leonie and her husband Steven ‘Stef’ Fisher were offered
the job of running the household at a private property in England
a few years ago, they were more than a little surprised when
their new boss turned out to be the Hollywood superstar. Pitt
had moved to the property with his six children and their large
entourage of nannies and teachers while he was filming a movie.
“We ran the household, did the entertaining and the hospitality
and also looked after the family, which was hilarious because Stef
and I have never had children and we didn’t know how hard that
could be,” says Leonie.
The famous family, who Leonie describes as “exceptionally
delightful”, always ate their meals together. She says Asian cuisine
was one of their favourite choices for dinner, but she also had to
make sure her good-old American-style hotdog-making skills were
up to scratch.
Cooking for the stars is only a fraction of what Leonie has
experienced in her long and illustrious career as a hospitality
professional. And despite working extensively overseas, Leonie’s
heart and soul belong to Noosa – the place she came to as a young
adult and where she says her life truly began.
It was the 1970s when Leonie drove up the highway from
Melbourne with her three cats. A nurse in her previous life, she
was “looking for a change”.
“I grew up here in many ways,” she says. “Noosa was a
completely different place then; it was gentle and there was
a purity in the community. The streets were rougher but the
landscape was so beautiful.”
It was in those early years in Noosa that Leonie really developed a
passion for a style of holistic hospitality that involved sourcing and
preparing good food from local producers.
“This little coastal place hanging off the side of Australia had a
reputation very early on. There was a small group of us that was
very dedicated, although naive in many ways, to seeing it grow in
a holistic, sustainable sense.
88 salt