Karen Martini
The award-winning celebrity chef on Better Homes and Gardens
As an award-winning chef and restaurateur, Karen Martini is the widely known food personality helping Australian families cook delicious and nutritious food. Inspired by her own family and Tunisian-Italian heritage, Karen continues to share her love of food and cooking across Australian food media.
Karen was the founding chef at the critically acclaimed Melbourne Wine Room and Sydney’s Icebergs Dining Room and Bar. She held two chef’s hats across both restaurants, and won the 2004 Best New Restaurant Award from The Sydney Morning Herald for Icebergs.
Looking for their next adventure, Karen and her partner Michael Sapountsis sold The Melbourne Wine Room in 2011 to pursue new projects. They still own and run the beloved pizzeria Mr Wolf in St Kilda since its launch in 2004.
Karen is a prolific author, having published many popular cookbooks, including 'Salads & Vegetables', 'New Kitchen', 'The Karen Martini Collection', 'Cooking at Home' and 'Where the Heart Is'. She was also the food editor for The Age’s Sunday Life Magazine for six years, as well as the food editor for The Age’s Epicure/Good Living lift-out for five years. She continues to be a frequent contributor to The Australian.
A familiar face on TV, Karen has been the resident chef on ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ for over a decade. She has also been a regular judge on Seven’s 'My Kitchen Rules' and the co-host of 'The Intolerant Cooks'.
Karen continues to give back to her culinary community, presenting and demonstrating for a range of events, festivals and charity functions. She has been a two-time presenter at The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, the 2012 Sydney International Food Festival, and anchored the live show based on My Kitchen Rules. She was also a crowd favourite at the 'Better Homes and Gardens LIVE' shows, where she took audiences through her most popular recipes in real time.
She is also the Food Ambassador for Aurrum, designing menus and training in-house chefs for the leading residential aged-care provider in Australia. Joining Peter Gilmore and Matt Moran, Karen is now the Chef Ambassador for the house venues at the Sydney Opera House.