Tempura (天ぷら or 天麩羅, tenpura^?) is a Japanese dish of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried.

A light batter is made of cold water (sometimes sparkling water is used to keep the batter light) and soft wheat flour (cake, pastry or all-purpose flour).Eggs, baking soda or baking powder, starch, oil, and/or spices may also be added. Tempura batter is traditionally mixed in small batches using chopsticks for only a few seconds, leaving lumps in the mixture that, along with the cold batter temperature, result in the unique fluffy and crisp tempura structure when cooked. The batter is often kept cold by adding ice, or by placing the bowl inside a larger bowl with ice in it. Overmixing the batter will result in activation of wheat gluten, which causes the flour mixture to become chewy and dough-like when fried.

Specially formulated tempura flour is available in worldwide supermarkets. This is generally light (low-gluten) flour, and occasionally contains leaveners such as baking powder.

Curtis Stone (born 4 November 1975) is an Australian celebrity chef, author and television personality, nicknamed "The Quiet Terminator" by fans following his performance on The Celebrity Apprentice 3.

He was born in Melbourne, Australia. Stone began cooking with his grandmother at the age of five. He attended Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School. His father, Bryan Stone, is an accountant.

Stone was studying for his Bachelor of Business before deciding his heart was in food. He worked at some top Australian restaurants before leaving to work at various restaurants in London. In Australia, he debuted his cooking career at age 18 at the Savoy Hotel. On completing his qualifications as a chef, Stone began cooking in London under Marco Pierre White at the Café Royal and Mirabelle. He went on to become head chef at White's Quo Vadis.

Stone returned briefly to Australia to make the traveling cooking show Surfing the Menu (on ABC TV) with another chef, Ben O'Donoghue.

No stranger to television, Stone had appeared in a number of cooking programs in the UK, including Dinner in a Box, Good Food Live and Saturday Kitchen. He also hosted the first season of My Restaurant Rules in Australia. Beginning in May 2006, Stone hosted Take Home Chef on TLC in the United States, which went on to become an international hit for TLC.