Hi, welcome back to Bounce Forward with me, Tip Paul. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodience of the land on which I'm recording this podcast. The wereundre people of the cooler Nation. I pay my respects to elders past and present. Today on Bounce Forward, we have the wonderful Melissa Leoon. You may have seen her on your TV screens a lot in the past years, from being a judge of Masterschef Australia and now the hosts of Channel
ten's Dessert Masters. She's a TV Week Gold Logie nominated presenter, a food and travel writer MC and a cookbook editor, and she dabbles in BJJ and now she is a guest on Bounce Forward. Welcome Melissa, Melissa. I'm so excited to have you on Bounce Forward. Thank you so much for joining us. I halcome to start with a question, how much delicious food do you think you get to eat on a likely basis for your job?
It depends on the week, and that I know that that sounds like a deeply unsatisfying answer, but it.
Really just depends.
I have the most unpredictable week, So there could be a week where I am in the studio shooting a show that involves food, and then it's every day and it's an abundance and a wealth of experience that comes along with that. And then there are other weeks where I might be at home finishing an article or out on the road or something like that, And I think, then it just becomes a subjective thing when it comes
to what I decide to eat. So there's I think it's more about when I have choice and when I don't have choice, because I'm when it comes to like, when it comes to the standard of food.
I consume, it's.
You know, I have standards, Yes, of course you do.
So we Dessert Masters, for example, Yeah, there's a lot of sugar and like more decadent things. How do you balance a more like a nutrition has diet and how do you work that out amongst work?
That is actually a little bit easier because we know, going into Dessert Masters.
We're talking about the magic of sweets.
We're talking about things that defy logic, that are special foods.
That you don't eat on a regular basis.
And you know, we shoot for about a month, so we know that it's a limited time and we need to kind of keep a little bit of a balance. And I think one thing that's really good is that Amari and I are both very much into fitness and into balancing what we do in the world of food
and how we like to feel in our bodies. So for us, we would always make sure that the other foods that we eat in the day to design to kind of counterbalance and give us fuel and make us feel a little bit more sort of sated and nutritionally balanced, if you like.
Outside of that.
So we're talking grilled chicken, charred greens, sushi, things that just kind of have that good balance of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. And I know you talk about macros a lot. Yeah,
but you know that it's important for a reason. I think there are times to enjoy food and not worry about that, you know, what the calories and the new nutritional panel of it is or anything like that, and then there are other times when we need to just sort of, you know, just calm down a little bit and then think about how we want the food to make us feel in the long term.
Yeah, that's a that's a great philosophy for life.
I reckon, like you know, you can have your treats, but then you know, most of the time you've got to think about your macros a little bit and about the long term what am I, how am I going to feel in the future, and how am I going to be and new fitness goals and things like that totally.
So where does your love of food come from?
Melissa Well, I always like to say it's it's just it's DNA. I'm Singaporean Chinese, so that just means that it's a cultural thing. We are born with a love of food. It's something that's passed down from general to generation. Eating out is a huge part of Singaporean culture. So on the island's very tiny island, but everybody loves to get out and socialize and eat great food. And great food is a really egalitarian pursuit. You know, it doesn't
cost a lot to eat really really well. And I think that that's something that was gifted to me from since before I could remember, and then as I got to learn about food when I was a child, I
discovered that I really love I'm a total feeder. So I really love watching people discover the joy of something new or I'd love to encourage people to try something that they would never conceive of, And I kind of get a little bit of a kick out of seeing people achieve something orld defy their own expectations when it comes to food, and I think that that's just ended up sticking with me and now I get to call it part of my career.
It's amazing. It's amazing. Do you have a favorite dish or a favorite food?
That's something that I get asked all the time, and it's a fantastic question and it's very context driven for me. So when people say, you know, what's your favorite dish, I really struggle to pull out a very simple answer, purely because it's about where you are, who you're with, what's the season, you know, what's available in that part of the world, and that tends to kind of make
my choices for me. So, you know, thinking about to I was lucky enough to go on holidays to southern Italy last year and just you know, going to the market and finding these beautiful, you know, Sicilian olives that.
Were almost the size of small plums.
They were just so huge and verdant and just gorgeous to look at. You know, a hunk of prosciutto, a hunk of parmesan cheese, some bread, some olive oil, and some really really ripe, juicy tomatoes, the kind that you can smell before you And I just bought all of these little bits and pieces, and I just sat at the beach and just kind of I didn't have a knife with me. I just sort of tore it all up and just made a makeshift sandwich out of those things.
And the saltiness from the seawater having a swim and having the salt crystals drying on your face, and the pushutto along with the acidity from the tomatoes, and the you know, the savory quality of the parmesan cheese, that beautiful bread, I mean perfect right.
Oh so that just made me so hungry, Oh my goodness.
So yeah, I think it's a lot about context.
Context. It absolutely makes sense. And you know, even people have asked me that question before, what's your favorite food?
And it is It is about context. Absolutely. Can you tell us what a.
Day in the life is like on dessert masses, like how many meals would you eat in a day?
What is the process like on a show like up.
It's an all singing, all dancing production.
It's a very big day, and especially with something like Dessert Masters, it's a shorter season than Master Chef that goes for months and months, but they're much more concentrated days. So it really depends on the kind of challenge that we have. But because pastry challenges, we need to tend to give people more time to create things, because foods need time to set and to freeze and to do
all of the things that they're meant to do. So we might be setting say a four and a half hour challenge, so there's a lot of there's a lot of a waiting around, and b it's just an exhausting day because it's just drawn out just a little bit longer.
So a day in the life for me on set.
With Dessert Masters would be sort of turning up in the morning round sort of say anywhere between five thirty five forty five six ish, depending on the length of the day, go into hair and makeup. Robe will have been decided and finalize the night before, so we know what we're doing with the hair and makeup to put
on the clothing. We get miked up, and we go through a briefing with our producers to talk about what the challenge is for the day, what the steaks are, what we really need to drive home, what the storylines are, and then we get into the studio and we crack on with the day, we set the challenge, and then usually just before we actually hit the go button, that's when the crew get a little bit of a break.
We have a little bit of a meal.
And I should also say during the briefing is when we'll sort of have a little bit of breakfast or.
Something like that.
And for me, it's usually something very simple, so you know, soft worlled eggs, some avocado, piece of toast, which is something that's going to set me up well for the day so that I don't feel, you know, angry, and then I go and reach for an extra bite of something amazing that's going to feel wonderful in the moment, but then make me feel less able to do my job six or seven desserts down the line. So yeah, so that we have it morning, a little morning break,
and then we go into the challenge. And then during the challenge, Marie and I are either.
Sitting in the.
Control room looking at what's going on on the cameras, or we'll be on the stage talking to the contestants, or we'll be side of stage watching what's going on, so we're always aware of what's happening so that we can jump in and provide advice or ask a question and to sort of keep the show rolling. And that can go on for quite a few hours before we finish,
and that's a purely unbroken challenge time. So if the challenge goes for five hours and we start the clock and we finish the clock and there's no gaps, so you're on that whole time.
Yeah, yeah, so we need to know what's going on.
Yeah, and then after that, the kitchen gets reset, the crew get a break, and then you go into judging. That is a whole other sort of series of setups, and we're tasting the food, we're talking about what we're loving, we make decisions, and then the set gets reset again and then we go and deliver it the you know, the verdict. So it's a lot of chopping and changing and moving around. But the Master Chef crew are one
of the best in the biers. They've all been together for a very very long time, so we feel very safe in their hands in terms of they know exactly what they're doing, and we are just they're along for the ride with them.
Amazing.
It's always really cool to hear behind the scenes of like what happens on television shows, Like a lot of people don't get to see behind the scenes, so it's really cool. What does healthy look like to you, Melissa, in a physical sense and also in a mental sense.
I think that's really astute of you to divide that up into two different things, because of course healthy feels a certain way in the body, and it feels a certain way in the mind, and those two things are really really important for me. If one's not right, then the other's not right, and there's definitely a relationship between the two for me. Physiologically, I feel better when I'm
moving regularly. I feel good when I'm mostly eating a fairly sort of sensible diet, and I kind of I'm not really good with restricting myself, so I'm fairly intuitive with the way that I eat. I tend to kind of gravitate towards what I know makes me feel good, what gives me energy, and then I leave about twenty percent for life and my job and sol.
Those things the soul. Like you need to eat for your soul.
Sometimes you know, especially when you're feeling a little bit hormonal, it's like, don't absolutely don't deny.
Yourself the thing that your soul is asking you for.
I know, like my soul really wanted a burrito last night and if no, and I just have to have a Mexican burrito, and I just had to do it.
It was and that time.
Don't you find that if you go for say the substitute thing, like the healthier option, or oh no, I should have the grilled chicken and not the burrito, it's never going to scratch the itch.
No, and it doesn't go.
Away for me.
It's like if I if I don't have the thing, I will I will think about it and think about it and think about it. So I'm much better off. If I really want the cheeseburger, I'm just going to have the cheese.
We all need. We all need a cheeseburger for our soul.
So really, I'm really happy to hear that you are like eighty percent, have twenty percent treats and work and you know the soul.
That's really good.
I'm going to leave that chat right there and come back with part two very soon. Thanks so much for listening to Bounce for Hey, I love having your company, so please DM me on in Instagram at tip haul Underscore XO and let me know what topics or questions you'd love me to cover. Don't forget to rate and review me on your podcast out Speak soon, Happy days,