UNPACKED REALITY - MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - DARRSH

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast Last Weep, Never Life. Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading on today's episode with Dash, the seventeenth eliminated contestant on Master Chef Australia, which is on Network ten next week, changing to Sunday nights through to

Yeah?

I was just hang it out, Okay.

That's all right.

It always happens with people that I get excited about talking to. So a little bit of tea, no, But you know what, I know what's really funny was that yesterday I don't always read the comments on my podcast, but people were like, You're so nice to all of these Master Chef people, and I'm like, am I not supposed to be?

Like?

Imagine if I had a podcast where I just you know, got on got on the chat and was like, you know, horrible. I think we should start this chat. By the way, by acknowledging how outraged the fans were that you're out of the competition, because I woke up this morning and there was like articles on like different publications with people furious.

Really, Yes, I've had a chance to Adam all.

So that's what I'm going to do straight after this.

I'm pretty sure.

That I say this to you on good authority that this is the first eliminated person that we've seen this sort of articles being printed.

So look, a lot of disappointed people that you're out.

The support's been amazing, It's been absolutely wild, and I think I'll saying to the network yesterday they've been given a very kind edit and I'm not actually as nice a guy and real that's just what they're making me out to tell.

Me more, what do you mean? What do you do well?

You're easily one of the most talked about cooks. I think it's because of your cooking ability. Not bad to look at, always a good thing. I think that it's going to help you in some way coming out of this competition, win or lose, to take this to another level. Being memorable like this does really help, even if you don't take out the competition.

Yeah, I think because I'm such a huge fan of your podcast and I've been listening to it all and I remember when you were trying to lucky about like X factors and stuff like that, and you don't go into the competition obviously thinking like you've got an next factor.

You just hope they.

Choose you based on your cooking ability. But I think everyone in their own right had like something to bring other than cooking, you know, And so for me, I always thought that was, you know, sweet or savory, and I try to really flex like the savory because I didn't want to be the zerk eye.

But yeah, we'll see what comes of it. It's definitely like such.

An amazing experience and hopefully use it for a spring board for whatever's next, know.

What that's going to be. Are you already planning that? I mean you've had a little while since the film.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so definitely I've got a few things on the go, like in the background in terms of like events and some collaborations which can't just announce just yet. But I mean, I'm going to be very active on social media, so obviously my Instagram, I love like video editing and all that kind of stuff. So bringing food, content of food that you know it'll be good to cook without that massive.

Clock looming over you, and just like.

Cooking stuff that is really true to you know, my style, mortial anchor and more curries, lots of desserts, that kind of stuff.

I feel like at this point, like if I was your friend, I would send you a congratulations present being like a bag of peas.

That would be brutal.

I look, obviously the cook was a long time ago, Like obviously I only haired last night, But I can tell you I'm not over peace. I Yeah, they broke me on that day and they continue to break me.

I haven't been able to look at once since.

How long had you been filming the show at this point? Like had you been there for like nearly three months? When did it finish? Like how long ago?

Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it had finished a few months ago and I had been there for about yeah, three months, so I was there for a decent stint.

Yeah, it's been a long time.

Seeing watching it back has been really really good, And I didn't get too upset about.

Watching him back last night. You know, it was a really full circle moment.

And it was great to know, just reflect on the whole time. But I think the biggest thing was like with the peas was one thing, But I think I was disappointed about serving up shell to the judges as well, And just like I disappointed them in that aspect, I'd rather have just been like, oh, it was a textual thing or something else, rather than like, there's bits of crabshell in there dish.

But like, it's interesting that we got to see a challenge with the three of you, and you've got Harry who is the king of fish like seafood basically his aquaman. You know, when you've got a dish that is going to lean into his skill set, do you start to think, is this a little unfair that he's been given a seafood opportunity? And does that cross your mind? I mean, do you delve that deep into it or is that just something hard?

Honestly, I didn't think too much on it because we're.

At that stage of the competition where I should be able to cook, you know, savy. Obviously everyone's got their own skill sets, and to be honest, when it comes.

To pressure tests, the vast majority of them are desserts.

So even my.

First pressure test that I almost went home on that was a dessert, So it kind of like, yeah, it goes around.

Sometimes you get sweet, sometimes you get savory.

But when you're top six, really, if I wanted to keep pushing and up in top five, I should have been able to put up you know, take it to Harry, you take it to Sab And I think those guys just did better on the day, which is credit to them.

When I go to those really expensive hotel buffets, you know where you go, and they do all the seafood and everything, and I never get the crab because I could just never work it out. I can never seem to get around the sharp edges. I never seem to be able to get around the nooks and crannies to get the meat out.

So I mean, oh yeah, he's a bit stressful. It's a very hard thing to be able to do.

Yeah, And you know what, like because I grew up like in t lank and cuisine, crabs like quite commonly used, and I grew up like getting your kind of like fingers and your thumb in there and you're kind of like popping it out and stuff.

And I remember on the day, I was like.

I could do this, but like, is that a bit like dodgy, like are we meant to be using tweezers to be kicking this stuff out?

Like I don't want to get my fingers in there. And in the end I don't.

Think they showed it.

But Dad was really really clever in the way that she worked, like she went straight for the claws. I think, like the claw met it was really smart and it comes on on precious hat day, like it comes out just working smarter, really like you don't just need to work harder. And I think because I was mucking around at the body so much, and that's where exactly like you said, there's all.

Those like little nooks and.

The really like tiny bits of shell, that's probably what ended up being my demise.

I think.

Yeah, I think as well.

When you get to this point of the competition, they're making things quite intimidating, and Gion was so intimidating with that dish at that point. Once they do the revelation of what you've got to do, can you go too far into your own head and find it hard to get out of or did you actually look at that and think I could do it?

When I saw a dish, I was okay, well, I was all right. I was like, okay, okay, this is achievable. When they said that you had some five that's.

When I started going into my head a bit.

And God, there's a lot to do here, just with like the presentation and the peas and stuff.

And I remember at the start of the cook saying, I need to leave myself forty minutes.

That's like my target.

I'm going to leave myself forty minutes to do plating, make sure everything's you know, looking beautiful.

Because it's such a beautiful dish.

And I remember with twenty or fifteen minutes ago, I hadn't even started. And I think we're all in the same boat, to be honest, like we all were trying to hit that target of forty or thirty minutes to plate up, and just it's nuts how much you need to get through those pressure tests.

Were you aware of his food before, because I think that could also be an advantage with some of these chefs that come into the kitchen if you're more familiar with their style of cooking or you've tried to create their food at home before.

I hadn't by relationship with giam was.

I'd heard of him and I live in Perth, so you know, he has distro giarm at Crown Perth, so i'd heard of him and like obviously seen some of the dishes that he makes on that menu, but I definitely had not attempted to make anything like this at all. So I reckon everything on that plate was foreign to me, except for the mayonnaise, like the target mayonnaise that was around the outside. But I learned a lot from it. I learned a lot of techniques obviously stuck.

That I got eliminated.

I couldn't use them in the competition, but it was a fun cook Nonetheless, when I reflect on.

It, Mimi, Pezza and Nat you know, they're all on the gan tree and they're all noticing and sort of watching what you guys are doing, and they kind of realized that you were doing different steps. But the three cooks were doing different steps. But yeah, you were blitzing through the start of this. I think something turned along the way. But do you listen to the or do

Doing up there?

I am a little bit and early on, like in the first two hours, I was definitely listening to That was great. They were really good and they're like, you know, you're tracking really well, mainly as her and that were like dash keep, but I'd be tracking really well, and.

That was great encouragement.

I remember when I got to the peas, which were like the hardest bit, you know, and that was saying, think of ways to work faster, being smarter. And she was obviously seeing what Sad was doing, and Sad had a really good technique going on, and that.

Just didn't cross my mind. You know what, house sav did it.

So I do remember about an hour in and Nat and I have.

A great friendship.

She won't mind me saying this, but I remember she was yelling our encouragement and I was just like, nah, like I'm trying.

To dud, like, just let me, let me do my thing.

So I did get to a point where I was like, let me just focus because it's getting a bit too much.

That would be mean. I'd be the first person to say shut the fuck up on television when it comes to that, that would be mean. And then I asked to leave the show. But that's what's happening. I was going to say that there was just so much going on in these cooks, especially when we looked at the everything cook that happened the day before, and there've got to be ways to sort of separate the tower left

I can't speak for you know, Harry and Sa but definitely for me, and I've had a lot of time.

To reflect on this, I think I ended up where I should have.

That's the honest truth.

I think, you know, Top six was a phenomenal achievement for me, and I think that the guys that are and I really mean this to the top five that are there, they are better cooks than me where they were at the time in the competition.

You really got the Master Chef experience. I mean by this stage of the competition, I always say you got the show bag because there's not much left in the show bag that you could possibly need out of it, because it's right at the very end. What would you say was the best thing for you about saying yes to this show? Like what was it that I think is your hero moment?

Look one hundred percent right, Like I'm really grateful that I got to experience the entire pretty much from start to finish.

Like, yeah, that's amazing.

Yeah, yeah, it was great.

But I think the biggest thing for me was just being exposed to so many people that have such a passion for food, like and but also like I'll take Pezza for instance, never in I can I can't think of a single scenario where I would meet Pezzer outside of this competition, you know what I mean. He's a tazzy butcher in not even in Hobart, like he's out of the way. But the fact that I got to meet such a down to earth amazing blow that's great. And then take Nat like I probably wouldn't have met her,

And like, to me is like I kept saying to my friends, he's like he's stuck in the a is.

Like it's twenty twenty four.

But the way that he presents himself just just some of the turn of phrases that he has where he talks about his missus or whatever, just all of it makes me think that he has been stuck in nineteen eighty one.

And you know what, like.

Smithton in Tasmania is probably going to come after me when I say this, but it probably is stuck.

In nineteen eighty one.

So that's still got a sanity and a Blockbuster video. You know, they've got all the old stores. I'd believe that. I'd believe that.

Yeah, And that doesn't sound like sometimes I want to go down to a Blockbuster and rent out a video.

So maybe I'll go back to the eighties and a heartbeat. That's just a sign of real of really who I am? Is it anything?

Now?

Looking back at the competition that you wish that you would have done differently or are you just making peace with it at this point?

There's you know what, the one cook that I think I'm not one to typically regret or like, you know, to say what it should have could have, But I'm gonna the one cook was the everything box that you know, knoed me into that elimination, and I think especially watching him back and how smart everyone else worked with their dish, particularly Mimi, Like, I think I saw the chicken and I was like, I need to cook that chicken instead of like what she did was she took the skin,

I've cooked like a roast cabbage before. You know, it's one of the most.

Delicious things ever when you roast the cabbage properly and you get like a real caramelization on it.

And I think that's.

Probably what I would have done instead of that Frankenstein dish that I ended up putting up.

But I think it's also really stressful sometimes when you've given parameters like that and Everything Box can be really hard because you're like, Okay, I've got to use everything, but you can use some things very small with different yeah, all the techniques without having to try and incorporate everything as the largest hero flavor.

Do you know what I mean?

I think that's what we saw in that cook was you know, some people understood that, and it's just so hard in the moment because people at home don't realize that there's none of that orchestra playing in the background to freak you out. But that clock is like looking at you. It's just looking at it.

It is yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.

And like I remember going at the start of that cook saying to myself because I love the show, I've watched it so many times before, and one thing I was really conscious of with the Everything Box is like creating a single.

I remember, I think it was season fifteen.

Last year where the Everything Box a lot of people just made like a sausage or a kebab where they just like dumped everything together, minced it all up, and that was like everything And I remember saying to myself, I don't want to do that, like, I don't want to just take everything and blitz it together.

That feels like a bit of a cop out.

But I think I went too far the other way, and I was like, Okay, I'm going to separate everything into its separate elements, and then I ended up with just too many things. And the judge's feedback was, it's too many things on the plate that don't really work together.

So yeah, when you.

Were talking about that, I was wondering how many times you may have applied for this show, because it sounds like you're a super fan and you've watched it alone.

Yeah, but this is actually my first time.

I was very, very fortunate, But yeah, I just never really had the inkling to apply before. You know, there's just something I think when you see shows on.

TV, you don't realize idle.

So I didn't that they're just regular people and they could just be it could be you like, there's just this barrier between the screen where you go that's some like fantasy land that.

You can't really get on.

And then I think, obviously having gone through.

The process, like it is very tangible, like you can end up on the other side of the screen.

This is so interesting because so often we have people at this point of the competition now listening to the podcast because they're wanting to apply for the next season. Like, do you have any tips that would be able to help someone get on the show, Like, now that you've been through that audition.

Process, what was it about you that they liked? Do you know what that was?

Yeah? I mean I'm not sure.

I obviously don't know why they joins me, but I think like the biggest tip I would say is I'm not trying to sound corny at all, but just like yourself, be so like true and authentic to yourself, because I remember being out auditions and there were people that were trying to like really amp it up. That's not sustainable and it's not genuine, and you can pick it for a mile away.

Just be yourself.

Obviously, the food is first and foremost, and then let your personality shine. But you don't need to be extravagant and boisterous. They're not necessarily the people that like you. Look at Mimi, she's not super over the top, right, or even Harry such a nice guy that comes across his genuine and that's what people love.

So yeah, so you're saying that in the audition process, I love this that there's people that are just like trying to be the loudest person in the room, and that's yeah, yeah great.

I'm just saying, like, whatever your personality is, just let that shine.

That's a different process to when I auditioned for Big Brother. I went I think it was I think it was rumored that I auditioned six times or something, but.

I think it was before that I went through it.

But I worked out that the people that were getting picked with the people that were the most polarizing, like the people yeah, okay, most annoying, and so like the time that I got picked, I went in there and I was like, just be yourself. But there was like some moments where I could be loud and annoying, and I think I've just realized that's what separates a Big Brother contestant to a Master Chef contestant.

But that's the thing, right, Like some people are loud, annoying, not saying that, what are you saying? If that's you, then just be true yourself, Like yeah, I don't think I think some people might see a contestant on TV and go I want.

To be like that.

Person and they try and be that person, but yeah, just be yourself.

Good advice, good advice.

I've been asking everyone about their favorite judge and who they want to win at this point, both questions that people have really struggled with because you're all the nicest Australians and no one wants to say anything bad or hurt anyone's feelings. But at this point, you know, top five, you'd have to have an idea as to who you think is your winner.

You know what, I'm not going to beat around the bush, and I'm going to say that that and I we formed a really good friendship on the show. But just having seen the way that she works with her timers and everything she is, she's kitchen ready, right, she could, like even if she got eliminated, you know the next episode, great song by the way, she could walk into a kitchen and I think she would get snapped up instantly.

So I'm gonna say.

That is my pick and Judge, you are my favorite judge.

I definitely do.

Yeah, Poe was just like I know quite a few people have said, Poe, They're all absolutely incredible and they were so nurturing from the get go, or for judges. But I think Poe just she really I could see empathized with a lot of us, and she she showed

So she's been so great and supportive.

Even post the airing period, so the competition. So yeah, Poe is my favorite.

She's just a great chick, you know what I mean, Like she just feels things. And I'm going to say that it's maybe PTSD, you know, because like for her, she's been in that scenario. She knows what it's like to be in those situations where the pressure is so hard to deal with and so hard.

To see exactly. So yeah, yeah, it's.

Just very stressful, very stressful.

Yeah yeah, yeah. I mean and Andy was obviously on the show as well.

So he knows what we went through, but he won, so he doesn't know what we've beat.

See that's so good. I never even thought about it like that, you know. See, but Andy that's there. That's one, and you've got Poe that's in almost one. You know, yeah, a couple of.

Times, honestly, you know, Andie.

The one thing I'm going.

To say about Andy is like I think people have thought that Andy's kind of taken on this bit of our Like, you know, he comes around in pressure tests and he kind of goes like staatey obvious. I remember my last pressure test. He was like, you're behind, mate.

I'm like, a fucking no, mate, I can see.

I'm like, I know what's going on.

But he really I think he identifies the contestants that he can say that too, and that is going to push them to another level. He can really like he was there to push us and to really get us the dig deep. So you know, it might come off as a bit like annoying soccer mom, I think is the way that sav put it, but he really knew how to get us to another gear.

Yeah, always states the obvious though He's done that since he started, like with his critiques on the food, like and it's interesting people are saying, you know, maybe without his mate Jock there this year, that it's they've noticed it more. But he's always done that you know, like it's kind of and you need someone who you know, when a frog walks into the room, where a person walks into the room dresses a frog, someone goes, it's

And I think, well, you know.

And he has taken on so much this year, really, you know, after the shake up of the judging lineup and all that, and a year of Master Chef, like he wasn't just there to mentor us, like he was there with the judges as well, like kind of phenomenal effort on Andy's could have.

Also dominated as well.

That's what I kept saying to people, Like he could have just been like I've been.

Here before, dudes, you know, like watch me.

But he gave people space to be who they were, and I think that that was really powerful. I think that's a really hard choice to make. I hope he's listening so that he loves us just that little bit more than Yeah. Okay, So but to leave the podcast, I ask everyone what is something from behind the scenes?

So I'm going to rule that out. I'm going to take that out of him.

We know that you guys all get along, But what's something from behind the scenes that you know, maybe a super fan who's been watching it for sixteen seasons would love to know about what it's like to be in the Master Chef kitchen. Yeah, like, what do they do when you get eliminated? Did you do they bring you back into that kitchen after you walk out? And do you get a chance to hug everyone or do you just get put in a cabin and send home?

You know? All right, there's a couple I might say a couple, I'll say one that comes to mind. I remember, so just yeah, when you do get a lide, obviously walk out the doors and you kind of walk into oblivion and then someone grabs you and like you go into a room just for like a post you know, briefing to make sure you're okay. Because but I remember walking because you walk back past kind of the kitchen, but outside the building. And because the kitchens obviously all wood.

And everything you hit like it echoes.

And we would always film They never show it, but.

We would always film like a closing sequence like oh, you know, obviously half episode guys, but I go home, rest, come back to my But as I was leaving, I remember just hearing like, you guys are the top five of twenty twenty four and they're all cheering, and I'm like sick, I've just been eliminated and now all my mates and they're just like cheering in.

My I know a bunch of I know that would brutal.

That was Yeah, it is so hard, my friend. But can I just say, you don't need to win reality shows in Australia.

It's not actually I mean it's great and.

Everyone wants that to put that on the wall, but it isn't who becomes the most successful. And if this is your passion, and I believe that it is, I honestly think that there's so much more that you can do with this whole experience, and you should be so proud. There's nothing I can't even imagine. I can't remember a season of this show where I can't pick the winner, and that's because it's so tight, you know.

Yeah, yeah, no, thanks man.

That really means a lot, mate, And you know, I strongly urge everyone out there if I want to apply for.

Mastership or whatever their mastership is.

You know, it might not be Masteref, who might be big Brother, it might be a survivor, it might be you know, chasing a job in another country.

Like, just go out and do it.

There's nothing bad that can come from chasing your dreams.

I'm obsessed with I think you're amazing. Good luck with it all. Enjoy chatting to the media.

And yeah, like I've said to so many people who have also stood out and stood above and stood on the shoulders of this competition, Australia is in your audience.

And they want you to succeed. We want to see what you can do with this.

So so good luck, awesome, Thanks so much, Ben, appreciate it's been great

Talking, lovely chatting to you.