Bill Granger, chef who brought Aussie-style breakfast to world capitals, dies at 54

LONDON (AP) — Bill Granger, the Australian chef, food writer and restaurant owner who brought Aussie-style food to international capitals from London to Seoul, has died. He was 54.

Granger's family said on social media Tuesday that the chef died in a hospital in London on Christmas Day.

“A dedicated husband and father, Bill died peacefully in hospital with his wife Natalie Elliott and three daughters, Edie, Inès and Bunny, at his bedside in their adopted home of London,” the family statement said. It gave no further details.

Born in 1969 in Melbourne, Australia, Granger was a self-taught cook who launched a chef's career over three decades after dropping out of art school. He opened his first restaurant in 1993 in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst, where he soon became known for his breakfasts served at a central communal table.

He and his wife then launched their restaurant business globally, opening more than a dozen restaurants and cafes under his name in London, Seoul, and Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka in Japan. Their relaxed atmosphere and his signature dishes, like avocado on sourdough toast, creamy scrambled eggs and ricotta hotcakes, proved a hit with diners worldwide.

"He will be remembered as the ‘King of Breakfast,’ for making unpretentious food into something special filled with sunshine and for spurring the growth of Australian informal and communal eating around the world,” his family wrote.

Granger wrote 14 cookbooks, his family said, and was known for presenting on various cookery shows. He also appeared as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia. Earlier this year, he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to tourism and hospitality.

Actors Hugh Jackman and Jason Donovan, both fellow Australians, were among those paying tribute to Granger Wednesday, with Donovan describing the chef as a “ray of Aussie sunshine”.

“What a guy he was, a wonderful human, kind calm soul,” celebrity chef Jamie Oliver wrote on social media. “I admired everything he represented in food."