Now THIS is a gal’s favourite type of chef – he looks real and healthy and interested, plus interesting (don’t we all hate pompous culinarians with beer-belly fronts, those that hark back to the days when it was said ‘never trust a skinny chef’). Today, the maxim is only trust a healthy chef. Anyway, this is Curtis Stone, the 35-year old Melbourne-born guy who forsook a degree in Business for his first love, food. He has just been signed by IHG’s Indigo to help promote local foods in Indigo hotels across the USA. I was lucky enough to visit the first-ever Indigo, which opened in Atlanta GA in 2004. A 1923-vintage university fraternity house which then became the Carlton Hotel, I loved the 140-room hotel’s collateral, things like door numbers and front-desk signage, all of which changed in pattern every quarter (just like retail, said then-GM, or In-Keeper Gabriel Webster). She hosted Canine Cocktails every Tuesday, inviting local dogs and their owners in to drink from a variety of beautifully-decorated dog bowls… lots of fun. Today, there are dozens of Indigos, across the USA and further afield. Curtis Stone will visit some of the American hotels, and a Locals Know Best – Dish on the Dish competition, via Facebook, will result in lucky people winning an all-paid trip to New York City, http://www.facebook.com/hotelindigo