It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week Aylight. Welcome back to TV Reload.
My name's Benjamin Norris and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents, plus the talent that we see on our screens. TV Reload reloads the shows that you are currently watching and gives you a better insight at our television industry and streaming services today.
On the podcast, I have.
Max from the current series of mastershef Australia. Max as a testament to one of my favorite theories to never give up and try and try again, as his persistence to getting onto the most successful cookie show in the world is more than at reball and I think a lot of budding contestants would take a page or should take a page from his book or maybe a recipe
from his cookbook. The competition is in its fourteenth series on panele ten and Endibill Shine have served up an impressive cast of fans versus favorites, and this week we well and truly settle into the competition. There is so much to take home from today's chat and I really hope you enjoy us as we unpack Week two on Mastershef Australia. However, let's get started with this week's episode. I'd like to welcome Max, affectionately known as Crap to TV reload.
You've got mates in the kitchen, but you are what is it? What's to say? And keep your friends close for your enemies closer. Muster Sheriff has produced some of the biggest names of food. My dad was actually put forward to go an audition on the show for the.
First time ever. It's funds versus favorites.
I'd love to get on in another season. The most talented team of fans that we've ever found. We were in hysterics. We were crying both times, but for very different reason.
These fans have been watching season after season at Mastersheff and now it's their time.
Yeah. It's a really eclectic dinner to go along with an eclectic group of people.
Hi, Max, how are you?
I'm very well? Thank you, Ben.
You know that was a pretty emotional ride on Master Chef Australia.
We can we start at.
The beginning, Yes, how far back.
Are you going like, mum, who's the magician that they used to say when I was born, David.
Las Vegas King himself.
Anyway, we're going off on a tangent.
So you know you have to talk to me about your first relationship with the show. How did Master Chef involve itself in your life or how did you involve yourself in Master Chef?
Yeah, we're going way back here. Coming home from school when I was probably fifteen sixteen, my favorite thing to do was get home and switch on UK Master Chef. That was probably my first introduction to the show and it was my favorite shong t me. Absolutely loved it. And then when season one came along, my dad was actually put forward to go an audition on the show by my childhood friend, his dad, Marcus Moore, who was
the executive chef at Crown Casino at the time. He was like, I'm not going on the show because they wanted him to come in and audition as a judge actually, but he's like, no, it's not for me, but I've got the perfect contestant for you. So my dad went an audition same season as Julie, but he didn't get anywhere near as far as she did. I think he got a snippet of point two of a second on the televised auditions. So that's my That's my intro to Mass Chef Australia.
And your dad. Is he disappointed that he didn't get on all those years? Are you avenging him?
I am avenging his position in the show?
Now.
Look, I think if the executives had a decision between gorgeous Julie and my dad, I think they made the right call. So yeah, and now going on was a bit of a bit of a family proud moment.
Oh unbelievable.
We won't let him listen to this podcast, though, after you've just made that comment.
He can listen. He knows my stance on it all. He knows how much I love Julie Maas. Welcome back, not your first time in this room.
No, you almost made it last year.
You were so close.
How are you feeling?
Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good. Top twelve. I think we're calling.
It what happened last year though, because you came so close to getting an apron, so you know what was happening there.
Yeah, So last year was an incredible experience. I made it through to the Top thirty six televised auditions, and I cooked a dish for the judges to get into the show, which was a Middle East and inspired lamb ribbed dish. I ended up getting two out of three yes's, but Mel wanted to see a little bit more from me, which I was more than happy to have another chance to cook in the kitchen. And then on the second chance cook, I stuffed it. I completely self sabotaged, detonated.
Thought I could cook a two hour tat tan in forty five minutes, and I came pretty bloody close to actually pulling it off. But there were just five better cooks at that stage. Every one of them deserve their spot ahead of me in the competition.
Do you think the excitement as a true fan does intercept with you, know, your progression or your time on the show. Is there too much of an excitement factor that kicks in?
Yeah, I think so. I think they speak a lot about I think in sports mainly about peak stress versus performance, and you need a little bit of stress and anxiety and excitement to form at a really high level. But maybe too much actually is detrimental, and I think that may have happened in that second chance cook, you know,
having the clock above my head and cooking alongside. I think there was another fifteen at that stage, Like the adrenaline was just insane, and yeah, it can lead you down the wrong path with your thinking, which is something I really wanted to come into this season with and have really clear thought processes and understand that don't try and cook a two hour edition forty five minutes. It's probably not going to work.
I guess the best question to ask you about this is, I mean, you've had the full mastership experience now, so how do you feel, like? How do you feel about that whole thing?
I feel extremely blessed and fortunate to have had the opportunity to come back again like it could have ended last season, but to be chosen as one of the twelve fans we're calling it the top twelve, was a
huge moment for me. And look, I don't know if I would have tried out again had I knock gone on this season, but the perseverance to come back again and again actually get what I was working for is, you know, only reinforces that notion that if you really want something, you don't try until it works.
I love this about you. I loved it right from the start.
I just get knocked back time and time and time again from things, and then the persistence has always led me to my greatest moments, and I think that's so important to teach young people as well. So I think
you should be really proud of yourself. And I want to thank you as well for something you've taught me in the kitchen, which is a strategy of follow the recipe and move on, because I quite often get bogged down in trying to perfect things where I should just be like, right, I've done that, age, move on.
Oh I'm glad. I'm glad that came through because I was thinking about it as well. And I'm not a I'm not usually a recipe guarded cook. That's not what I do at home. But thinking about that, how often do you cook something at home and it turns out perfect the first time? So for me to think that I could make a recreation of Reynold's dish that would have been perfect the first time would have been almost
too much pressure. And seeing it back again yesterday, I'm just really proud of what I put up that first time, and I'm sure if I tried it second, and a third and a fourth. It only gets better and better as it goes.
How much do you appreciate having those, you know, the advice of Andy, Jock and Melissa, Like as a chef in that kitchen, I guess they can only give you little bits of advice.
They can't give you too much advice. But while you're there, how much you're appreciating and listening to every single thing they say?
Oh very much. So Like, that's one of the biggest things that I took away from actually auditioning last season was Melissa saying that, you know, she just wanted to see a little more finesse and refinement from my cooking, And there's something I really worked on and honed over
the year up between seasons. Those three are great, but also having they are judges, so they have to be relatively impartial and they can't give you too much feedback during the cooks, but having someone like chann and Bennett come in and the learning that came from him in one cook in that team service challenge that was just that was insane. Like the guys are one of the top chefs in Australia and was really the tuition that he gave was just invaluable.
You know, it's interesting if someone reached out to me from America. They write for The New Yorker, and they said, amazing, Can.
I ask you a question.
I'm watching this series of Master Chef in America and I can't get over how amazing it is to have the caliber of chefs willing to come in and collaborate, and then also have the fans come in and work with These people have been on the show. And he's like, is this the biggest TV show in Australia Because we Americans would never have the confidence to do something like this.
Isn't that amazing to hear?
Oh, it's absolutely incredible. It's the thing that sets Master Chef apart from aside from other cooking TV shows, not only in Australia but globally. It's the collaboration between well renowned chefs, incredible cooks, previous contestants, you know, flocking to come back. We only just had the allstar season a few years ago, and it's to be part of that now to say I'm part of their Mass Chef alumni. I don't take that for granted at all.
Did you feel like you'd won over one judge in particular more than another.
That's a good question. I don't know. I think out of the three, look considering Mel was one last year that wanted to see a bit more. I felt like Mel and I had some really cool moments through the season of mass Chefs so far, especially the little vegetable number that I did. I think it was episode three called it a sex edition. I was. I was pretty happy with that.
Well, Reynolds desserts are incredible and incredibly hard to recreate. What kind of training can you do before a show like this? Did you have your nearest and dearest set up some pressure tests for you at home?
Yeah, we did a lot of We did some little practice tests, some prack runs at home, but they were mainly just mystery boxes where you know, a friend or my barner would get a few items for me and I'd have to cook something. Trying to recreate a Renold dish that is there'll be ours. That's a lot of equipment. There was a piece of machinery that we used that
was eight thousand dollars. So I don't think we're touching many of reynolds more intricate desserts, but I did try out doing his Snickers tart, which was delicious and worked really well. So definitely some trial and error runs at home, some practice runs at home, but there are just some things that you need to be in the Master Jeff kitchen to do.
Did you swear more at home?
I could feel myself being on a Master Chef kitchen that I would be like, I can't swear.
Yeah, I think they. I think they stopped showing a little bit when some of the twill leaves broke, and I'm pretty sure the next words out of my mouth were.
Some twittlesticks, that's what you should say.
Yeah, exactly, exactly a lot of fire trucks getting thrown around.
It.
What was the biggest take home from this week's pressure test? I mean, the flavor versus presentation debate was definitely on the table. Yeah.
The big take home was to consistently taste and taste and taste your food, and it was something that I was trying to do more and more so throughout the competition, and I'm really conscious effort of tasting as I went
through yesterday. In yesterday's cook the hard thing was to actually try and combine all the flavors and taste them altogether, which was really difficult just with the nature of this cook You had, you know, your sphere, your cubes that need to be done aside, you had your gel inserts. Like a lot of these things you could taste, but
could taste individually. And that's a skill of being able to gen said it really well yesterday, being able to almost store it in your memory and be able to reference back to what you taste and how it worked together. And that's a skill that I really need to work on and refine. Is almost like this memory bank of a palette, which is a really cool thing, but I think it will take years and years to home.
Maximi alone, by saying this, I kind of feel like your Master Chef experience is not over.
I mean, I don't know.
I don't think they're going to bring you back this year, because I mean, obviously you'd know by now. But do you feel like you're going to do another season of Master Chef and are we going to get that progression of your learning ability and do you think that's important?
Look, I'd love to do that. I'd love to get on in another season. One of my very good friends from last season, Connor Current or Creamy confusion, as he likes to be called, that's the brand. Now. I think he's out there campaigning for a duo's Mastereff duo's season, and I don't know if it would be any good or if it would just be a good laugh for a few episodes, but doing something like that would be pretty.
Cool, you know.
The emotional outburst from John was pretty dramatic this week, Fairly dramatic for a Master Chef kitchen. Were you guys told to stay in your kitchens? I mean, why did no one run after him and make sure he was okay? I mean, it was very dramatic the way it played out, But I mean maybe it would have been like high school, but I felt like I would have just ran out after him.
To make sure he was okay. Producers there to say just leave him.
It was. It all happened really quickly, you know, when someone's quite upset and it almost feels like they need a little bit of space to digest it and process what's going on, rather than just going up to them Stralia and being like, are you okay? You okay? You okay? It felt a bit like that. I hope it's all right too, Can you want to be anymore.
Oh, Han, why it's just not.
I just feel like everything I was just not hitting the look. I'm not that's not you should plan. But even in the episode, you could see Manoli wasn't sure whether she should go or not. And that's just because Mel went off straight away. So Mel was really good.
She was the one that just went, you know what, I'm going to go check up on him, so we knew there was someone there with him and someone talking through what, you know, the critique that he had just gone and that he had just received, and probably best with Mel rather than any of the contestants anyway.
Yeah, I feel like I want Mel to be my best friend? Can she not just bear my life? Like, beyond the cooking, she just has an unbelievable warmth and empathy about her.
She's just a really genuine, really nice person.
Being on the show and being a super fan and then watching you know, now you've got this ultimate experience of being able to have watched it for years and then now that you're on it. What was the most exciting parts for you to be having that moment? Wow, I'm on Mastership.
Yeah, I guess for me, there were two moments like a bit of a high moment and a bit of a low. The first episode, it was getting towards the end of episode one and I just wasn't sure if they were going to show my cook and I'd like, I had a really fun time that cook. I had a really positive put up a really positive dish and got some amazing feedback, and as it was getting close and close to the end, I was like, oh God, I just don't know if they're going to show it.
It was just going to break me after so long to not have that dish up there to show, you know, Australia what I made for that first cook. And then it came on and I got some quick feedback and it was all really positive and I was just on the couch and I just like got on the ground and just was very very very emotional with my wife at that stage. And that was a really cool special moment and I was a bit of like, yeah, you
are here, you have done this. And then on the flip side of it, knowing the episode the mystery Box, first mystery box, when I stuff up my annulody and pour water on top of the pasta, knowing that that was coming up and not knowing if they got it on camera, and then seeing that fold out or I poured half a liter of water on top of I already prepared past the sheets and just sing there like you idiot, what have you done? I got the flip side of it, being that person at home being like,
what are you doing? Mate? Haven't you been practicing this long enough? So that was that was a lot of fun, and it was just we were in hysterics. We were crying both times, but for different, very different reasons.
I just love that you have a sense of humor about that stuff, and you've moved on. You can sit there now you got it, and you can watch yourself being a dial.
Yeah. Completely, I think I had the recorder piped out so beautifully on this prepared pass of sheets, and then just a little sabotage was amazing.
Who do you think is going to win? Not who do you think is going to win? Now?
But like when you came out of the competition, so take your mind back to that point. Who was it that you were thinking is going to win this competition?
So I was fortunate enough and I'm still fortunate enough to call Harry, my very close friend. We bonded immediately when we got into the competition over food, but just more so just as people. And she freaks me out the way she thinks about food, like it's something that I can't see, Like I just don't have the palette. I don't I don't have her palette. I don't have her way of looking at flavors and ingredients and coming up with a dish. And that's something that I find
incredibly incredibly. I find it astounding, and I find it incredibly impressive. So yeah, Harry, Harry was my pick at that time. You're like, bring it home, bring it home, and we call it ever since I first should call a cabbage. So I want I want cabbage to bring it home.
I love the nickname.
You know something I ask everyone who joins the podcast is what's something from behind the scenes that we did not see that we won't see that you can reveal as a behind the scenes moment that didn't make it to air.
Of course, Oh that very first signature cook. I'm cooking next to Harry, and she made this chili oil with quite a lot of Chinese black vinegar in it. She made it, she was tasting along the way and I was doing my past the stuff and she's like, Max Quick, how old? She actually said, crap. That's I call a cabbage. She calls me crap, so crap. Have a taste, And
I had a taste. I wasn't expecting it to be as vinegar heavy as it was, and so I took a huge spoonful and then I just like coughed it up and it was coughing for the next ten minutes. Could barely concentrate on my cook because I was just like wheezing. And she thought that it was the funniest thing in the world. So, yeah, it's good to know you've got you've got mates in the kitchen, but you are what is it? What's to say? And keep your friends close, but your enemy's closer.
And just spoiler alert for people because this is a podcast, they can't see this. Your nickname on Zoom is crap.
Yeah, so my surname is Krapivski, which is a fair mouthful. So I just usually shown that, you know, I'm known from school and a high school was crap. And then that goes in with my Instagram handle, which is just M Crap with the K. So yeah, that's that's the
origin of that. But I guess another behind the scenes thing that a lot of the viewers wouldn't get to see ever, is just what goes on back at our accommodation, and every night is just a dinner party with the most eclectic, weird food that are people are throwing out there, and it's just a lot of carbs and a lot of protein, and there's not a vegetable insight most of the time, so you get some pretty pretty interesting combos of you know, Chinese, South American, Italian, Australian sort of
native stuff, and it's a really eclectic dinner to go along with an eclectic group of people.
Everyone says that everyone so far that's come out of the competition that I've had on the podcast talks about that amazing cook that's happening every night. And so I feel like next season there will be a lot of people going through the bins at the back of the accommodation as to where you guys are staying.
I'll be rummaging through there. We'll look to get some left over.
There's a few hoovers in the cast this season. Myself and Daniel don't let many scraps go to waste. So they're not going to find anything there.
There's nothing left. Well I left. I don't think you're ever going to look at leaves the same way again. So good luck with But.
Can I ask you just a quick question before you go we'ren lose. You know, your experience of Master Chef, What did you want to do after the show? Like, you know, had you wan or whether you came out first, where was your mind at, Like, what were you wanting to do?
So straight off the bat, no matter where, no matter whether I won or you know, was the first one out, you need to get some experience and some learnings in the real world. So I would have wanted and I am putting this in place at the moment, but I'm going to go and hopefully have some cooking experience at Pennsylvana,
fantastic Italian restaurant in the Melbourne CBDA. The head chef there, Gab is just a champion and he's been very open with me, and hopefully start that in the next few weeks after mar Chef finale, and then me and Connor are going to do a little short series called Past the Boys, which is going to be highlighting a different past of shape and the sources that go along with that once a month so for twelve months, and we'll
be drinking during cooking and eating as well. And then long term is yeah, once I think I've got the knowledge and the know how, I want to open up a dining bottlow very Australiana sort of vibes the old school, local neighborhood bottle shop and then like a little eating dining area out of the back or the side of that with a short, small chalkboard menu sort of Prisian wine bar esque that highlights Australian food and alcohol.
Thank you so much for joining us on TV Reload.
You know, you were so fantastic on the show and so fun to watch, and so many of us here in Australia will be in your audience to see what you do next.
Thank you mate, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.