It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast last Deep Thereby. Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading. On today's episode, with the runner up of Master Chef Australia for twenty twenty four, Australia's current favorite Tasmanian Josh Pez Perry Pezz is here to discuss the heihs and lows of that nail biting finale, and he really didn't even seem to notice that I was
still sounding like a sick donkey with my cold. I apologize if I am a little bit off, but I have to say I loved chatting about his time on Mastershef Australia, something I simply couldn't miss. We will unpack the finale and find out why Pezz thinks he always comes second. There is a great opportunity to talk about his future if he will be also cooking at the Alumni restaurant, and what he hopes to achieve in bringing
people to Tasmania. We will talk about why I got competitive in the final five and what sort of sacrifices people made to be on the show. We will dive deep into his reflection beyond the experience, and we will also find out what his relationship is actually like with Nat and how he truly feels about her Win. There is so much to unpack with Pezzer, as you can imagine, So sit back and relax as we unpack the wonderful world of Mastership Australia for twenty twenty four. Hi Pether,
Hey gal mate, I'm good. I'm very excited to be talking to you. I think that you're everyone's favorite Tasmanian at the moment. Did you have any beers last night? I need to know, Like that was a I've got a laugh out of you just then, which makes me think that you might have punched a few beers last night while celebrating, commiser rating.
Quiet night for me last night and eight two single mold Lark whiskys night was me and a glass sorry and a glass of red wine with my at a state that was good.
That's on brandfoid. I wondered whether or not you'd been planning those drinks. Like if it was me and I'd been waiting months to watch this finale, I'd be like I would know that I'm getting up to talk to the media tomorrow. I have probably only two. I need to plan what they are.
It was pretty quiet.
That's actually the young fellow's birthday last night, so we just had a family tea and kicked back and had Yeah.
Then the young fellow drunk. What did we drink?
A bit of tas Maine, A bit of brim creek I think it was pen and yeah, prim creek penan noa. We had that with our steak, and then I finished, like I said with I had put a nice bottle of lark Away that I had got a I re think it was a couple of years ago, which was quite tasty. So a couple of them and a cup of tea to finish up.
I would love to be a fly on the wall when you finally get to have a few more drinks. That would be a fun day down there.
I reckon.
Yeah, no, I'll get a bit wild sometimes when I lit the hair there mate, So I'm definitely overdue.
Yeah. It was really interesting and I felt like the producers really set us up. I feel like your story arc in the finale was heartbreaking, where they kept saying, they kept showing you saying I'm always number two and I was like, there is so many people that relate to that. There's so many people in their lives always feel like they're number two. At that point, I think Australia thought, well, Pez's going to win this, Like, you know, they can't say this, they can't put us through this
only for them to take it away from you. How did you feel watching that?
I sort of looked at the wife a few times and thought the same thing. You know, and it's not just for to tell you it's a story in my life. It really is so many seconds in footy, you know, to coach for a year and then get bet in a grand viol and do it all again with the same team and think we won better and then go down again. It was just it has been the story of my life and maybe it is Pez a second again. That's probably how it's just always going to be for me.
But I think one thing that really hit home was when Andy said, you know, you haven't disgraced your family. You definitely haven't felt like I'd let them down. And he said, you haven't let them down. And I think that's where I'm probably first places that I've got a lot more than what other people don't have, you know, so a really loving and caring family that I'm super proud of my kids and the wife. So I'll make
up for it in different place. Made I might not have got the two hundred and fifty thousand then took the win, But I'm a pretty lucky boy and really happy with where life is for me at the moment and where it has been for a long time. So I really started with that.
I always think of that story about Cindy Crawford, and we're about the same age, so we know who Cindy Crawford is, while people who are a bit younger might not necessarily know who that is. But she went to university and she came second in her class, and I always think of that whenever I come second. I think, if Cindy Crawford is number two, that ain't bad. It's okay.
May yeah, I thought the same.
Pope kept doing it all through this season, you know, like, I come second and look where I am now. And that's a real good one too, you know when you look back at what post achieved since she comes second on the first ever season. So look, I think there's still big things for me. And if there's not I'm just so happy with what I did and where I come, Like, I was so close to the first episode to be
going home first, you know. So I grew through the show, I still think, and they've sort of put that out there a lot. I'm probably one that grew the most through the show and that's something that, look, I can hang my hat on that I've done really well and I'm happy on my journey.
So do you think that there is any psychology that unconsciously you only believe that you can be number two and that somehow affects the outcome? And I'm not a psychologist, so I'm asking you this question. I've got nothing for you, but I'm just curious about how you interpret that, because there's a lot of people in this world that thinks that they bring about what they think about. And then I thought about this a lot last night after watching the finale, and I thought, is it that you believe
that you're the number two? Is there a chance that we need to talk to you about leveling yourself up and making you think it's possible to win.
Your sound of a wife mate, you really do, That's what she said to me last night. She says, like, if you think you get in the flu. Josh, you'll talk yourself into it. You was talking yourself into Coven second before the show, even before the episode started. So look, mate, you could be tirely right. I might be just and I'm probably thinking that it could be right. I could be thinking that, jeez, I don't want to be second again in this football Grand Final, and I played out that way.
So look, maybe I do need a mindset change.
But I'm getting too old for football now, so I've retired and.
I don't know what more challenges I'm going to go. Look, I've made second in the.
Best Bacon in Australia a couple of times like it.
It just seems to be me. So maybe I do talk myself into it.
And it needs to change. We definitely need to change that about you. But at the same time, I also think there's something about your underdog status that was really endearing throughout the series. And I also don't think that we always need to win. I think sometimes being clipped just that little bit means that you work just that much harder, and as long as you don't give up and you keep going, I think sometimes coming second or sometimes just competing is important.
Yeah, definitely.
I agree.
It probably keeps that bit of fire burning inside your belly to keep you wanting to go on to morow and something new. So I've never been one to sit back and dwell on what's happened. I know you do for a day, but then you've got to get back on the bike and you've got to go again. So I think I've still got that drive to do something where you could quite easily say, oh this is me. I'm done, and i don't mind what's next, and I'm happy where I'm at, because I'm never going to be
happy where I'm at. I'm one of those guys that likes to keep spending money and growing, and whether it's the business, or whether it's the family house, or whether it's something else, it's just just a passion of mine that I'm not happy where I'm at.
Yet.
You know, you only get.
Out a lot what you put into it, and I just still want to grow in and leave some of the beautiful kids that I've got and look, there's already a few bits and pieces. But the bigger that I get and the more I do, and the more I can give them, And that's what I'm all about so definitely haven't heard the last of me.
That's for sure.
That there's something bigger and better just around the corner for me, I think, and we've just got to find what that is and take it full noise and hopefully do it the best time and come number one.
I think that there was something about you that is in your eyes. And I don't know whether or not this now makes me seem creepy, like I was watching too hard. But you're a bit of a dreamer, do you know what I mean? And you're the type of guy that moves on to the next project and dreams up something big and to get onto Master Chef to come second, this is a huge it's a huge achievement like this doesn't happen to other people, and I think that that comes down to the importance of dreaming big.
Look, I totally agree.
I've got a lot of people and look, there's some bad stories about it, but I'm not going to get into that that people around here think that I am a dreamer and he's never going to do it.
But I like to prove people wrong. That's me and I am a dreamer and.
I've got these so many big ideas that what I still want to do. You know, I want this restaurant and I'd love a small goods plant at the back of it, and I'd love a gin distillery and to make my own whisky. And so everybody comes in and they can drink more whiskey and drink the gin, and you know, and see that the meat hanging in the dry aging room, and get taught to make sausages and eat a beautiful steak, and you know what I mean, that whole experience of what's so beautiful here in Tasmania.
So I've still got a lot of big dreams.
And what eventuate from that is is going to be entirely up to me and where I want to take it. So the kids, I want to teach them to think.
Big their self.
This is a small place, but it shouldn't be small smith and shouldn't be a small place that nobody.
Wants to come and visit. We should get everybody.
You know, there's so much beautiful beef, so much beautiful vegetables and lamb and the produce available here in the home of Cape Grim Beef.
And look how big is the dairy industry in here.
We should have ice cream shops, and we should have chocolate shops and we should have everything here.
It's just so beautiful.
We've just got a cheese shop, and we need to get people off that boat at Devonport and getting to turn and ride instead of going to Hobart, Like I think they can go that way too, but we've got to mix it up a bit. So three and Big Life's you're icedy and know if you have a real crack.
I love Tasmania. So that was just an advert Tasmania. I think Andy might have said, Oh it wasn't Andy. I think it was. Curtis ed it as well. He was like, this man is a walking, talking advertisement for Tasmania. Yeah, he told me.
Said to me once before, he said, look, Peza, if you're not running Tasmanian soon, something's wrong. You are tourism Tasmania written all over you, like there's they should be gobbling you up and just running with your ideas, because who comes on a show like this and just cooks all Tasmanian produce And you know, you just believe and you're believable.
Your story is believable. So yeah, it's easy.
If you do believe, you can sell things that you're passionate about.
It's harder to go on and.
Me to sell something that I don't love. But what we produce here I love and I'm passionate about, so it's easy. It's an easy sell for mate.
I'd love to know how many people actually now go to Tasmania because you're on this show. I feel like there'd be a lot. I wish that we could just do a little you know, a little click as they walk through and then you get a little bonus. That'd be good.
Sound sounds good.
I'm all for that. Well, I speak to you in a week's time and you'll be the face. You'll be the face of tourism.
You know.
A few questions about the show. I'd love to know who was your biggest support throughout the filming process, throughout the cooking. Who was it that you were there cooking alongside that was your biggest supporter.
It was a if you noticed, it's not like a cup road competition.
We're all really really close, like we support each other.
But I guess I lived with Steve O, which was the crocodile man, Steve Dennis. It was a good mate early on, and Juan de la Cruz, you know, the Argentinian man. That was our little group. There was me and him and Steve myself and one and even being John O. That we sort of hung together pretty close early days. And then they sort of went sort of around that fifteen twelve to fifteen sort of position, and
I was sort of left not left alone. But then I guess we sort of, me and Dash become roommates and become pretty close and hung out and we always cook together. Look sad and submit and look they used to cook big feast.
We was all pretty close.
But I guess probably my best friend on the whole show would have been one I would be and yeah, but then got really close towards Dash, Harry and Lockey towards the end because we went pretty deep.
They've guys. So look, a very hard question because I love them all.
No, it's a hard question because also, Master Chef, what people don't realize is so chaptered. You know, when people leave, your living conditions change. You know, you might be then by yourself for a little bit, but then they move someone else in with you. So it's a very unusual process behind the scenes over such a long shoot. And Master Cheffer, I think is the longest shoot that we do for a reality show these days in Australia. So you know, it's quite the process, no doubt.
You're looking at nearly half a year's it's a big commitment.
And that's the thing.
More you get close to people because they see you're ups and down, you know, especially the guys.
I think, the people you live with. You know what I've.
Seen and down from all them guys. I've seen, you know, Steve O go home. I've seen him go through that emotion of going home. I seen the people that I was with, I seen them all go home, because obviously it was only I was the end. But that's hard, and it's you know, you try and talk and we have our ups and downs with bad cooks, and you know, you come home and we used to eat a lot together, just sit down and cook a meal for each other.
And there's a lot of.
Nights when you come home and I just shut my door in my room and went to bed and had a shower and got in bed and didn't have anything to eat, and you're just down because the cook just didn't go to plan. And I just talked to the wife for a few hours on the phone and then hit the sack and had to be revitalized and energized for the next day to go and do it all again.
That's what it was like.
So but all I could say is very supportive everybody on the show. I could not say that I had any trouble with anybody, and I don't think anybody had any real trouble with anybody. Maybe an argument here and there, we didn't see eye, but nobody hated each other by any means.
I don't think you asked that show that way anyway, you know, like that's exactly right. They're not looking for that.
Probably got a bit competitive, That's all i'd say. Once we got to the top.
Five, But you're paying for a quarter of a million dollars, like it's you understand that, And a lot of people give up their jobs to go on there, like I didn't have to do that. But you've got to give credit where credits to a lot of people change their
whole life for that show. You know, left really good jobs, left had had mortgages and went on to a show that it's really tough, and then got to go back out and try and make it in this world of being a chef now, like a lot of them are trying to do that and trying to make a name, and a lot younger than me and not as well established as where I was when I went into the competition, So I take my hat off to them sort of guys young You know, there was a couple of school teachers,
me and Me and James that left school teaching for twelve months and now they'll probably go back to it, but I don't know when they could, and.
It's a big it's.
A big thing, So good on them for having a crack and putting themself out there.
What was the dynamic like with you and nat on the day? And I just spoke to Nod about this and I thought it was really interesting because you both are in there so passionate to win, And I talked to her about how emotional you were to win. That's a strange process to have you both in there side by side competing like that.
Yeah, me and Natty got on really well.
We probably didn't spend a huge amount of time in the early days together, but look, I was so happy that. Look, she was the force to be reckoned with to start off with. That's who was all chasing I say her and Sad were really fantastic. They were already made chefs when they come through the door.
That's what their flavors were. Unbelievable. I had to just crawl before I walked.
You know, I knew that I had to work hard where it was natural to them guys. But when we got down to the last two, I guess the last five. For me, I was just cooking with love and having a bit of fun. And wherever I went, I went, I didn't I still wanted to win, don't get me wrong, but I just enjoyed it. Whereas when I first started, I didn't want to be the first to go, and I didn't want to I wanted to make that the top fifteen, and I wanted to make the top ten.
But when I got down and I'm standing beside her in the grand finale, you know, I thought, and it sounds bad. I had everything to win and she had everything to lose. I thought, you're missing. And that's the way I see. You know, some football matches, you know you're going, and I was the underdog, I thought, so I needed. I just needed to really enjoyed it and see if I could pull off a miracle Abita.
So we cheered each other on. There was no well I don't know what she said, but I didn't feel any acts against each other.
We just no no love. She was very Yeah we loved each other.
Yeah, we loved each other's company, and we're having a bit of fun. I said, you got this, you know, and she said, like, hell, Pezzy, you know what you're like.
I said, you got me with three points in the early one and no, no, they'd be silly. Pezzy.
You know you know what you can do, and that's exactly right. I believed I still could, but look I put it out here now. I'm so pleased she won. I've had a chance to reflect and look, I was disappointed, and I run through my head what ifs, and as we all do, like after every final that you lose, Yeah.
I should have done this, or I should what happens if i'd've done that? Not good? I've won, But you.
Can't live like that. You've just got to move on and don't worry about what you know. You can't change what happened yesterday, but you can only set it up for tomorrow. So I just I'm really proud of what she achieved. She I hope she does something really big in the future. I'd love to sit down and like I said, no, I'm not paying, but I'd love to come to your restaurant. And she just laughed at She's got the energy and the skill to make something really big for herself.
She's only young, so I hope she does. And yeah, I just wish her all the best.
She's going to be cooking at the Alumni Restaurant, which is a crank casino in Melbourne. Are you going to be doing some cooks there as well?
Well?
Fans get a chance to taste your food in that experience, not that I.
Know of at this day.
I'd love to, so we hope get me there.
I'm sure I'd love to take that taste of Tazzy to them.
I think they really love that over there. But yeah, I would have.
Loved to have got over, and I should have got a free invitation.
I would have thought to go and have a feed maybe in the mail, I hope.
So I thought that that would have.
Been good to see me their eatings.
But no, I haven't sort of heard too much about anything. Well, I haven't got anything really planned yet, just sort of been waiting for this to all set up. There's a few people been sniffing around down here to see if
I do cooks and what. And now is the time that we open up and we see what we're going to do, whether I do some pop ups or there's a few festivals down here that I've been talking with guys and just I'd really love to get out around Tazzy and and I know it sounds funny, but I think I've got fans now, Like the little kids are coming to shop are mesmerized to see you, And that's what it's all about.
I love seeing little Look, I've got grandkids in that.
But these little kids they come to the shop, they're too nervous to talk to their parents.
Say, oh, you don't stop talking about Peter at home. Here he is, you know, talk with him. And that just makes my day, It really does so.
And to hear some of the social media from one last night when I finished, I don't know if you've seen it, but a lady rode on there that she was a daughter said to her that, mommy, if I can marry somebody like Peza and have kids like he's God, I think that'd be just so fantastic.
You know, that's what I want. I got a tear in my and I laid back.
Look, that's that's really touched me to the wife reading it to me and she's having a tear, and I thought, that's that's what makes all the show all worthwhile to me to.
Hear something like that from a lady.
And if she's seen me all the time, she probably wouldn't want somebody like me. But that's what the wife said, She probably when you're out of the grog and you're a real mongrel sort of, yeah, she probably doesn't want you. But it was good and it was touching, and that that makes it all worthwhile.
It really does.
Don't go on these shows to sort of have those moments. They're kind of the icing on the top icing, Hey, you know what I mean, Like it's so surreal, and then you don't ever see yourself like that. I mean, you kind of can dream and you apply and you put yourself in that situation, but you certainly don't think you're ever going to resonate to that level, which I think is really cool.
Look, I agree, you don't if you're going on there to become famous or going on this show for the wrong reasons.
Don't bother about it because we'll see that. You know, people get through that pretty quickly. Before you go, I wanted to ask you, you know, they bring people back on these shows like a master Chef. They certainly bring people back. You know, they'll come up with a name
for it. But ultimately it's like in All Stars, if you could pick three people from this season that you think story hasn't been finished, could you pick three people that you think have got a storyline that would be good to continue.
I think the ones that have been there long have had their chance, even with me and whatnot. I'd love to see some of the ones that went early in the show. I think, you know, James first to go, that he didn't get an opportunity to really showcase anything, and he could have grew just as much as me. I think he'd be a great guy. And look, I love James. You wouldn't have got a nicer guy. I
think Mimi still had a lot to offer. Mimi, like one, you're only one bad cookoff going home, which is so bloody hard, So I think she had a lot more to offer. And I really thought Schnares was a real, real winner and I just got to throw one more some meat. She would have had a lot more to that, the Indian sauce queen, you know, source boss sub meat. You will not get a nicer lady than her. She was just so calming and loved everybody. So yeah, I think she had a lot more to offer too.
I'm obsessed with all those people. Let's organize to get together before you go. Something I ask everyone who joins the show is what is something from behind the scenes, Something that you know was a part of your journey being on Mastership this year that maybe audiences didn't get a chance to see.
I just the fun that we have behind the scenes, all the contestants, you know, us getting together and having big cookups.
That's what we did and we enjoyed.
I like, we had a little spot where we stay where we could have a barbecue and we could get out and Christian love playing the guitar, you know, and we'd have a sing and we'd sit out and we'd all just bring a dish of food each and we'd sit up there and crack the bottles of red and the whiskey and just have really good nights where we sit down and unwarned.
You know, there's a lot of good times on the show.
You see the highs and you see the lowest of lows, but you don't see the most of the time.
It's a really fun place to be and we get on really really well, and we'd have a lot of fun together.
I have to let you go, but I feel like I could talk to you with forever, Like you are just a very warm person. I think you're a very caring person. I think that you're extremely talented with what it is that you do in the kitchen. There's so much more to your story. And Australia I like whilst they didn't see you win, it's only made them more hungrier to see what you do next. So we're in your audience.
Thanks mate, I appreciate your time. Steel free to give your call anytime.
Oh my best friend is from Tasmania. Her family's still down there and so I go to Tazzy all the time. So I'll make sure I look you up in the in the yellow pages.
Hoping up for one of those pes. Mate.
Sounds good. Enjoy reveling this, enjoy your time, Thanks comer bye now s mate.