It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week they light 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 two special guests from the latest series of Mastershire for Australia. I have Chris and Dolan, who were the first and second contestants to be eliminated from the competition, but they totally left an impression on Australian audiences. The competition is in its fourteenth season and this time Channel ten have served up an impressive cast of fans versus favorites.
The competition is unbelievable and the food content being so is exactly why this show is just as impressive now as ever before. You can also here with today's guests that Master Sheeff Australia has a backbone to its structure that relies on building relationships rather than manufacturing drama, which is quite rare in the landscape of reality television all around the world. Today, Chris will talk about his time
on the show and unpack his highs and lows. I then move on to Delan, who will talk about his insights into how he thinks he prepared for the intensity of that kitchen. However, let's get started with this week's episode. I'd like to first welcome Chris to TV Reload.
I went to zero expectations, man like I didn't think I was going to get through master Sheriff hast produced some of the biggest names in food.
I just decided to apply and then got the call the.
First time ever. It's fans versus feverites.
They don't want you to forget the moment, like how you feel the most talented team of vans that we've ever found.
That has a lot to prove just because she was the first winner.
These fans have been watching season after season of Mastership, and now it's their time.
The kitchen has changed, the challenges have changed, the judges have changed, the whole formats different.
Hi, Chris, how are you.
I'm going really well, actually, or the excitement's sort of gone and now I can just enjoy watching the show as a spectator.
Absolutely well. Congratulations on your time on Australian Master Chef. It was an absolute rollercoaster write for you. What specifically did you learn from your time on the fourteenth series.
I learned that I was resilient. A lot of stuff didn't go right on the show, even in my successful cooks, but it's finding myself and you know, being able to stay calm and be in the moment.
From the moment you turned up on the show, there was just something so incredibly relatable about you. And you know, from being an officionado of reality television, I've quickly worked out that somehow I seem to connect to the first person who leaves. I don't know what that is. Maybe it's the underdog in myself, but I think you stood out and so I think that that's pretty impressive, Todo.
Thank you. Look, you know what, the support has been amazing too. A lot of people have said that they've connected with me and I was just being me, So I don't know what I was doing any different to everyone else, but really it's really cool. To hear that sort of stuff.
Well, that's why you get picked to be on these shows. You know, you have to have some kind of X factor, you know. I'm so inspired by watching the food and watching the cooking every episode, But I want to know, how did you get inspired to apply for the show.
I've always been around good food because my dad was a chef, so we've always had good food around us, But I never really appreciated the cooking side of things up until the first Lockdown in twenty twenty, so at that, I guess at that stage, and I was doing food photography just because I had nothing else to take photos on, and I was missing mum's food as well, So I started cooking and taking photos of that. And then Back to Win came on and I was like, oh man,
this is just skipping me in all different places. And I started cooking more and I fell in love with it.
And then how did you apply, like, you know, how to get onto the show? Were people watching you through the windows of your home? Did you just fill out an application process? Did someone w you in?
Pretty much? Someone dogged me in. So an old friend of mine actually who used to be on the who was on the show I can't remember what season a few years back, and she encouraged me to apply, and I was like, echindy me, I only have been doing this for that long. But she was like, oh, you'll be fine, and you know, got nothing to lose. So I was like, you, I suppose you're right, you know, like I'm in a good place in my life. I might as well just give it a shot. Nothing happens
and no one needs to know about it. But I just decided to apply and then got the call, and then there you.
Are and getting back to sort of the inspiration of the food was funny. In one of the episodes, you revealed that you had to cook with anchovies, and I immediately paused what I was watching because I have the luxury of doing it. I was watching it on catch up, and I went and bought anchovies to go and make something. Yeah with that food, I mean, is it resful? And does that really change the course of your whole time on the show, with just the choice of something so simple as anchopies?
It does, just because look, for me, that was a really interesting cook because I mean, this is what the show's about, you know, like you're always in that comfort zone of choosing whatever you want to cook. I mean, this is part of the reason why I got on, because I needed to challenge myself. Obviously it wasn't the best cook. You had a couple of stumbles along the way because I was worrying about the stir fry, and then I started to smell.
Some burning and I was like, whoops, the noodles.
Luckily I had a second batch. You didn't change out the oil. Though I didn't change out the oil. It was right down to the wire, so I didn't actually get to taste it. Okay, So I'm hoping that it's okay.
You know, when working with the producers, did they give you a sense of how they wanted your character to come across or how you were going to fit into the cast.
We never really had that discussion, you know. It was just like me for me being me. So I think that's the only thing I can do, that's the only thing that I can control. I think if I did anything different, it would have come off wrong or not authentic.
Do they ever say to you, let's lean into this aspect of you know who you are? That's just I always was curious about it.
Maybe I'm just a bit lucky in the sense that you know, like it was okay for.
Me to be me.
You were delivering.
Yeah, yeah, I was doing all the right things.
The choices in what gets shown and what happens on television. Was that interesting for you to watch it back?
Yeah? It was actually just because when you're cooking and then when you're up there talking to the judges, you're in the moment, you know, and you know it's surreal you're talking to people that you've been watching on TV for the last few years. It's like every day. It was just like, oh my god, so I'm making a Christian noodle of mission in Vietnamese. Just one of my favorite things eating growing up, and just fond memories of
this dish. I grew up not seeing Dad that often, but we did manage to spend time together on the weekends. We'd go every Sunday for this shop in foot Stray. We didn't know the name of the shop, and it was green, so we just called a green shop, and it was just like, I've got green shop?
Did I get mess young tactic?
There were certain things that I would have that I said that I didn't know I said until I watched fac and I was like, oh, Like, for example, when mal said how was your spaghetti work or how was your pastor work? I was like, yeah, I think it's good. I was like, did I say that? Because clearly, you know, I wasn't that happy with my pastor.
It's one of those things though, you know, It's what happens to your mind when you're an everyday person and then all of a sudden you're in front of a camera. We don't realize sort of what we're what we're saying. But also sometimes I think a lot of people don't realize how they come across to others. Yeah.
I always thought about that as well, and I think for me there was also part of the reason why I was kind of nervous about coming on. I was just like, look, I'm pretty true to myself. I know who I am, but you know, there's always that degree of you know, oh you will people like me and all that sort of stuff. So that's nerve wracking.
It's like therapy. Reality televisions like therapy.
It is, isn't it.
But like I said earlier, it's a lot about self discovery. You don't know, you don't have the luxury of seeing yourself. You know, it's not like it's a weird thing. You know, I probably wouldn't recommend it for everyone. Get help in other ways if you need something like that. But you know, for me, it was interesting, like there's obviously things I can improve on too, you know, like the way I handle stressed. Maybe shouldn't be so nervous. Maybe figure out
why my hands shake when I get so nervous. You know, this all that sort of stuff.
When did you learn that you would be up against some of these amazing returning favorites.
You know, I had already applied, right, and then I think there was like a leak. I think initially it was like fans versus food is and Julie Goodwin's there, and I was like, what, like I just a bit of my application. Maybe I should have just waited next year, because this is this is insane.
Yeah, And you know what was really strange is throughout the production, you know, Julie at times look super nervous, you know, and all of us know her as this she's almost the face of Master Chef because she was the first winner. What was it like during your time on the show. Was she more or less as you expected? Her to be.
She was everything I expected and more. I think there was no one on that show more genuine than Julie Goodwin to me, especially reconnected straight away. She's such a beautiful person. What you see on screen is absolutely who she is. You know, she's hilarious. You know she's gone through so much, but you know she's resilient and she's an inspiring person. We've seen it, even in that first week. You know she has a lot to prove just because she was the first winner, and I reckon she's delivered.
It's incredible.
It's great television.
You know.
It all came down to that last meal where you burnt the noodles in your Misa young. I think I've said that correctly and then didn't take and then didn't take. You didn't take the fresh batch of noodles out of the oil. And you know, first point to this is have you had nightmares? Because I can imagine that you would have you had nightmares about that cook since filming.
Yeah, I'd be lying if I did not nightmares. But there's moments where I'm just like, you know what it feels if you gave me back thirty seconds or even a minute that that cook would have gone completely different. It didn't occur to me to change the oil there.
I should have cleaned it out first.
The oil is going to affect the taste of my noodles. I mean, I could leave the noodles of the plate, but the dish might be a little bit too simple, so I decided to roll with it. The issue was yet, obviously the burnt oil, so it did not occur to me. I think the mass Shift kitchen does think to you, there's a lot of pressure in there. You don't think this is the question.
I think all of you must be thinking. You know, when you come out of the competition a little bit early, you know, if you had your chance over again, was there a meal that you had up your sleeve that we didn't get to see that was kind of like your hero cook that you're holding onto.
There were a couple, but there was one dish that I really wanted to make. I've been playing around with more vietname is food, just because it's food that my mum cooks for me growing up, and I'm at that stage of my life where I'm now like I need to start embracing my culture more and learning from mum so does a dish called Migua, which is it's a noodle dish. It's sort of like a soup slash salad type noodle. It's really weird, like it uses a broth,
but very minimal broth. It's delicious. It's like turmeric noodles, and it's Yeah, it's something I really wanted to try making.
It's great to hear that you're saying that, you know that you're wanting to reinvest in seat of explore your culture.
I'm at that stage in my life where I'm starting to find myself and reconnect with what's important to me or what I know now is important to me. Back then, you know, when I was a kid, it was all about fitting in. It's a different world that we live in these days, and people are much more accepting. So I feel like that's really empowering for me to embrace who I am.
I grew up in the nineties, so it's like everyone had to look like the cast of friends, and then, you know, you look at the generation these days and people are just gravitating. They want to own their individualism, you know, which we never did before. You know, we were all trying to just fit in. And fly under the radar. You know, what are you going to do with this platform? You know, with great power comes great responsibility, not just for Spider Man Ben, but for chefs as well.
Have you started to think about what do you want to what you want to do, and what's next for you?
Short term? For me, I want to keep cooking, you know, I've still got so much to learn, so I'm going to start looking around hopefully get some work experience in a kitchen. That's short term.
I know this isn't the way you wanted to go out.
Sucks being first, but had a blast. I mean it's only been a week, but I learn a lot in this short period of time. And I'm going to go home and I'm going to keep cooking and have you see me next time. I'm just going to be a
better cook. You know, I don't know whether being a full time chef is for me yet figure it out, but ultimately I love food, photography, and I love writing, so hopefully, you know there might be something in media for me, or even just following that passion that would be sweet.
Well, I can tell you that nothing comes easily in the industry of media, but if you build it they will come, and I think that you have a very strong talent there, so you should you should hang on to that. And I think Melissa was right. You know, she gave you a piece of advice. Don't be afraid to put your foot on the gas and give it some extra and that's probably that's probably what you need.
Well, I think now I've got the confidence to do so, So you know that's sort of that sort of advice. Is that it really stuck with me.
Who's your pick to win at this point of the competition, not who you might know or whatever the rumor mill might be saying, but at this point when you left the competition, who is your pick to win the show?
That's a tough one, right. So when I got in, I always thought Tommy and Manoli were the strongest, just because they've just come off the show. You know, they're match fit, you know they use to the pressure, so I alsought they were the strongest. But after seeing what everyone's been doing, everyone is so strong in the favorites, so it'd be tough to go against them. But you know I'm biased too, so you can go anyway, like I'm hoping a fan will win, But it's going to be tough.
Yeah, I think it's it's anyone's game at this point, because look, it's like a chooser own invention novel. One minute you're at the top of the class and the next minute you're leaving. You know, even watching Harry's standing there with you, you know, you'd be shocked watching the story arcs, you know, thinking how quickly you can just all of a sudden be gone from the show.
It's good television, it's good.
Telling, you know. I asked someone, I asked this to everyone who joins the podcast. What's something from behind the scenes that we didn't get a chance to see that we won't see from your making of Master Chef? Maybe behind the scenes tasty morsel.
For me, the behind the scenes is more so just the hanging out outside of the kitchen, you know, like being in each other's apartments and tasting each other's food. That was like probably one of the best parts of it all, just because no pressure of the cameras, no pressure of the judges, is just people genuinely enjoying cooking for each other, and that's what it was all about. For me, that was great.
Have you got who's your best friend? From the show. Can we can we.
Say that my best from the show. Oh no, I can't say that. I don't know who it is.
Tell me who's gonna who do you reckon? You'll be still talking to in ten years? Who will you be cooking with in ten years?
You know what the beauty, the beauty of social media is, I'll be connecting with everyone. But that being said, anyone in Melbourne. You know, it's it's easier to catch up with them. So all my Melbourne people are just yeah, they're They're great.
Will keep me posted because I'm a Melbourneite. So I can come to a pop up restaurant if you're doing so, because well, I'm in your audience, so I'll be there.
Awesome, Thanks so much for your time.
It was so amazing to be able to have this chat with you. And yeah, enjoy the ride.
I loved it man, Thank you. Thanks Andrew, Well.
I hope you enjoyed that chat with Chris. He was fantastic on this season and I really hope he finds his niche in the industry. But from first Out to second Out, I now have Delan, who I will bring into the chat.
When I cook, I just zone out of all the issues, problems or whatever happens in the background. I've been a fan of Master Chef for many years. I even watched season one.
You know, Hi, Delan, how are you.
I'm good. I'm you.
I'm really good. And I have to say congratulations on your time on Australian Master Chef. I'm in awe of your polywaffle attempt because of your ability to stay calm during this pressure test. Where did you learn that strength from?
How to stay calm? Yeah, I've been married for a while, two kids, two really young kids. I run my own listeners, dealing with employees. I think you learn a little bit from I think all of that.
I couldn't believe watching it because I guess in comparison to Alvin, he was losing his mind, and you were smiling and always looking like you could walk the runway, and yet you know, things were kind of falling down around you, but you still manage to have this brilliant attitude.
Even though stuff was going wrong, not my way at the start. If I kept going and if I was worrying about it, it's just going to make everything worse, not better. So it was just one element that's just that tempering off that chocolate at the start that really got me behind. The temperature is not dropping, so I know I'm a bit behind now, isn't it one more degree? I won't go down? Why don't temporary properly? I'm not
going to get that texture or that thickness. So I'm going to take my time with this, but like a half an hour or so. But you know, I made sure that I don't take any shortcuts. We're tempering the chocolate because that's the whole dish. If I don't get the chocolate right to the right consistency, I'm not going to have a waffle.
I can imagine that there would be a lot of people trying to recreate a lot of these Master chef recipes. Do you think that this particular Adriano Zombo creation is something that people could recreate in their homes?
I can think of a few people that would try to recreate it. But yeah, I reckon you could if there's a lot of ingredients. Man Like, there's loads and loads of ingredients, and to be honest, there're some ingredients that I haven't never even heard of.
Pectin is the ingredient in the jam that's going to make it set, and it's a critical element in this dish. And if I don't get the jam right, I know that that's the end of the road for me.
Can you yell out to the rooftop, you know, to the balcony and ask some of the other maybe more experienced chefs or maybe chefs that might possibly use that ingredient more? Can you ask them for any advice?
Well, because you're under a lot of time, fresh are you don't really care what that ingredient does. Throw it in there, jack it in and then cook for that long and then let to worry about what that ingredientctually does.
I loved your comment that it looked like a rat with feathers. I just couldn't stop laughing.
What else are you supposed to do? Because if you don't enjoy what you're doing, and if you don't have a little bit of fun while you're doing that, there's no there's no point in life. I guess, yeah, it looks like a rat with feathers. It's okay, Dolan, have you seen mine?
You're okay.
I knew my marshmallow was going to be an issue because it kind of by the time I hyped him went back to the first one to spread it. It was set already, so I didn't have time to redo the whole batch, which I could have I had I had more ingredients, but I didn't want to be falled I didn't want to fall behind on time again, so I just went with it, chucked all the other ingredients, leveled them on top. But then Andy and Jock came along and said, look, it looked like more a rocky road. Mate.
It does look like a rocky road. But if it tastes like Zimberest dessert, I'm.
Happy, absolutely, and I love rocky road, so that would have worked well for me.
I don't know whether you saw it. It was in the episode where last ten minutes I'm reading, I'm looking at the shapes. There was like a diagram with like shapes and you know, some wordings on how to assemble this. I'm reading this and a kid, you're not. There's nothing processing in my mind. So I'm reading it. There's nothing. I'm like, I can't understand what I'm reading. It's like i'm reading a different language. I can read it, but I can't understand what it says. That's how mentally exhaust
I was. I'm my forgiving. I'm reading this and like, nothing is going to my head, so I have to step back, take a moment, drink bit of water, calm myself even more further, and then go looked around and I can see people are doing it. I'm like, all right, cool, that's how that's how you do it. And not both in myself, but I was. I was quite happy with the dish I presented in the end.
I mean, I just couldn't believe it. I was watching it and I was thinking, this guy is just so calm. But you know, it brings me to a good point. There is an almost amount of production on this show. How distracting is that kind of production when you're cooking.
Sometimes it is, Yeah, it is. It is a distraction because you'll have people talking to you. You'll have the game tree people talking to you, the judges coming up to you. Because you want to be you know, put your head down and then you know, read the recipe and then make sure those elements are working right for you. But then if you look up and answer a question, you know, something might burn or something might set. But it is a distraction, but you have to I mean,
it is. It is part of the show. You know what I mean, Like if you're just there looking down and working and going home, how people are going to connect with you? Know what I mean? So I get it. I get that part of it. So you just have a roll with it, multitask, be cool with it. Just just all the above.
How long after those cooks are you doing those pieces to camera?
Yeah? Straight after because you want to capture them. I mean, they don't want you to forget the moment, Like how you feel like it is that you I don't know as a viewer me, I connect with them thing, oh like my dish was going bad, and when they say my dish was going bad, I feel it in their voice that the concern they have or when they were
super happy, you can feel it in their voice. Right, So they capture they make sure they doesn't you don't sleep on it, and then come back and give something totally different.
Well, I guess you can't sort of lose that feeling. And also, fans versus favorites is you know, just such a daunting process. When did you learn that you would be up against some of these amazing returning favorites.
It was announcing media duly good when Michael Alvin and Sarah Tide. I think those who were announced, so we kind of knew before I was selected. I knew that they were there, and I was super excited. I'm like, oh my god. All the other names we didn't know up until we were We got our aprons and we're just standing there and one, two, three, they just kept walking in and we just believed. So Sash, You're like, what.
Was there anyone that wasn't there? Did you have any favorites that that you were expected to be there that weren't they?
Look I really like Pete from last year, okay, you know back to when they had they got Simon back. You know, he was runners up, and I was like, oh here Pete Kishra, you know, runners up, they might come back sort of thing, some unfinished business. Unfortunately they weren't there. But all the others that came through like amazing, amazing human beings. I love them a bit.
I wondered if they brought back Khan after doing Survivor, whether or not he'd get the two shows confused.
We had many jokes about this kid coming back from Survivor and like, treating imagine that, how wasn't the show would be.
Put those two shows together, and I think you've got something there, Oregon. There's some some interest in that show. You know, Julie Goodwin is getting a lot of love on camera and people are tweeting a lot about her during the show, and a lot of people saying that they need to keep her in the show to keep the ratings. Do you think that, being a champion of her magnitude, that she's getting any special treatment.
Julie is Oh, they call it the og, you know, like she is the queen of Master Chef, And I don't think Master Chef Kitchen doesn't work like that, Ben, because you know, it's worst dish off the day goes home. Regardless you're Julie Goodwin or if you're Delive, it doesn't matter. It's you know, if she's there because she can cook and her dishes and unfortunately she was in that pressure test last night because her dish proofs day didn't work out.
It's just like that, you know, if I didn't use the hibbachi, for instance, in my for my cook, who knows, I wouldn't have gone into the pressure test. So things like that, Ben, Like it's really you can't really unlike other shows I think you can't really script somehow someone cooks or how it comes across.
So you can't you can't fake that kind of stuff. Do you think that fans versus favorites, now that you've competed in it is unfair in the kitchen because you know, the fans coming back against these returning contestants, I mean, they've kind of understood the experience, is it. Do you think it's an unfair competition.
I know there's a lot of speculation about that in the media, like that's but again, I have to say, some of these faves, like Julie, Alvin, even Michael, they're coming back after my god like years and years like Julie, say forty after forty years and stuff. You know, it's the kitchen has changed, the challenges have changed, the judges have changed, the whole formats different. So it's it's really hard for you to be like knowing, I don't they know how to be. But even we saw Alvin and Julie,
they still feel the pressure. So I don't think that's true. The fans came hungry. The fans are hungry, you know what I mean, So that's maybe that's the reason we got selected as the twelve of these fans because we were really hungry to get in there and compete.
What made you want to take part in this show? I mean, how did you get cast?
It was COVID. I was at home. We couldn't go out, we couldn't eat at we couldn't travel, so had to recreate all these things. I didn't even go to the next suburb to my parents' house to eat my mum's cooking, so we had to recreate every single thing at home. So I was cooking every single day, multiple times a day sometimes, and from that it's just spraled, and I just kept on posting on social media, just went nuts, and I'm like, why don't I just I wast all
by my wife? And why don't you just applied mastership? It'll be fun, Like you know, he was doing Lockdown. We didn't know how long Lockdown's going to go for. And then one after another, I just kept going through the process, getting through the stages, and I went to the zero expectations man Like, I didn't think I was going to get through because there's so many other good contestants out there as well. But maybe there saw something that in me that they liked and here.
I am, well, I think you've got an X factor. I mean, you really did cut through, which is amazing to say. I mean there's just so many people at this early stage of the competition, but yet you still had such a strong presence. You know, if you had your chance over again, is there a meal that you had up your sleeve? It didn't get a chance to see.
There's so many Sri Lankan dishes that I wanted to cook showcase the judges. I knownly does a lot of Shri Lankan cooking, but the way her where the way she cooks was the way I cook different. You know, you can have the same cuisine, but you'll have one hundred different ways of doing it. And also I really want to learn a bit more, get into a bit more of desserts as well, like you know, not as crazy as zoombo is it, but you know, showcase a little bit of that side of me as well. But again,
no regrets. You know what happened has happened. And look now I'm excited to be on social media and showcase that dishes. I will, So I'm really excited to jump on social media and then yeah, I'll be putting out a lot of cool content out there.
I'm in your audience, let me tell you. And you know, I guess that's a good question to ask you. I mean, what are you going to do with this platform? I always say with great power comes great responsibility, not just for Spider Man but for chefs as well. You know, what are you going to what do you want to add to social media? Like, what is it that you'd like to be able to do coming off the back of this show.
I'm just gonna it's just for me, like showcase my heritage. So there's gonna be a lot of Sri Lunkan inspired dishes. And I love food from all around the world, so it's just it's just given my two cents, showcase how I interpret that sort of food, and they're gonna be like that, a lot of cool fun stuff because I like to have a little bit of fun. You know, there's no point off just like talking mumbling and here's the recipe, you go cook for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
So it's gonna be me. What you see right now is what you're gonna get there as well. Sorry, And my son loves cooking as well, so I might get him involved a little bit. He's only four years old. And then yeah, the long term goal ban is basically to open up a cafe with tre Luncan inspired food, coffee and cocktails because my wife is an absolutely amazing genie is making cocktails. So that's like a twenty four
month plan. And in the meanwhile, social media and working on a few pop ups currently which will happen soon.
Well, you know what's also really exciting is that you know your son is four years old. This show's been on television for fourteen years. So the long plan is that when he's eighteen, so in fourteen mis series, he could come on the show and avenge your time.
I wasn't would that be? How do you think that genius?
Yeah, yeah, I've worked it out for you. You know, the last question I ask everyone who well, actually, no, I've skipped something. Who is your pick to win the competition?
Wooh, that's like, that's a tough question. That's a really tough question.
It's a good way for me to ask this. So not what you've heard as a rumor, not what's happened after you've the show has finished now, but like at this point of the competition, when you exited. Who did you think was going to win?
Look, I had I had a lot of I mean, obviously I want to I want a fan to win. You know, I have you guys, and I win. There's so many great cooks there, that's that's you wouldn't believe how good they are, you know, like Dan, there's so much potential. Ali like amazing, amazing cooks. Even like if you look at the faith side, it could be anyone's game. She's coming back, he's he's hungry. He wants that second
title in that trophy. And just like he had two pins, the two immediate pins in his season, he goes, I want two wins under my belt. And you've got smiling assassin. You got which is Billy? I call a smiling assassin? And Jules you know she's got she's got.
You know, it's not a horse race. You've got to pick one. You're like, you've just picked you.
I cannot pick one. I cannot. I am sorry, it is it is difficult. It's like you asking me to pick lunch place to go for lunch.
Well, Well, something that I ask everyone who joins the podcast is you know what is something from behind the scenes that we didn't get a chance. You know that, we didn't get a chance to say that we won't see from the behind the scenes of your master Chef experience.
Yeah, first day I met Sashi, I told him, by the way, Sashi, I messaged you last year about I'm applying for mass chef, any advice that you can give me? And I kid you not. It had gone into one of the hidden folders in his Instagram. He hasn't even seen it, and we he was like, he was super humbled, but he was super embarrassed. He was so funny, you
were super embarrassed. I'm like, by the way I messaged you, So imagine are you messaged someone and then you later and you're like, hey, by the way I messaged to you, you didn't reply back, what's going on? Just like I'm so sorry. Then he showed me like then we went through we tried to find that message. It wasn't there. It was literally wasn't there. But it doesn't matter. Like after that, we just after that conversation, we just we just connected.
That is the best. I love that I've done that people before, and I've had it been done to me as well, where someone's come up and said I asked you to host a charity event or you know MC something, and I've been and I've given the bub kiss. It's an easy thing to do.
Yeah, I mean I understand it now because I'm getting those kind of messages now and I haven't had a chance to look Kevin. And then you know Sasha being Sasha, you know restaurants after restaurant and yeah, or and mate, who has time?
Who has the time? I have to say thank you so much for your time coming on the podcast and chatting about your time on the show. I could talk to you forever about your Sri Lankan food. And I'm going to be following everything that happens on Instagram and trying to recook it. And when I send you these messages asking for help check the other folder.
Thank you, Benjamin, thank you so much, like it's such a pleasure talking to you.