It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast past week. Theirlin Welcome back guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part of our home entertainment, and yet very little is known about how our favorite shows get made.
So each episode I've been finding guests the wander dive just that little bit deeper to the shows they're currently making, so that you can hear all their exclusive stories and gain access to the biggest names in Australian television. I want to thank you for downloading or subscribing to this podcast. I love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a review or a comment on your chosen podcast platform.
This episode of the podcast, I'm joined by Artie and Rue, both eliminated from Master Chef Australia this week after two very high pressure tests sent them home. Artie Nevgi is a thirty one year old doctor from Melbourne, Victoria. Artie had always been a passionate cook, but a few years back she was forced to put her dreams to be on MasterChef Australia on hold to work on the front
lines during the pandemic. This season, we saw Artie hanging up her doctor's coat and giving this experience a real shot, and I have to say that she was one of my favorites and I was very sad to see her go. Ruema Pedsi, a twenty nine year old oral therapist based in Western Australia, also set her sights on culinary greatness. RUE very successfully, has already landed a deal with Cole Supermarkets, and after talking with some of the other contestants, I
think she's one miscongeniality of the season. We did see her in that pressure test be only slightly beaten by CAC, but something tells me we haven't seen the last of RUE. You will hear both contestants open up about their time on the show and get more insights into what really went down during production. I will ask them about their highs and lows and if their careers and their health industry have ended to make room for their cooking ambitions.
Artie and I do talk about cooking herbs, and while she might not ever confuse time and Rosemary again, she probably will always be kicking herself when she tastes them. Rub Try talk about her sources that sent her home and also talk about the sources that landed her the
lucrative spot in Cole Supermarkets. Plus, we will get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes of MASTERSHEF Australia twenty twenty three, which is currently on Network ten and you can catch up on ten Play if you've fallen just that little bit behind. Anyway, let's bring Artie into the podcast first and stick around for who will be popping in straight after.
Why how are you going?
I'm really well, I'm very disappointed though, and me too. You know why you were my favorite. I just really loved the way in which you talk, the way in which you articulate yourself, and I just thinking, eventually I'm going to get a chance to talk to you and ask you where that all comes from. Like, your communication skills are just amazing.
Always enjoyed public speaking. I was a drama captain in high school. I'm like, I've always just I don't know, I've enjoy speaking and talking to people and yeah, engaging one of those things I guess.
With casting shows like this, it kind of involves looking for sort of bright and diverse personalities. When you applied for the show, you know, what did you feel like you were bringing to the competition.
I don't know. It's kind of what we were talking about, Like, I do love speaking and engaging with people, and whether that's in person or on a camera or whatever it is, doing audio, doing the voiceovers or whatever it is. I really enjoy that and I think I do have that sort of a presence, so I think they saw that. And then I had the food thing as well, so it all worked out.
Do you get a sense from the producers at any stage what they want from you, like in those initial zoom chats where you're auditioning or as the show's going on, do you kind of feel like they're positioning you in any way or do you get an idea of what they want?
Honestly, no, Like I think they just very much want you to be yourself, maybe you know, a very well presented version of yourself, and they want a diverse cast, so they're not trying to pigeonhole us into a particular way, like you must be like this, or you must say these things, or you must cook this type of food. They very much just want to see what we can bring. And I guess they know that the more natural we are and the more ourselves we are, the better result
they're going to get at the end as well. So I really we weren't given guidance.
I always felt like when I applied for a reality show many moons ago, I remember saying to my partner, I wish they just tell me what they want from me, because I will be that I'll do it, yeah, and then you know, once the show was over, I asked one of the executive producers, like, did you have an idea of what you wanted? And he was like, yes, we did, and you did exactly what we wanted. We didn't have to tell you. And if we told you, it would be unauthentic.
Absolutely, and you'd have to be like putting on your acting it out instead of just being yourself. So I think it's better that I don't know, otherwise I would over analyze it.
What has the audience? What audiences that you've probably seen on the street and your friends and family, what if they wanted to know, Like, I'd love to know what the most common question that you've been getting after being.
On the show.
Yeah, there's so many and things that I would not think to ask are the things that people seem to be like obsessed about, like oh, how long until the tastings? Do you have to stand on the gantry for ages? You know, when it's a pressure test and like stuff that I'm like, wow, is that like your first question? But yeah, those sorts of things are what people get really into.
I always think that though, So hang on a sex So when you're up on the gantry and they're like today's cook is five and a half hours hours?
Yeah?
Yeah, And then I mean, is that why everyone's leaning on that gantry banister the whole time? It's because they're exhausted.
Because we literally can't stand anymore. Yeah.
Surely they get you though, to be like you're allowed to sit down, and they're like, guys, we're going to get a shot of you talking. Can you lean over the bantery?
You think?
But I think because anything can happen in the kitchen at any time. You know, someone you know burns their deersh or what drops it on the floor, So they want us to be always there so that we can react and no matter what happens we're there, and they can get us in a background shot, or they can get us reacting and discussing what's going on on the floor, so we are actually standing for a really really long time. On pressure test days.
I just wonder whether or not like what you're always talking about, because if it was me, I sort of flashed back to what I was, Like it's sport at school, and I was supposed to be playing the sport when I'd be on the field, but I'd actually be talking to like one of the other fielders about like the movies I saw on the weekend, or did you miss home in away or neighbors.
Yes, you know, it is exactly the same because they can be really really long cooks. And yes, sometimes something really exciting happens or something crazy happens and you are talking about the cook that's going on, or you know, what you think about the contestants that are cooking today, But you can't just talk about that for five hours. You do end up just being like, you know, also, what do you reckon you'll do after this? Or like, god, you cook much on the weekend, or have you been
to that restaurant like you do? Because gosh, like you know, there it's hours.
The magic of the show is the connection that you will have with one another, and that that is so authentic. And when you start to hear some of that stuff that you are up there for so long, spending so much time together and sharing so much, it's now not so surprising that we can feel that intensity and the relationship of all of you.
It's a really intense environment, and nobody else understands what that is like except for the other people that you're with. You're spending like you know, too much time, too much time, like an unhealthy amount of time with these people, like you know, twelve hours plus a day with these with these people, and you're all stressed out, and somebody gets bad feedback and somebody gets good feedback, and nobody else really gets how weird that experience is except for the
other people. So you do end up bonding on that level.
And it never goes away, my friend, I'll tell you that much right now. You will think about this in years to come, and people will say strange things about the people who are on the show with and you might have also said them to your partner or to people behind closed doors. But if anyone says anything bad about them, you jump to their defense like this, Yeah.
Exactly right, Yeah, yeah, exactly.
These Caviat pearl taste tests look quite stressful to me because I'm a huge herb lover, so I use a lot of rosemary and time and oregano and dried basil leaves and all of those things. But I make my own Italian herbs as well for when I make my spaghetti, where I don't just buy the mixed version. I sort of mix them myselves because I like but you can get quite confused really easily. I'll be in the kitchen and making my spaghetti and I'll be like, is it
that I'm missing time? Is it that I'm missing this? So I guess that whole test to start with must have been really quite stressful for you.
Yeah.
Absolutely. It was really quite intimidating to walk in and even just see that table, right, Like, we've never seen anything like that before. It looked like a science experiment, you know, tiny little gell beads or pearls that were just the essence of the flavor like nothing else. Didn't smell like anything. Absolutely none of the tastes, sorry, absolutely none of the smell of it, none of the texture, and you know, a slight visual clue with the color,
but otherwise really no visual clues. And it's hard, Like I'll kick myself probably for months now being like, of course it was Rosemary. But it's hard. You've got the judges like just staring at you, You've got lights and cameras everywhere, the clock is ticking. You know, you've got to make a decision, you know, for me, or it was Rosemarie and I said time and I knew it was going to be one of the two. But it's really really hard in that moment to think clearly and rationally.
You do hear about this sort of stuff, you know, right across the board with these sort of flow shows where you know you're constantly being filmed. You hear it with RuPaul's Drag Race, you hear it with Dancing with the Stars, like anything where you're just in a space like that and you can so easily get into your head. You know, sometimes the most simplest of things can seem extremely confusing in that environment.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And it's almost weird to think of with these challenges because obviously the cameras are always on us at all times, whenever we're doing the cook whenever we're in the kitchen, but especially with the taste test, when you're the one person to walk up to the front, it's really like, oh okay, the spotlight is on me now, Like I know, it is like all on me. I can't hope that the cameras are some where else and missing this, Like I know that they are watching me
and they are waiting for my answer. So yeah, pressure is on. And then in the heat of the moment to be like God which like earthy herb am I dealing with here? Like it was tough?
I call it though what's my name again? It sounds crazy to viewers that are watching it from home, but you know it does happen to you.
Absolutely yeah. And I guess what I didn't appreciate until I did the show myself is like, we're not celebrities. We're not trained to be in this environment. We don't This is our first time being on television. It's not something that any of us have done our training in, or have any experience in. So as well as having our food be put on the line every day, we're also kind of learning about like oh okay, that's what
it's like to be on TV. And I wonder how they're going to edit that, And I just made a fool of myself just then. Is that going to be on TV where they edit that out? So all of there's so many layers to being on the show more than cooking, and I think that really adds to the to the fun of it, but also to the intensity of it.
Worrying about all of those things. Did we get to see the version of you that you thought we were going to get to see? I mean, it's very hard because television and especially reality is so strange because we all have an idea of who we think we are for other people, but then when you watch it back and you see it from other people's perspective, sometimes people can be really way off from how other people are reading them.
You know, absolutely, I feel very lucky basically to have been on Mastership, which is a really positive show, and they are not trying to make out anyone to be like the evil one or the you know whatever. They don't try and do that sort of an edit. They're not trying to make it in any way a negative show, and they're not trying to make drama or of you know, oh she's evil and everyone else hates her. There's none of that. They just want to show everyone in the
best light. So I feel really lucky to have gotten, you know, shown on TV the way that I was. I think I came out the way that I wanted to be shown. I felt happy and bubbly and excited to be there, and so I'm really relieved.
I want to ask this before we move away from this herb thing, just really quickly. And I know I'm obsessed with herbs, but I want to know, like this is a common question. Coriander is this herb that really polarizes people? You know, it's a polarizing herb. For me, I love it. I could literally put coriander and everything.
But some people say it tastes like soaps. To deal with that, like, I don't understand, like something so specific that, you know, so many people say it tastes like soap, Like, yeah, what's going on with coriander?
It is a very divisive herb. And I used to be like, it is so racist if you don't like coriander. But it is actually a genetic thing. As I have learned, there is a gene that causes some people for it to taste very soapy and kind of dirty to them, whereas for others, we love that sort of earthiness and bright fresh I don't know whatever deliciousness that it is. So there is some sort of a genetic trait that means that some people just don't.
Like it, unfortunately for them, because I just love it.
Not on everything, but on anything where it will go. I put it off.
Oh you're not on everything, but I mean I do. If I'm cooking four people coming over, I will usually ask. It's something that you'll ask if someone's coming over. You'll be like one of those Corianda people. You know, this challenge, this is something that gets me every time with Master Chef every season. Some of these ways in which we find out who is cooking and getting the black apron
comes down to like a luck and skill test. Do you think that the challenges should only involve skill, because I mean, the luck part of this was that you're choosing which flavors to try. You could be picking all the easy flavors. That's the that's the luck part. But don't you think you should have all been tasting the same flavors and basing it all on skill. What did you when you think about that?
It's a really interesting point. And I think you know, when you're the one to go home, you always replaying and you're like, off, i'd only just stood, you know, one person to the left, I would have gotten that flavor, and I probably would have gotten that flavor, and I would have been safe today and I probably would have won Master Chef. Then, like it's very easy to of course, but at the same time, look, I get why they
do it. I think it was also really important for me to remember that we are making a TV show, and without it being good television, there is no chance for us to ever cook food and then maybe win a quarter of a million dollars.
Right.
There's no like other environment where they're just like, yeah, I'm like cook and if we like it, we'll like pay you keep the money. It needs to be good TV. So I do get why they do it. As we know one Master Chef, a lot of it comes down to luck on the day, not just with the challenge, but you know, you have one bad day, or you didn't sleep well the night before or whatever it is, and the best cooks can go home early. So yes,
it does come down to luck. Yes, obviously it is a very skill based competition, but there's no denying that there is a luck element to it. But that's just the name of the game.
I reckon, but it's still for me, it doesn't land that well. I'm always like, I think we should be testing these people on skill. But you know, in the second round, you all had the same you know, you had seven five minutes to cook a dish fire by color. Again, I was like, oh god, you know this all comes down to just being the unlucky one that gets a bad color. And in my mind, I thought, what would I cook with? What color do I not want? What color do I want?
I know I didn't want green. I wanted orange. I just thought I would have had a lot more to play with with orange. That being said, I think if I had actually executed the dish that I had in my mind, I would have been safe. Like the color green didn't send me home. I just couldn't quite pull it together yesterday. And this dish that I had in my mind that was beautiful and played it lovely and looked great and was you know all of that. I
would have been perfectly safe. I just didn't get to put up what I had in my mind yesterday.
Are you one of those people though, that when you've got something in your head takes you a while to get over it. Because I was watching him in the kitchen and I was relating to that because I was thinking, sometimes when you can be hyper focused on something and then you're being forced to go in a different direction, there's like a period where you're slowed right down because you're trying to that you're trying to let it go,
You're trying to move forward. Is that something that you find that happens to you in real world?
Absolutely, it's like your brain is stuttering and you're trying to be like just move on, like, let's move forward with this. That's easy to say, it's really hard to do because you're in that environment and you're like, I could be going home today, just think of an idea, like give me something, and your brain is just like, you know, the sort of blankness that it takes monks like decades to achieve, and I'm just like completely blank. There's not a thought going on in my hand. So
it's really really hard. And everyone's like, oh, just stay positive and think of something. Yeah, I know, just really tough to do.
Love Rue, but because of the situation, I would have been slightly resentful as well. Did you find yourself being resentful of Rue? Are you we able to let that park go?
Oh?
No, not at all. Rue and I are really good friend. So I even said to her at the end, before one of our names was read out yesterday, I said, this is the worst case scenario. We were roommates and we'd woken up that morning we were this is good, We're going to be fine, We're going to get this like, let's go, and then it ended up with us in the bottom two. So it really could not have gone worse. Miserable turn of events. But you know that's how it is.
Absolutely no resentment, that's just the show. And I was just glad she was safe.
You also put your career as a doctor on pause. And maybe I missed this part, but what sort of a doctor were you? Because I know you've been doing that as your profession for a long time.
Yeah, and this this is my tenth year now. So I specialized in internal medicine, so I'm a physician. I work at a hospital, like at a public hospital at the moment, and yeah, so I just work in that realm. I do love it, and I still love it. But I needed to do this thing in food, otherwise I would have thought about it for the rest of my life.
What happens now, though, I mean, which industry is going to be that well? Which industry has the biggest calling for you?
At this point, it's so hard for me because I think they both give me something that the other one can't give. Like I love medicine, I love working with patients, I love my colleagues, but it doesn't give me everything that I want. I love food, I love how creative it is. I love the people in the industry, but I also miss things about medicine. If there's a way that I can do both, that would be ideal. I still think I've got more to do in food, so I'd love to try and you know, make my way
in that field. But a little bit it remains to be seen.
Maybe you'll start getting phone calls from all the big hospitals, like you know, Monash and whatever. They're all going to start calling because they'll be like, we love that you're a doctor, but you can also cook in the kitchen for the camp.
Maybe the patient's food won't be so terrible.
Maybe not, maybe not? Alrighty, So who do you think is going to win this season? Now? I know you would know more because it's obviously a pre recorded reality show, which you know, but I'd be more interested to know about how you felt coming out of the kitchen when you left. Who did you think was going to win?
It's a really tough one because some of the people that I thought were going to win had already been eliminated. Like I thought Alice was really strong at the start. I know for a fact Antonio has a lot of really strong foundational cooking skills from here on. I'm not just saying this because she's one of my really good friends. I thought ru was really strong. She's really good in desserts, which I think puts you in very good stead in this competition. Brent obviously has come back and was just
you know, doing so well is just a gun. Melissa had the pin at this you know has the pin at this stage, and so you know, I really do think that it's anyone's game, and everyone's got a different skill set. But you know, maybe those are my picks.
But maybe if we narrow it down and maybe not even just who's going to win this, but who out of this season do you think we'll get the most out of the Master Chef experience? Who do you think could take it the furthest in.
Terms of after the show where they Yeah, I mean, it's an amazing opportunity to get picked on a show like this and we all lose.
We've seen contestants before come second and make more out of their experience. We've seen people you know that have been eliminated very early on in a competition and come back for a second series and then won it. Like, there's a very different You don't have to win a reality show to be the best, do you know what I mean?
One hundred percent agreed? Yeah, absolutely, And I think in that realm it comes down to who's a really good cook, but also who has the personality for that sort of a thing. So I think in terms of working in a restaurant, I can see Phil doing really well. He's really committed to the idea. He's had this idea for such a long time, and I know he's been putting in the work ever since his elimination to reach that dream. So in terms of who could really be a chef,
I can definitely see Phil doing it. In terms of media, I think ru has a really great personality. I think she does great on TV. She's got her barbarous sauce in Coles at the moment. She's just a great, lively personality, So I think she'll do really well from that point of view.
Something that I ask everyone who joins the podcast is what is something from behind the scenes, something that we won't see as an audience, but maybe kind of like a behind the scenes secret or you know, and that doesn't necessarily have to give away how the show is made, but yeah, come down to you know, something of a funny anecdote like or something that happened to you specifically.
Oh, that's a really good question. Then well can I go back to the gandry thing on the pressure test days? So yeah, it's literally it's one of the questions that I get asked the most when I am stopped on the street or my friends and they're like, do you stand for half you know, for the whole thing? And the answer is like, yeah, we do really stand for
five hours. We generally get a little break where they will let half of us go off for maybe fifteen minutes just to freshen up, go to the bathroom, grab it by to eat, and then they'll send the other half off so that there is always someone on the gandry to be reacting to what's going on on the floor. But otherwise it's just a really really long day.
When you're doing it, you probably think, God, this is going on forever. But once the whole Master Chef experience is over, you're like, I would love to go back there, Yeah, for another eighteen hours. Come on.
Absolutely, that's exactly right. It's like, oh my gosh, these days go on for ages, but like it's such a once in a lifetime experience that you even those really long drawn out bits, you're just like, I'll do it all again in a heartbeat.
Well, I just want to say thank you so much for chatting with me. It's such a gorgeous person. I absolutely loved watching her on the show. And I'll continue to be in your audience, whether you know you're a doctor, whether you're a chef, whatever it is, I'll be there.
Thank you so much. Yeah, absolutely, keep following me on Instagram. I'm going to be posting things all the time still. So yeah, thank you to you, Thanks to all of the fans who have messaged me really appreciate it.
You could probably tell that Artie was one of my favorites. She was really sweet to catch up with and it was interesting to hear what her time in the Master Chef kitchen meant to her. Now we have Ru popping into the podcast, and I think you will really love her infectious way of talking about food and will also get some of those insights into what her time on Master Chef Australia was really like, Hi, Rue, how are you are you well?
I am well, I'm alive, I'm happy.
Well. It's kind of strange because you guys have to wait for so long to see this show because it was, you know, filmed a while ago. You kind of would have this anticipation of what has been inside your head over the last few months and then wondering what was going to be shown on television.
To be fair with.
You, I actually did not remember anything about that elimination day except me walking up so I could remember.
So I was like, what did I say? Like? What did they say to me?
There is always that bit of anticipation where you're like, did I say the right thing?
Did I like? Did I say something? Wild.
But look, I've been really happy watching myself back.
Do you know what I also think is amazing is I love Melissa Leong's ability to use words that I don't know but I totally understand, and I have to agree with her that you have this amazing incandescent smile start.
Thank you you two kind.
So you were sharing your room with ARTI this season, who I love. But was it strange that, considering you both roommates, that you've both gone home back to back.
Look, I don't how that happened.
I actually don't know how that happens because in a funny and weird way, I also used to.
Hang around Turnia end Ralph a lot.
So Antonio, Ralph I and myself used to hang around each other a lot, and it's been Antonio, Ralph, Ardie then myself to go.
It's weird. It really is weird.
But like you know, when your day comes and it's not your day, it's just not your day.
Have you both stayed in contact? I mean, are you still in contact with Ardie? Have you been able to hang out since the show?
When I left, I.
Had already left, But we've become the bestiest of friends. I have seen her a few times when I went back to Melbourne for my bab Ruth, so as I did see her, I have met her partner hopefully since I meet her family. But she's become one of my closest friends, along with Melissa and Rhannon.
You know, with you and Kac both being in the in your first elimination cook together and Melissa having a pin to play, it was a really tough situation for you to be in. Did you have any idea how that was going to play out? I mean I would have assumed Melissa was going to play that pin regardless, and then did you have any idea who would be the winner? As you were cooking out of you and Cat.
Look, then if I was in Melissa's position, I would have played that pin in the first minute. As soon as I saw that dish, I'd be like, yeah, I gonna take my feet.
I am not doing this.
You know, she wants to kept the experience of cooking the food. I mean, wouldn't you cook the wouldn't you attempt it just so that you could be busy, so you not just standing up there on the gantry doing you know, I feel like you want to try it and then you know, get as close to it as possible and then play the pin.
Going into the cook, I already went in thinking it's just between Cat and I because I knew malhead the pin and I didn't want her to feel some type of way about playing the pein or anything. I was like, go, you do what you need to do whenever you feel like it's.
Right, And during the cook I felt quite comfortable.
I think the will started falling off when I taste the that sauce and I realized that it was a bit salty and I was trying to balance it.
I did balance it.
Then I had to start catching up with everything ended up missing the row I view. So I kind of prepared myself for either ways, because.
You never know.
You might think you've done well, but you don't know how anyone else is going. So I prepared myself for either outcome. I would have loved to say, I'm not going to lie, just was not meantity.
Did you work out whether or not if Melissa had been competing with that dish? Do you think that she would have needed to use the pin? I mean, I think that's what everyone wants to know.
So when I gave Melissa a hug after she played her hin. I actually whispered to her, I don't think you needed to play of him, because she's really good at pressure tests. She's really good at cooking really well at the high pressures circumstances. And I've seen her do a few pressure tests whilst I've been up on the gantry, so I was thinking, oh, my gosh, you in front of me.
I could tend to see you from my pery peral vision. You seems to be going really well. But I think for her, she just kind of felt like you never know.
You might think you've done well and then you don't believe the pin and you walk up those doors with the pin. But I personally feel like she could have kept her immunity pin for another cook.
I really did feel that. I also felt, and I wanted to ask you, is Kac's accent getting stronger to you as the season goes on? I don't know, what do you think?
Where she's exactly the same to me, like she how she founded when we started and how she sounds now, it's exactly the same.
It just I don't know. It's just two particular things stood out, and that was Cac seems to be. Her accent is twice as strong as when the season started, and Declan's jacket was a sign of him peacocking in this competition at this point because that jacket, my friend, was lovely hashtag hideous, and I think it was a way of standing out, you know, because he's doing well.
Maybe he'll be going to host The Bachelor after.
I could see him doing that. I think he'd be good. I think he'd be really good. And no shade to him as well, because I've also got hideous jackets, so I'm not trying to be mean to him.
They think he's really proud with how he dresses.
Yeah. Yeah. And you know what's really funny about us talking about other contestants is how popular that you have been. When I've spoken to these other contestants, are you aware of the fact that you're basically this year's miscongeniality. What everyone's like. They love watching you on TV when they play it back, they love cooking with you, they love that all of them have have talked about it. They're obsessed with you. Girlfriend, I was there.
I actually really am obsessed with everyone.
So I'm really humbled that people have that much nice seas to say about me. Look, everyone was so ugly during the competition, and I'm pretty sure I'll be taking to pretty much everyone for the rest of my life, I hope.
Well, if they can have me.
Well, you're already kicking goals. You've got all these new friends, You've got your barbecue sauce in the coal shells, which is unbelievable. Do you think that this mastership experience is going to help you now get more of your products into other supermarkets around Australia.
Look, that's the hope.
I hope the barbecue becomes a staple at Coals because people have received it really well. Look, if anything, this experience has really showed me that anything is possible. I think when I first got in there, I never thought I could have a product in coals, And all of a sudden, I have a bottle.
With my face in coals And it just.
Shows you that, like you know, like you actually don't know what the world has to offer you until you step out into the world.
Well, I'm going to go out and buy it and make sure that it's not just a limited product. I think it should stay there. We need the staple, we need your gorgeous face in the supermarkets. It's got to happen.
We're not to see you with your little shrine.
It's on.
You know.
What's so this is this is something really gross to confess to you. But my partner and I we love lasagna, and we make like your traditional lasagna. We put barbecue sauce all over. It is that gross.
Look, I don't think that's the grossest thing of head. I don't think it is. I don't think it is.
Because I have seen I have seen someone putting the sauce that I made, or cheese and crapets.
Oh okay, so that'd.
Be like, Okay, that's interesting. I'm going to have to try that.
So I think lasagna and barbecue sauce, I think that's that's next.
Well, you're going to get a photo on your Instagram in the next couple of days. It'll be your sauce on some leftover lasagna, just to promote the sauce and to promote.
The I told you after that.
What did you actually want from this Master Chef experience? I mean you've really swapped, you know, working in the health industry to coming in and doing your cooking. You talked about when you're coming out of the competition last night, that you know, this was just a part of the process, Like what's next, Like what are you going to be doing?
Very good question. I really love pastry. I've grown to love pastry in the last maybe year and a half two years, and I have been reaching out to a few petiserie places, and I've also reached out to Britz Carlton and Common Treasury in person just to see if I can do a beautiful experience in their pastry section,
their high Tea section, a pup my pastry skills. I'm doing a little close on pastry so that I can really know how to formulate my own recipes and also like you know, branch out into like diet friendly stuff like silly at friendly, vegan friendly stuff, and just be a bit more inclusive in the web.
That I do.
I already do my churns and the sell really well. And I plan on continuing. Do I plan on being back to work? Probably not.
I love being home.
And I'm hoping like maybe in the near future I can have a little cafe, maybe a little gizzit bar, where people can come and have some French pastries, have a cup of coffee, have a cup of tea, and like, you know, just catch up with friendss.
I want to ask you about Claire Smith because Claire Smith, you know, I had known of her work. I knew that she had the restaurant on care and you mentioned that you're a big fan. What had been your relationship with Claire prior to this? You know, had you just seen her on TV? Had you been to a restaurant? What was that like?
Look, I have not been to any of Klass restaurants, but I had seen her on previous seasons of Master Chef, and so I have just been a long time fan of Claire Smith. I follow her on Instagram, I probably like every single days, and when she walks through those dose, I was like, I have my web cut up for me, but I'm glad it's blessed myths.
Have you actually tried to recreate it? Because you know, the beef and oyster dish, to me was just really overwhelming. I looked at it straight away. I could see by the faces on all three of you women. I was like, oh God, that looks like a really hard dish to make. You know, you left an element out of the dish. But what was the hardest part to make look the hardest.
Part, I would have to say it has to be the sauces. The saces just needed a little bit of a barbaru. I'm joking the sauces.
I think, you know when you're trying to recreate sauces and it's kind of like like you know, you're seasoning to your taste, but it still has to be as close to the original as possible. And I think I really tried my best, but it just was not enough for that day.
I don't This happened to me the other night while I was cooking and I realized what I was making was too salty, And I then thought about you, because I was like, you'd made this dish. Spoiler alert, I watched the episodes in advance, so i'd seen this all happen on the weekend. Anyway, Monday night, I was cooking my dish and it was too salty, And then I was like, how were you supposed to reduce How are we supposed to reduce the salt? Or if you had more time, how would you do it? Would you just
start again? Or is there a way of reducing the salt when we're cooking?
So vinegar apparently is a major career.
Okay, vinegar, you know what I wish I had thought of that during my mystery box. I could not think obviously, I was having a little bit of a head boo boo. But vinegar is magical. When I put that vinegar in that sauce, I was just mind blown at the drastic difference you could taste.
It's just drastic.
And honestly, if anything I have learnt something that vinegar can reduce saltiness.
Well, now try that I have the vinegar in the pantry, and I'm sure it would. I mean, it sounds like when I talk to people from Master Chef Australia, I talk a lot about my cooking. It makes it sound like that I'm some sort of crazy chef in the kitchen on the show. No I'm not at all. I honestly, I have the worst anxiety watching this show. I have no fingernails just watching it on TV. So no way.
So anyway, what I was going to say was I was making a ministrony soup, so nothing too fancy, but I realized that I'd put too much truffle salt into it, and yeah, I didn't know how to I didn't know how to come back from that. You know, the applications though. We should talk about this because applications are now open. Have you got any theories on what they might do with the next series? Because this was secrets and surprises. I wondered why you were cooking, whether you could hear
them talking about it. Do we have any idea what they're going to do with Master Chef Australia next year.
Look, I have no clue.
I had no clue what I was doing on the show, so I would not have had anything about anything else. If you want to go next season, if you love food, do it, absolutely do it. I think I thought I was not ready. I thought, oh, look, you just need to wait a little bit and get better with your cooking.
You actually learn things as you go.
This is like once in a lifetime opportunity where you are away from distractions and you can really focus on your passion and your laugh for food and you just get better with doing it. The judges are such great mentos and they really guide you in the right direction. Look, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. If anyone loves food, anyone who's listening to me, if you love food, You're passionate about food.
Just do it. You will not regret it anyway.
Before you go, I have to ask you, what is something from behind the scenes, something that we did not see. They're kind of like a behind the scenes secret. You don't have to reveal anything that's going to get you into trouble. But what's something fun that happened for your roue while you're making the show?
Okay, so I'm pretty sure there's about a thousand photos of this. I slept every minute and got any time we had off, whether it was five minutes.
I managed to speak.
You a quick nap if you talk to Antonio, if you talked around, if you talk to like literally everyone, everyone has at least five pictures of me taking a nap. And sometimes it's just like a quick toilet break. They're like, okay, you have ten minutes go to the toilet. I'm like, okay, ten minutes. Let me just quickly close my eyes and I have managed to nap.
An you mean that I got?
You know, I love a good nap and my friends think I'm like a cat because I can literally lay down at any time and go straight to sleep.
Like that's literally mean, give it in the bath.
I'm like, rue, Can I just say it was so much fun to catch up with you today. You are so much fun. I'm going out to get the barbecue sauce and sending you that photo of my lataignare on Instagram and just enjoy this experience after mastership. I mean, what does it they say the world is your oyster or the world is your steak in look