It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week, Neylight.
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 mastershef Australia's latest
eliminated contender. It's our gorgeous indigenous goal Mindy. This season, we've been lucky enough to welcome back some of the most powerful cooks ever seen on the hit reality show, and Mindy has been building her story ever since we last saw her in twenty twelve. Mindy has a special connection to our country and this year she has brought more than just her food to the competition. Her powerful presence allowed her to influence her rivals and the positivity
in her mantra has been simply inspiring. We will talk culture and the importance of food. What Mindy has planned for the next generation who she would like to see when and how the return to home country in Byron has been so important to her story. However, let's get started with today's podcast. I'd like to welcome Mindy to TV Reload.
Those pressure tess are just beyond belief. Massa Sheff has produced some of the biggest names in food. God, I would love to see her holding that trophy above her head.
The first time ever. It's fans versus favorites.
I forget the recipe in the end, I was just like, I've just got to get this done. Thanks Mindy, We're going to cut this bad boy open and give you a taste. All Australians deserve to feel like they belong. Sorry, Minnie, unfortunately you're going home, beautiful, bright future head for all.
Of us time.
Indeed, jinkuila jingi wala, I'm well, how are you?
I'm doing so well. You know, so much has happened since twenty twelve when we last saw you our Mastership Australia. We didn't even have marriage equality and here you are married in twenty twenty two.
Is this crazy?
It's amazing? Hey, ten years I mean, look at technology, Look at equality, look at so many things, look at native foods. You know what I mean. Like time is an incredible thing because it gives us the gift of acknowledgment. It gives us the gift of reflection. And as crazy as the last few years have been in COVID, what we have learned is the most special thing in our world is our people, our loved ones, and this incredible country we are so lucky to hold home.
Well, what do you think has changed the most for you? Though, in the last ten years, I mean ten is a long time.
I have done so much in ten years, you know, Like I have started working in restaurants. I've run restaurants, I ran a restaurant group for a few years. I traveled overseas for all my twelve months with my beautiful partner, and then when we got back marriage equality happened and we got married within six weeks of that happening because we were just so excited about it. And now look at me. I've got a beautiful little restaurant. I've returned to country, and I'm connecting with my mob and my
culture and it's such a great time of life. You know, I feel so lucky to be back home, to be connecting with this and sharing our rich indigenous culture with the rest of Australia.
Oh, it's so amazing.
And you know, I thought, watching the three of you girls last night, I just thought it was so amazing to see such beautiful women but also such intelligent women that represent so much, and the three of you, for me, have carried so much of my enjoyment of this series.
Was it intense to be in a pressure test with Julie and Billy? My god, you know what I mean?
Those pressure tests are just beyond belief. Unless you've actually been in one, you cannot describe the amount of intensity and pressure and stressed places on everyone and watching it throughout the competition because I've never been in a pressure test before. The week before so I had my first two pressure tests. I went out on my second, but I just saw the amount of stress and pain it was putting people through and I thought, you know, guys,
this is not what food is about. So I got the girls together and I said, you know, let's make this about us today. We're great, strong, powerful women. We know how to cook. They're going to throw something crazy at us, but let's band together, bring our strength, stand in our power, and let's give them hell. And you know what we did that We had so much fun.
It dissolved the stress completely within the set and you've got a sense of it, like it was almost like Jock was a little bit shocked about how powerful and strong we felt and that presence that we created, and it was so uplifting and that is what food is about at the end of the day. So it took the pressure out of it. We just really reined it in and we gave it all. And my god, we gave them hell. It was so much fun, it really was.
The pressure test gives me so much anxiety, even before those nervous violins start playing, which obviously you know, get put into production later on. Like imagine, though, if you were doing those pressure tests and they had like an orchestra there to do those violins while you were cooking.
Can you imagine?
I wish they did have a soundtrack because I'm all about the good vibes and dancing, and I would say to the gantry, I was like, give me some good vibes and would be down there, would have a bit of a boogie and get into a groove because you know, you've got to have fun with it. You've got to embrace it, you've got to kind of absorb that energy.
And converting that negativity and that stress into something so positive is such an important thing to do, and I hope that comes across on screens because God, we're all under so much pressure these days, aren't we in this modern world? And if we can find ways of actually converting that that negativity and that pressure into something really positive, I think we're going to be onto something really good.
So I'm all for just embracing it, giving them hell, having fun with it, and creating some really beautiful experiences for everyone.
You just radiate, You're radiating. You're operating on a higher frequency than most people. And I have to ask you, you know, where do you get this positivity?
Where does it come from?
Baby? I'm on country. You know, I'm lucky. I'm a very high energy person anyway. But i feel like I've got so much to share and I've got so much to give, and I really want to share that with the rest of Australia and abroad. And when I'm kind of winding down at the end of the night, I you know, I put my feet in the sand, I go down to the beach and that really does heal
and rejuvenate me. And I really encourage everyone to get out on country and get those experiences, because life is a blessing and we are so lucky to call Australia home. And the more that we embrace what's around us and this incredible country and the gift that it is, you know we're going to have a really special future together as a united country.
I know that.
Well.
I have to say, oh my God, to start with, because that cake. I don't know whether or not you end up hating that cake, but as a viewer, I ended up hating that cake. Might have been delicious, but I ended up just looking at it the whole time and feeling like it.
Was a curse.
Did you know that that cake might be something that could send you home as you were cooking it?
You know, I didn't. It didn't even cross my mind. I was just so in the zone. And when I looked at it for the first time, I couldn't believe it was actually food. It was precise, it was perfection. It looked like velvet. It looked like black velvet, looked like a fabric that was just ready to be like
wrapped around someone. And then of course you cut into it and there's layer and layer and layer of like sweet terror and I just thought, my god, chocolate tempering, chocolate moose, chocolate spray foams, Oh my god, how am I going to do this? And I didn't actually think I was going to finish that in that very short amount of time, and you probably should. Right at the end, it was chaos. We're running and we are sprinting, and we're just running and at libbing. I forget the recipe.
In the end, I was just like, I've just got to get this done. And I was so proud that I plated every component up, so proud. I mean I had a fingerprint in it at the end, which was like a total shame job, but played it and it was a very close kind of representation of what person had to actually presented to us. And you know what, I'm mad enough that I'll actually make it again because it did taste so damn good.
Maybe that you've just started thing.
You know, the new way that chefs leave a signature of what they've cooked for you is they leave a fingerprint in the food.
I don't know, I don't know if it's going to take off.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure if the guests are going to love that scene dirty fingerprints all over their things, but you know it might be something in a piece of art in that How.
Do you unpack and get over a master chef hangover? I mean, I heard you preempt the trip back to the beach to put your feet into the water. But I can imagine this experience is all encompassing and really hard to shake at the end of it.
How did you go?
Look, it's all consuming. I think the biggest thing was actually coming home and feeling what a sense of actual normality is. It takes time to read just being back with your family. You know, I've been down in Melbourne kind of live in this separate life from my partner and my family, and you kind of feel like you live in this single life, which is really crazy. To come home, adjust to being together again, understanding how to function as a person and as a couple, and then
as a business owner. It's crazy. And then not to be seeing my bestie is like Sarah and Aldo every day I was getting like separation anxiety from not seeing my mob, you know, like they've become so part of my life, and I'm lucky that we're so connected that you know, I'll be catching up with next week and we plan to do trips together and travel to India and Italy and eat with our families. So it was a lot to adjust to, but I know that there's a beautiful, bright future head for all of us.
It's like a really weird factory reset with your partner. Like I know, with my partner, he goes he's family and Bendigo, so he'll often go to Bendigo without me, and when he comes home, you kind of have to break yourselves back into the routine of being together. As much as you love them and I love him, you know the rules that have have to be re established again.
It's a strange, really.
True, And it is strange because you're so comfortable with each other and you love each other to death, but then you realize all those little kind of intricacies of yourself and your partner that suddenly come to the surface, and you've got to be really mindful and respectful of not compromising that because you know you want your partnership flourish and you want yourself to flourish in your relationship,
but it does. It does take time to readjust and to get back into that that mojo of your relationship, that's for sure.
I tell my friends that I have to rain him back in, But that's not a good trait. That makes it sound like I'm some sort of controlling person.
In a relationship, you know. But I'm like, I got to I reckon.
It might be you that needs raining in, and it's certainly me. My partner, Shall says, Oh my god, you were so exhausting. She said when you and he I would actually sit on the couch and just watch TV. She said, when you were here, you were like a whirlwind. You do not stop. And He's absolutely right. So I've got to find a way of winding it down and dialing it back a little bit so i can actually have a bit of downtime with her.
And I think, as well, you know, you're somebody who sort of believes in the universe and things happen for a reason. Was it strange to see? I mean, is that sort of the reason as to why you saw Aldo go home and then you came you left straight away?
You know?
Was it because you guys were so in sync that that was the mastershift journey for you both.
You know, to be honest, I had a sense that it was my time. I really had a sense of it. I thought, you know, like you kind of get to this space and when you're quite an intuitive person and you feel like a greater sense of connection. I kind of knew it was my time. And I kind of knew that it was time for me to get to back to country and to be doing things, and to be honest, going home just after Aldo and going off the back of a crazy challenge like a Curson Tiole's dessert,
it felt right in a weird way. I just knew it was my time. And that's why you kind of have to embrace those things. I know that the universe has a story for you, and the universe has a way of giving you and providing you what you need. And I know, I mean already great things are happening from that experience. It's not just about being at the top. It's not about the win. What I have won is
a connection to my country and my culture. What I've won is these incredible friendships and I know that I'm going to have for a last like a lifetime, and that is so much more valuable than two hundred and fifty grand in the bank. Even though that would be great for an awesome holiday somewhere, Master Cheff provides you so much, many more riches than than a bank check at the end of the day, it really does.
It's a reality show that there's a feast for the audience in you know, a great turn of phrase because of the food and a feast, but also it is such a long journey and it is something that you can really sink yourself into. And I don't know how much TV you watch, but do you think that Master Chef is the reality show with the best representation of Australian diversity?
Yeah? Well absolutely, And how important is it? I mean to be honest, Every production is so responsible and they should be accountable for diversity and inclusion. That is what we're built on as a nation. We are multicultural. We want to embrace that and celebrate that and make sure that everybody feels that they are represented on our TV screens and that's what it's all about. So I love the fact that we're seeing that more and more, you know,
and we need that to continue. We are heading in the right direction, but we've got a long way to go, and it really is in the hands of the networks and the powers above to make sure that stuff happens. And it only in riches us, It only makes us better, stronger, and it all, you know, just helps us buy together as a community. So I love it because food is powerful. It's incredible catalyst for change, and I want to see more of it. I'm hungry for it.
You know what I'm hungry for is reality shows where you're just so invested. Did you feel quite proud to be a part of a show that you know could be engaging and great for the audience without having to draw upon conflict.
Absolutely, And that's I mean, that's not what food is about.
You know.
Food is actually about bringing people together and connecting, and to have it tainted by negativity would be to the detriment of the show, and it would be to the detriment of the viewer. What we want to see and we need to see more of, is positivity because it's out there. What we want to see is people supporting each other in a genuine way, because it's out there and it's what we should be encouraging. I want our kids and our young ones to feel proud of what
they're seeing on their screens. I want them to feel proud of who they are and where they come from and that beautiful food culture that is so important to all of us. I want to inspire all the strains, and especially the young ones, to be the best versions of themselves and to be proud of who they are, whatever color cast, whatever your you know, however you identify, be proud and stand strong, stand in your power. And that's what a reality TV like Master Chef is all about.
How's it going in Byron Bay. I think it's the most perfect place for you. It's just listening to you. I'm like, did Byron Bay find you? What did you find?
Barron Bay? Like, I think it's.
Yeah, Well this is country for me, babe. I'm lucky. This is ancestral land. My ancestors have been here for sixty thousand years and I feel connected to it. You know. I'm lucky that I get to spend time with my elders. They teach me the stories, and this is so much
more than a place to holiday. You know. Barron Bay's traditional name is Kavin Bah and that means meeting place, and our mobs used to come here to connect, to trade, to like share stories, have ceremony, to harvest food and to share and that still happens to this very day. So our dreaming continues and I want to welcome all Australians into that experience because it makes this place so much more special and so much more rich when you connect with the knowledge systems that have been here for
thousands of years. And my god, it's a special place, it really is.
That kind of makes me feel like, do you want to chase the zach Efron's and the Chris Hemsworth out of town or no.
Everyone's welcome. Everyone's welcome in Byron Bay. That's what it's about. It's a bit of a transient place. We have the locals, we have the people that come and go, but this is a place for healing and connection and you know, I know that people get that when they come here, and the fact that they get to come and now eat native traditional foods that come from this landscape as
well with something really cool and special. But that's going to happen all across Australia, recognizing place, traditional names, the traditional people that we're there. We're coming up to Natok Week, you know, and what a great time to connect with traditional country and the people that have been there for thousands of years. So it's a great challenge for everyone and a call to action. Figure out the traditional name of the places that you live. Figure out the name
of those people they tried their clan. Figure out what language they speak, and learn how to say jini allah, hello, welcome. What is that in your language? You know what I mean? Like, even connecting language is such a beautiful thing to be able to do.
I wanted to ask you about what your favorite indigenous food is? You know, growing up because I found through COVID, I was leaning into making the things that my grandma used to make me when I was sick, because they were the foods that I was you know, nourished with
at that time. And you know, during such a time of uncertainty, I really enjoyed having something that made me feel like, you know, comfort food essentially, you know, for you though, growing up, you know, what was your favorite indigenous food?
God, I had the most blessed childhood. Honestly, Name would take us down to the beach and we didn't realize. We just thought she was trying to wear us out. She had eleven kids, so I can imagine how many
grandkids you had. But she would take us all down to the beach together, and she would have us there all day, from dawn to dusk, and she would have us out there pippy doing that little pippy shuffle down on the beach, pulling up all the pippies and we would get bucket loads of them and we would sit them in the water up on the beach for a while. She would make a campfire and we would chuck the
pippies straight onto that fire. We were eating them straight out of the shell, and because of the saltiness of the water, they were already like season. You don't need to do anything picking kakala also known as peak face, those beautiful succulents that would cool us off, and they tasted like salty strawberries. And you know, just being down there with her at the beach, and we didn't realize. We thought, you know, she was wearing us out and giving us a feed, but she was connecting us to
our country and culture by doing that. And God, what a blessed childhood to get that experience with her before she passed away. And that's what I want to continue. I want to share that with all of Australia, because if we can connect with that in our own environment, not only are we going to respect our environment so much more, but we're going to have a sense of belonging. And all Australians deserve to feel like they belong in this amazing country.
So well said, you know, such amazing messages.
I'm hoping when people listening to the podcast that they're really getting something out of this. What about yourself though, you know, coming out of the back of you know mastershef what's next for you?
Like?
What are you wanting to add into your life after having this experience?
Yeah, I mean I'm I'm a busy woman. But the big thing for me is making sure that we have action around these ingredients that is really genuine to it. You know, a lot of what we're doing in the Native Food Team at the moment, you can see that people using these ingredients but they don't understand the connection to culture and country through it. And it is like
a twenty million dollar industry. There is six and a half thousand ingredients that are unique to Australia and there's only two percent representation of Indigenous people within that industry. So I want to increase the representation. I want to connect people with the history of the culture and the country of those ingredients. And I'm going to get all of these beautiful native foods into every primary school around Australia.
I'm starting this Friday. I'm planting in our jarge and schools native food gardens for our little ones, because they are our future. And my plan is to raise the funds through my business to get them into every school. You know, kids deserve to know the food of this country. They deserve to eat amazing stuff that belongs here, and I don't know if we can get the kids involved, they're going to continue that into the future. So I've
got a big job ahead of me. Girl Like, I'm going to be a busy woman for the next little while.
I think it's amazing. I think it's amazing.
That's a great thing to be able to do and to set a goal, you know, for me master Chef this year, watching it has really taught me about eating local and about eating fresh, you know, and it's not something that I had been doing and so it's amazing that we can learn these sorts of things from a show like this. I guess the best question to ask you at this point before I let you go, is who do you think is going to win Master Chef?
Yeah, big names in there still at the moment. How you look at Julie Goodwin, the original OG She's still there and hanging on. You've got Billy, you know what I mean? What a powerhouse. That woman can get through any elimination and any pressure tip and is still as cool as a cucumber. I mean, they've got to be up there, those two. And of course my sister girl, Sarah Todd. I have a very special place in my
heart for that woman. She is powerful, she is talented, she is courageous, and god, I would love to see her holding that trophy above her head. I really would.
She'd have to be like one of the best looking humans I've ever seen, Like every time.
She instantly beautiful, but the most amazing person on the inside. And god, she's sassy. I love that girl so much. She's a dancer, she's a groover, and she can sing as well, Like what can't this woman do?
Seriously, tripper over, tripover? I need mindy.
Something I ask everyone who joins the podcast is what is something from behind the scenes of your of your time or master chef, something that we didn't see that we you know, we won't see from behind the scenes.
Well, I will fess up to you right now. I will let you know. The food that we create on set, as you know, is incredible. When we go back to that green room, my goodness, the stuff that they feed us for lunch's not not amazing and not inspiring at all. You know, when you get catering at work and you think, oh, my goodness, this is what is meant to like fill us up and motivate us and like, you know, give
us that amazing nutrition. My goodness, it was not the most inspiring food that I've ever seen in my life. But you know, we ate it because we were hung But my god, like a few complaints from the contestants and the group, like definitely, Oh, it was just just kind of like, I mean, this beautiful artwork behind me. A lot of the time the meals would open these containers and everything was that color of brown. You couldn't
kind of differentiate what was what on the plate. It'd been sitting there for a while, and I just think, oh, my goodness, I'm gonna have to start bringing my own food to sad. It's just not inspiring food, especially for foodies, right and people that love to cook and love produce. The food was not amazing. So I'll drop that one as a little bit of a smoke bomb, and hopefully for the next seat season the food's a little bit better.
Do you think that that asked someone to stay behind, you know, just anyone like someone who came out first out of the competition. Do you mind sticking around and cooking for the next season?
You know, absolutely, Can you just hang out and like cook us up a bit of a feed for lunchtime? We would be happy to do it, seriously, But yeah, I mean it was it was pretty pretty terrible.
Yeah.
Well, I've absolutely loved watching you on the show. I loved watching your relationship with Aldo. I thought it was so beautiful of you to speak so well of him when he came out of the competition. And I think that you have a real gift to inspire people. So thank you for letting us as Australia be on your journey with you, and yeah, enjoy the ride afterwards.
Yeah, boogle Bear, thank you so much and thanks for the opportunity. I feel very privileged and very proud so Yahweh and Boogle Day. Have a beautiful day.