Danielle Alvarez is an American born chef living in Sydney, Australia. Danielle was born into a large Cuban American family in Miami, FL. For as long as she can remember, she was always standing at her mom and grandmother's side, assisting them in the kitchen. It was this love of food and cooking which finally won out and propelled Danielle to make the leap from a different career path, into hospitality. Danielle completed a degree in Culinary arts from Johnson & Wales University and moved across country to begin her first job in the industry at the world renowned, The French Laundry in Napa, California. She would say this was a scary and life changing experience. After this, Danielle moved to San Francisco and spent time in noteworthy kitchens such as Boulettes Larder and then finally onto Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Danielle spent most of her California years at Chez Panisse and she wold credit this as being the most influential period in her cooking career. It was a holiday in Australia and a "chance" encounter which led to her to move to Sydney to conceive and lead a new restaurant with the Merivale Group, one of the largest and most diverse hospitality groups in Australia. The restaurant is called Fred's and both it and Danielle have garnered many national accolades in Australia since it opened in 2016 including "Best new restaurant" by Gourmet Traveller Magazine in 2016 and nominations for "best restaurant" and "best chef" from Good Food Australia in 2017. Merivale designed the restaurant around Danielle's daring design for the kitchen which broke down any barriers between guests and chefs. The restaurant is the kitchen and the kitchen is the restaurant. Here chefs cook in an open wood burning hearth and wood oven using the same principles Danielle learned at Chez Panisse of support for small scale organic farming, seasonal cooking and a mediterranean style of food.