A-list Confidential: Private chef Aaron Teece discusses working for Tom Hanks on the Gold Coast

Tom Hanks has quietly wrapped filming Elvis and left Queensland, and now a renowned private chef has revealed what he prepared for the star during his Gold Coast stay.

Hollywood star Tom Hanks enjoyed home-made Australian meals by a renowned private chef during his lengthy stay in Queensland.

Confidential can reveal the Academy Award winner wrapped his part in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie this month and quietly left the Gold Coast to return home to the US before Christmas.

He had spent the past four months living in a luxury high-rise apartment on the Gold Coast with sweeping beach views, while dining on meals cooked by Australian chef Aaron Teece.

“I was working as his private chef so usually just home-cooked meals after a long day at work,” Teece told Confidential.

“He tried most iconic Australian foods. (He) loves a good home made meat pie, loves Vegemite and now Oomite too.”

Chef Aaron Teece with Tom Hanks in his Gold Coast apartment. Picture: Instagram

During his stint on the Gold Coast earlier in the year, Hanks was respectfully corrected for the amount of Vegemite he put on his toast while in self-quarantine, during which he shared a photo of a thick layer of Vegemite on toast.

He later tweeted that he had “learned not to spread my Vegemite so thick”.

At the time, before COVID-19 paused production of Elvis, Hanks was regularly spotted out-and-about dining on the Gold Coast and snapping photos with locals.

Teece said when he returned in September and was often recognised in public, he opted to work with a private chef instead.

“It was all long hours at the studio and unfortunately due to being harassed by the public every time they left the apartment they chose not to go out if it wasn’t essential,” he said.

Teece shared a photo during the week with the actor and his daughter Elizabeth Hanks, after the pair had returned to the US, describing them as “legendary”.

“You are all by far the most humble, friendly, easy-going clients I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Thank you for welcoming me into your home,” he wrote.

Teece, who spent his formative years in Brisbane and now runs Sydney’s Studio Neon Catering, was previously Lady Margaret Thatcher’s private chef, and cooked for the Queen as well as many UK celebrities such as Kate Moss and Keira Knightley, during his stint in London.

IN HARMONY

After the global pandemic threw their world into chaos and brought them back to Brisbane, Sofia Troncoso and Dane Lam decided elope at the Brisbane registry this month.

The couple – Lam an internationally acclaimed conductor and Troncoso an American opera singer – lost all their work due to COVID-19 and spent months in lockdown in London before deciding to return to Brisbane to be close to Lam’s family.

Dane Lam and Sofia Troncoso eloped in Brisbane. Picture: Supplied

“After surviving a time of such uncertainty and making so many sacrifices together and for each other we decided we wanted to make it all official,” Troncoso said.

“We were already engaged and planning to have an international wedding on Straddie (Stradbroke Island) with my family from the USA and our friends from the UK but those plans were stifled by the pandemic. In the end we decided to tie the knot at Brisbane registry to secure our future together.”

The pair met in London when they were both expats, Lam from Australia and Troncoso from the US, working in the opera industry.

Two mutual friends independently wanted to set Lam up with the American soprano.

“One of them planned a group outing to Wigmore Hall to support a few of our friends competing in the Kathleen Ferrier Prize but really she just wanted to set Dane and I up,” Troncoso said. “We all ended up at the Chiltern Firehouse and the rest is history.”

They had a casual ceremony with friends and family.

They then followed each other around the world for various roles across China and Europe.

Now settling for a longer stay in Brisbane, Lam has a new role as associate music director and resident conductor at Opera Queensland while Troncoso will take a lead role in Opera Queensland’s The Marriage of Figaro next year.

FILM BUZZ

Wolf Creek star John Jarratt has been back in Queensland, shooting a new film that’s being described as an Aussie take on the smash hit Guy Ritchie crime caper, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

The movie, Double or Nothing by local director Dru Brown, began production as filming on The Possessed – a new horror flick starring Jarratt, former Bachelorette Angie Kent and Lincoln Lewis – wrapped up on the Gold Coast earlier this month.

Scenes from Double or Nothing were also shot on the Goldy, with locations including Currumbin and Miami.

Erin Connor and John Jarratt for Double or Nothing. Picture: Supplied

Jarratt – unsurprisingly – plays the bad guy in a cast that includes local actor Erin Connor, who featured opposite Ken Jeong and Temuera Morrison in Occupation: Rainfall.

Connor, who plays a “bad-ass Sharon Stone-like character” in Double or Nothing, said these types of films were helping to sustain the Queensland film industry during COVID.

“It’s been a tough year for film and television, but I’m so confident that our passionate and resilient filmmakers will come back bigger and better than ever before,” she said.

Griffith University film school graduate Brown directed the 2014 cult hit Suicide Theory, which won the Grand Jury prize at LA film festival Dances with Films and Melbourne Underground Film Festival.

Double or Nothing is due for release mid-2021.

SWIMWEAR STAR

Brisbane swimwear label BlackMilk has teamed up with influential Aussie model Stefania Ferrario on a new summer line.

Having worked with the brand for two years, the 27-year-old Melbourne Fashion Week ambassador, who has 1 million Instagram followers, helped design the pieces with the Brisbane retailer over video calls earlier this year.

“I have always adored their pieces and designs,” Ferrario said. “I told them about the specific features I look for in a bathing suit. It was very exciting to see all those elements I’d put forward come to life.”

Brisbane swimwear label BlackMilk teamed up with Melbourne-based model Stefania Ferrario for a new collection. Picture: Supplied

Ferrario previously teamed up with Ajay Rochester on the campaign “drop the plus” in 2015 in a bid for the industry to no longer classify models as plus size.

In designing the swimwear, they attempted to create shapes that would suit different bodies.

“My main goal is to normalise different bodies, and using terms such as ‘plus size’ only seek to enforce the idea that certain bodies are not normal and in this case that they are ‘bigger than’ a perceived norm,” she said.

“Young impressionable girls may be psychologically affected seeing a model their size being labelled as ‘plus size’. This was apparent in the countless comments left under articles or social media posts by females; ‘If she is plus size what does that make me?’”

EVENT OF THE WEEK

Fans young and old of Emmy Award-winning children’s TV series Bluey, including Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young and Dame Quentin Bryce, were thrilled to see the Queensland Heeler family come to life on Tuesday at the official world premiere performance of Bluey’s Big Play The Stage Show at QPAC’s Playhouse Theatre.

Bluey’s Big Play runs in a strictly limited season until 10 Jan 2021

GUESS WHO DON’T SUE

Being on tour or working in a different country can be lonely for anyone, particularly for eligible bachelors. For any eagle-eyed Brisbane singles out there looking for a match, Confidential spies spotted an actor currently in Brisbane filming a high-profile project on a prominent dating app. A pair of tennis players training in the city for the upcoming tennis season were also spied looking for love on the app.