Stone studied for a
Bachelor of Business at
Victoria University before dropping out and deciding to pursue a career as a chef. He worked in Australian restaurants before leaving to work in
London, where he debuted his cooking career at age 18 at the
Savoy Hotel. Upon completing his qualifications as a chef at
Box Hill TAFE, Stone began cooking under
Marco Pierre White at the
Café Royal and
Mirabelle, and went on to become head chef at White's
Quo Vadis.
Television Stone returned briefly to Australia to make the travelling cooking show
Surfing the Menu (on
ABC) with another chef,
Ben O'Donoghue. which went on to become an international hit for TLC. On American television Stone appears regularly on
NBC's
Today. His second appearance in 2007 featured him visiting the home of host
Meredith Vieira to teach her how to cook, as her children had complained that she did not know how. On 14 January 2011, Stone co-hosted the fourth hour of
Today with
Hoda Kotb. He has also appeared on
Martha Stewart's show
Martha,
Access Hollywood,
Lopez Tonight,
The Nate Berkus Show,
The Talk,
The Chew, and
Rachael Ray. On 7 June 2011, Curtis was a guest on
Conan, where he taught
Conan O'Brien how to prepare the perfect date night meal. Stone has appeared on
Food Network's
Iron Chef America in the episode "Battle Skipjack Tuna", where he lost to Iron Chef
Bobby Flay. Stone has also appeared on several episodes of
The Biggest Loser. Stone was a candidate on
The Celebrity Apprentice 3, which premiered in March 2010 and was the third installment to the celebrity version of
The Apprentice. The show premiered on 14 March 2010, and Stone was fired on 16 May 2010, placing fourth out of 14 contestants. On the same day (16 May 2010), Stone was co-host of
Miss USA 2010. Stone has also made appearances on
The Ellen DeGeneres Show and
The Oprah Winfrey Show. Stone appeared on a segment of Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure, a four-day television event that aired in January 2011. In June 2010, producers of NBC's new series ''
America's Next Great Restaurant announced that Stone would join the judging and investment panel on alongside Bobby Flay, Steve Ells and Lorena Garcia. The first season aired in 2011 directly followed by the fourth edition of The Celebrity Apprentice'', where Stone made a guest appearance on the first episode. In 2011, Stone became host of the third season of Bravo's
Top Chef Masters, replacing
Kelly Choi. In January 2012, Bravo announced Stone would co-host a new culinary reality show called
Around the World in 80 Plates with fellow celebrity chef
Cat Cora. The series, which premiered in May 2012, follows 12 chefs competing in a culinary race across 10 countries in 44 days. Stone also hosted and anchored the judges' table for the
Top Chef franchise's spin-off edition,
Top Chef Duels, in 2014. In August 2012, Stone appeared in an episode of
MasterChef Australia All-Stars. He returned to
MasterChef in May 2015 for a MasterClass alongside
Marco Pierre White. Stone began hosting
Kitchen Inferno in 2014 and mentored Food Network's debut culinary competition,
All Star Academy, in 2015. He appeared on the network again in summer 2015 for two episodes of the show
Guilty Pleasures. In 2015, Stone also made an appearance on the second season of
Celebrity Family Feud. In 2017, Stone co-hosted the
FOX reality cooking series
My Kitchen Rules. Stone has previously appeared in the
original Australian version of the program. In 2019, Stone's series
Field Trip with Curtis Stone began on
PBS. In 2021, Stone became a judge on
Crime Scene Kitchen.
Restaurants in 2018 On 1 February 2014, Stone opened his first restaurant,
Maude, in
Beverly Hills which is named after his paternal grandmother. and continues to hold its one-star rating as of 2023. Stone opened a second restaurant,
Gwen, in
Hollywood in 2016, named after his maternal grandmother. In 2024, Curtis opened Woodend by Curtis Stone at the Maroma Hotel in Mexico.
Other projects In 2007, Stone hosted the
Great Barrier Feast Culinary Masterclass event on
Hamilton Island featuring other notable Australian chefs, including
Geoff Jansz, Shannon Bennett, and Justin North. In 2008, Stone developed "Kitchen Solutions by Curtis Stone," a line of kitchen utensils, accessories, and glassware. He also has written a series of cookbooks, including
Surfing the Menu: Two Chefs, One Journey: A Fresh Food Adventure,
Cooking With Curtis: Easy, Everyday and Adventurous Recipes for the Home Cook, and
Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone: Recipes to Put You in My Favorite Mood. Stone's 2013 cookbook ''What's For Dinner?
became a New York Times'' bestseller and was translated into Chinese in December 2014. Stone's most recent book,
Good Food, Good Life, launched in March 2015 in the United States and Canada and May 2015 in Australia. In 2010, Stone gave a cooking class and demonstration at the
Singapore Sun Festival. In October 2010 it was announced that Stone had created recipes for in-flight meals for
United Airlines. In 2011, he was appointed as an ambassador for Cottage by the Sea, alongside big wave surfer
Jeff Rowley and Olympian
Cathy Freeman. The ambassadors help the Australian charity raise funds to provide short holidays for disadvantaged children. Stone also works with
Feeding America, a domestic hunger-relief charity, and Second-Bite, which redistributes nutritional surplus food to those in need. Stone is best known in Australia for his more than a decade's long partnership with
Coles Supermarket where he is the ambassador of their fresh food and recipes. In 2011, Stone described to
GQ Australia his relationship with big supermarkets: "I never even thought about working for a supermarket. But there's that feeling you get when you walk down the street and someone comes up and says, 'You know what? We never used to cook fish in our house. Since we’ve tried that salmon recipe we have it once a week.' The feeling that gives you is worth a million other things". Stone and his team create recipes that feature in the monthly
Coles Magazine and are very active in influencing how Australians eat, being credited with encouraging the supermarket to improve ethical sourcing. In the early years of the partnership, Stone's recipes were focused on helping Australians create meals for under $10.
Winn-Dixie, an American supermarket, took the same strategy and signed Stone by launching "Cooking with Curtis for under $10" in 2015. Stone voiced the character Todd in the 2016
DreamWorks Animation film
Trolls and 2017 half-hour Christmas special
Trolls Holiday. ==Personal life==