Pete Evans

Peter Daryl Evans (born 29 August 1973) is an Australian chef, and former television presenter, who was a judge of the competitive cooking show My Kitchen Rules.

Evans has been heavily criticised for spreading misinformation about vaccinations, promoting conservative political rhetoric, sharing conspiracy theories with followers and pseudoscientific dieting ideas such as the paleolithic diet.

He lives in Round Mountain, New South Wales.

In 1996, Evans moved to Sydney with his brother and David Corsi and they opened Hugos Bondi in 1996, followed by Hugos Lounge in 2000 and Hugos Bar Pizza in 2004 (both in Sydney's Kings Cross) and Hugos Manly in 2008.

Over 1998–2011, the restaurants in the Hugos Group were awarded eight Sydney Morning Herald 'Chef's Hats', 21 'Best in Australia' awards, and three 'Best pizza in Australia' awards at the Australian Fine Food Show.

In 2005, Hugos won 'Best pizza in the world' at the American Pizza Challenge in New York City.

Evans had a monthly recipe column in The Australian Women's Weekly (2009–12) and has been a contributor to Selector magazine.

Beginning in 2010, Evans was a judge on the Australian Channel Seven TV kitchen game show My Kitchen Rules (MKR).

with co-host Manu Feildel.

While visiting Australia for her Oprah's Ultimate Australian Adventure (2011), Oprah Winfrey sent her 'ultimate viewers' for a pizza-making and cocktail class with Evans at Hugos Bar Pizza.

Evans has cooked at several events in the US as part of the annual G'Day USA: Australia Week promotion.

In October 2012, Evans began a monthly recipe column for Home Beautiful.

Evans has stated that the philosophy behind his books is that modern society is living by outdated nutritional precepts.

Evans is also a motivational speaker, performing national tours in Australia.

He first learned of the paleo-diet after reading the works of Nora Gedgaudas.

Some of his claims on fluoride and calcium have been challenged by the Australian Medical Association.

Evans has written the following books, most published by Murdoch Books:

Evans' championing of alternative medicines and "activated almonds" has attracted criticism from peak medical bodies throughout Australia.

In particular, his support for the paleo diet has brought about criticism from the public.

Evans has stated that he completed an online course with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and describes himself as a "health coach" rather than a dietitian.

In 2013 Pete Evans was involved in a venture with several business partners that were reported to owe $769,000 to a multitude of different creditors, including Evans himself.

The fourth series of MKR was shown in 2013.

The show first aired in 2013, in which "Evans takes viewers on a faced-paced trip, serving pop-up feasts in a multitude of settings across America".

In 2014, Evans overhauled the menu at the CBD apartment hotel Fraser Suites in Perth in keeping with his paleo philosophy.

In 2014 the series won the Logie Award for the Most Popular Reality Program.

Evans also hosted the show A Moveable Feast with Fine Cooking, which aired on PBS in the United States, which was nominated in 2014 for a Daytime Emmy Award.

Evans remained a judge on MKR throughout its run, which in 2015 was the highest rated reality television competition in Australia with about two million weekly viewers.

In 2015, Evans co-authored a cookbook titled Bubba Yum Yum: The Paleo Way for New Mums, Babies and Toddlers which raised controversy after being called "extremely deadly for all babies" by health experts.

Despite the controversy, My Kitchen Rules broadcaster, the Seven Network, said that public reactions to the event were not a concern and supported Evans.

Following the controversy, the authors made several changes to the book, but experts noted that the recipes in the new version were still potentially dangerous for babies.

He also won the award in 2015 for "his diet promotions, campaigns against fluoridation and support of anti-vaccinationists".

A spokeswoman for the Seven Network defended Evans saying: "Pete is not anti-vaxx. His position on this, and more generally, is to further his own education on all topics regarding health."

In 2016, Evans gave advice to an osteoporosis sufferer on Facebook to stop eating dairy products.

His claims that the "calcium from dairy can remove the calcium from your bones" and that "most doctors do not know about this" were widely condemned by medical professionals.

In 2017, Evans produced and narrated a Netflix documentary called The Magic Pill, which promoted the ketogenic diet, and claimed that it can help manage autism, asthma and cancer.

In 2018, Evans furthered his opposition to the use of sunscreens, and promoted brief and direct looks into the sun without any means of protection, during sunrise and sunsets, which drew criticism as it can cause vision loss.

In May 2020, Evans' contract with Channel Seven was terminated after poor ratings from the eleventh season of My Kitchen Rules, and the TGA fining him A$25,000 for promoting a device he claimed could cure COVID-19.

Channel Seven has not announced whether Evans would appear on the network in the future.

Evans has stated he will now be focusing on his alternative lifestyle business.

Evans is the first person ever to win the Australian Skeptics' Bent Spoon Award twice, most recently in 2020 when he won for the second time for his promotion of the pseudoscientific non-medical BioCharger for treating COVID-19, and for his promotion of the anti-vaccination cause, through interviewing defrocked medico Andrew Wakefield to discuss his debunked suggestion of a link between vaccines and autism, and his support of the Informed Medical Options Party in the Queensland state election.