How self-taught TV chef Bill Granger dropped out of Australian art school and ‘invented’ avocado on toast (and started a breakfast revolution) because it was the only recipe the London-based restaurateur ‘had room to make’ in his TINY first cafe

Before he became the ‘godfather of avocado on toast’, Australian chef Bill Granger – who died on Christmas Day aged 54 – thought his future lay in the art world.

The Melbourne-raised restaurateur, who honed his skills in a house where his butcher father and vegetarian mother lived, had left school with plans to become an architect in his home city.

He then decided to switch to study fine arts in sunnier Sydney, although this too was just a stop on the path that would lead to his true calling in life.

The budding artist started working at French bistro La Passion du Fruit in an attempt to raise much-needed money to finance his studies.

But as luck would have it, it was his first step into the world of professional cooking

Granger, who had spent his adolescence cooking three-course meals for his parents and impressing their friends in the process, befriended the owner.

In a 2009 interview with food blogger Lorraine Elliott, he said: ‘I cooked for her and she really liked the way I cooked, so she invited me into the kitchen to cook and it started from there.’

He soon “dropped out” of college to focus on his cooking. He became a self-taught chef – there were no formal lessons, something he says was ‘ironically great training’.

He told the Sunday Times: ‘I wasn’t bound by rules about food and good food. I didn’t even know the rules I wasn’t allowed to break. It places me in a parallel with the Australian way of eating: its joyful lack of fixed assumptions or strict culinary history.’

When he decided to spread his wings and open his own establishment, Granger tried to make the best of his less than ideal environment.

The chef had little room to move in the Bills kitchen – his first cafe opened in Sydney 30 years ago – as it only had a four-burner stove, grill, fridge and coffee maker.

With the environment more like a cramped kitchen in someone’s flat, Granger decided to offer breakfast recipes because they are “never too complicated”, adding that under licensing rules he was limited to working from 7am to 4pm.

Here he put avocado on toast, the dish that is so closely associated with him, on the menu for the first time.

Granger told Australian Financial Review earlier this year that he added avocado toast to the menu because he ate it as a quick and easy meal.

He said, “I know, it’s just a few ingredients, hardly a recipe. Catering people always eat quickly because they have so little time. It is immediately accessible, fresh and light. And it’s green.’

He added: “I grew up in Melbourne, and when I moved to Sydney I was shocked by the morning life. People were on the beach, walking through the park and owning the day. It felt very Australian, very optimistic. I think avocado on toast is optimistic.”

He quickly gained a reputation for his simple but delicious breakfast offerings, and this success allowed him to open two more branches in other parts of Sydney.

After first making the jump north by opening a location in Japan, his laid-back Australian-style breakfast finally arrived in the UK in 2011 when he opened his first branch of Granger & Co in Notting Hill.

Although he was forced to change the name to avoid clashes with ‘Bill’s’, a brand founded by Sussex greengrocer Bill Collison in 1993, Granger decided he wanted to keep the menu as close to his Australian roots as possible.

This included offering British people avocado on toast, something he later invented through the Washington Post.

Although he didn’t realize at the time that he had created “a classic,” he reflected, “It was a very natural thing to do.” Australians are not a country that eats sweet toast – jam is not our thing – and avocado seemed like a healthier alternative.”

Whatever the motivation or reasoning, Granger has left his mark: avocado on toast has since become a global sensation, with 60 million kilos of the fruit eaten every year in Britain alone.

He would later open another branch of Granger & Co in Clerkenwell, London, before making an ambitious move into the Hawaiian market in 2015.

He later joked that this was partly due to bad weather in Britain, saying: “Well, I won’t pretend that the London call didn’t go through in January, and I thought why not?”

By the time of his death, he had opened restaurants in his native Australia, his adopted homeland of Great Britain, as well as in Japan, South Korea and the United States.

In addition to his work as a restaurateur, Granger became a popular figure with the public after his appearances on British television. It was renewed for a second season and spawned a spin-off called Bill’s Holiday, where he traveled around Australia.

He starred in the series Bill’s Food, which followed him for a week and aired in Britain in 2005, while he also appeared on GMTV, presenting a week-long barbecue special from the south of France.

His move to Britain and subsequent opening of his first Granger & Co restaurant was filmed by the BBC, while he also worked for The Independent on Sunday’s weekly food columnist.

He also started cooking books, giving fans the chance to make his dishes at home.

However, he almost didn’t use his signature avocado on toast because he didn’t consider it a real dish, but a snack he always ate.

As the chef himself once put it: ‘I said to my editor: this was in 1999: is it too ridiculous to put avocado on toast in a recipe book?’

He eventually added on, publishing thirteen more cookbooks, adding to the extraordinarily successful career he made for himself – although he always struck the tone of someone who couldn’t quite believe his luck.

For much of that he was accompanied by his wife Natalie Elliott, whom he met at one of his restaurants in Sydney.

The couple had three daughters together, Edie, 22, Bunnyz, 19, and Inès, 20 – the latter of whom is also a cooking enthusiast and art student.

In early 2023 he received the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to tourism and hospitality.

He was surrounded by his family when he died in a London hospital on Christmas Day after what was believed to be a battle with cancer following his diagnosis with the disease earlier this year.

In a statement, his family said: ‘Bill, a devoted husband and father, died peacefully in hospital with his wife Natalie Elliott and three daughters, Edie, Ines and Bunny, at his bedside in their adopted home in London.

“Born in Melbourne, Australia, Bill was a self-taught chef who became a celebrated global restaurateur and food writer with a career spanning more than 30 years.”

It added: ‘He will be deeply missed by all, with his loss felt most deeply by his adored family, who are grateful for all the love and support given.’

Under the post, Ines wrote in a comment: ‘I love you daddy.’

Nigella Lawson said she was ‘heartbroken’ commenting on the post, while fellow TV chef Jamie Oliver called the news ‘heartbreaking’.

He said: ‘This is devastating news; I’m so sad to hear this, what a guy he was…a wonderful human being, kind, calm soul…

“I admired everything he represented in food; I remember the first time I met him many moons ago. He couldn’t have been nicer, and his food was so good.’

Australian MasterChef presenter Matt Preston called the chef a “really nice guy and an inspiration” and praised his work in shaping “the image of modern Australian food worldwide.”