UNPACKED REALITY - MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - HARRY

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week that light. Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading on today's episode with Harry, the most shocking eliminated contestant on Master Chef Australia for twenty twenty four. With fond memories of helping his mum and dad and the kitchen as a kid, Harry really embrace cooking around the age of twelve, influenced by his family

I will ask about.

Him getting married in the first few weeks of the show and what is now wife thought of juggling their special day with the filming requirements of Master Chef. We will discuss personality versus skill in the Master Chef kitchen, and he will address his winning edit that fooled most of the viewers this season of the show.

We will even deep.

Dive into the producers of the show and if they can try and sabotage the cooks to control the outcomes, which, to be honest, is kind of a hilarious theory. There's so much to unpack with Harry today, so sit back and relax as we unpack the wonderful world of Master Chef Australia.

Hey Ben, how's it going.

I'm good.

The first question I need to ask you though, is did you have a lot of rum last night while watching that episode?

Oh?

Mate, I wish I did, but I'm actually going to drive youly at the moment, So yeah, it was brutal. I had a couple of zero beers and my lovely wife organized like a.

Bunch of mates and some of my family to come around.

So you do want to a thing through Drivejuly where you have a day. Isn't there like a day that you can buy back where you then need to donate or something?

Yeah, one hundred percent. But I'm doing three of them next week because I'm going to Sydney for one those fortieth birthday.

So I just was like, are You're ever going to need to drink on any other day of your life?

In your life?

It's like I'd have intravenous drip Bundy rum or whatever it was. I don't even drink Bundy rum, but I'd have it going through my body for sure.

Yeah, I'll have plenty of catching up to do.

How are you?

I just I'm actually really nervous talking to you because I don't know if you've listened to twenty of my chats. I'm very supportive of everyone, but you were my pick to win.

I'm sorry I'll let you down that man. That really means a lot.

I gave it literally everything that I had, Like I fully emptied the tank no matter what happened, Like I'm still proud of the result, Like to be completely honest with you, Like I applied the day before applications closed, and I didn't even think i'd get more auditioned.

And then I got through that.

Yeah, so it was all pretty spare at the moment, but definitely the best thing I've ever done. So I'm super proud. I mean, yeah, hearing that that means a lot. Man and I have listened to a few of the other chats and yeah, I've got a real good kick out of it. I love Dash's one the legend.

Oh he's a legend. I mean.

But a lot of these people have also commented on you along the way, and I think that that is

Yeah, for sure, anything can happen It truly is like down to the cooking, and all it takes is one off night, which I obviously had last night. But yeah, I mean looking there's no guarantees, you know. I mean, like I went out.

On a fish challenge.

It literally just comes down to how you cook on the day, and a lot comes down to the mental side of it, you know.

I mean we can all cook.

We're all there for a reason, you know, especially to get to that stage in the competition, like nap pez A Sad, myself, me, like literally everyone who's there, all twenty two of us were.

There because we could cook.

And it literally just takes that one day where something gets to you and then that's it.

There's no second chances.

Yeah, there's been so many opportunities to talk about you with other people. And what I liked was someone would say, oh, I've got a chance to try his lobs to bisk I think was one of them. There was just so many little moments where people talked about your food and how good it is. That's an achievement in itself, because by human nature, we're all sort of sort of self focus.

A little bit.

But yet people have gone through this experience and singled you out more often than any other contestant this year. That must be pretty amazing to hear.

Yeah, one hundred percent is amazing to hear.

And all of the support just means the world to me, because that's why we all cook, you know, as to put something in front of someone under see him smile, and like the beauty about Master Chef is you can do that to the whole world really, like not this Australia, it's global.

I think maybe I.

Appealed to people just because I was just myself. I didn't want to put on a show or anything like that. I just wanted to be myself, be real and serve food that you know, that I love and that i'd want to eat. The lobster disk is actually an interesting one because I cooked that in episode one and there were just so many strong dishes people remembered it. One

Yours is still better. And it was like just two moments that.

Will like stick with me forever, and probably moments that solidified like in my mind that I deserve to be there because I don't know, like I've watched the shows in years past and otherwise looked at it and gone like, oh, I can cook, but I.

Don't know if I could do that.

You know, I think we all like you see to get that bit of imposter syndrome you in your head. But yeah, that was sort of a moment for me where I was like, oh, maybe I do deserve to be here.

So even you must have watched watched this series back and thought, oh, I'm kind of I'm good television.

No, man, there were so many moments where I just cringe and I was like, oh my god.

The fish hat was a gift from Jill. Actually it was.

It was a wedding gift and it got lost in the mail and to gauges for me to actually get it. But then it arrived the day that Rick stein came and I brought it to set like with no idea obviously that Rick Steinon's going to be the guess, but I had it with me then Yeah, afterwards Rick signed it for me and it was an epic But that was actually a gift from Jill, So funny story.

Behind the hat.

Some viewers thought your likability, your personality was helping you through, and so the discussion about a personality versus the cook has really taken place throughout the series.

I think that it's interesting to.

See that you come out of the competition and sort of put an end to that discussion. If it was based on personality likability, I think we would have seen you in the finale. But I think this really does prove to people that you know, you could have a grade personality on this show, but cook badly once.

And you're out one.

I think the beauty about Master Chef is you've got like twenty two different people up on the screen. Everyone's different no matter who you are, like what you know, there's going to be someone in Australia, in the world that's watching it and can really relate to you.

I don't know. I think we were all just ourselves. And you know, that's definitely like what I I was trying to do.

I just wanted to be myself and I wanted to take it for what it is and enjoy the moment and just be grateful because, like I don't know, the day to day was just so foreign to my everyday life that like it was impossible to be anything but

But it just so happens that when people cook from.

The heart and have a story about what they're cooking, it's often really bloody good, you know what I mean?

Yep?

I agree, like.

Because they're cooking with like raw emotion and a story and that always translates into the food.

There's also nothing wrong and this is where I've sort of taken people to task, and it's interesting to unpack with you. There's nothing wrong with being smart enough to self produce yourself anyway.

Definitely, But like my wife would tell you, I don't think I think ahead enough to self produce.

Oh really, let's get her about those.

He has to say, Yeah, I definitely I wouldn't say it's self produced, but I don't know. I just spoke what I was thinking, and just spoke from the heart, I suppose, and also cooked from the heart, Like I think the best.

Dishes are the ones that mean something to you.

And like there'd always be challenges or things or ingredients so you'd.

Be able to draw back to your life and your memory.

Well, when they chose a seafood challenge at this point of the competition, was cares a right to say, oh, I think this is an advantage. Did you all sit there and think has this been done as an advantage to Harry?

I mean, I don't know how the show's made, but I'm almost certain that all the challenges are locked in months and months at a time. There's definitely no advantage other than just blue chance that it happened to be a Seafood Challenge. But the thing with the pressure test is Josh Nilan came in and said, here's a flounder,

What about this whole idea that maybe that there's those I mean, because we all talk about the fact that the producers that work on Mastership Australia are actually the best and the nicest producers in the industry. That's not

People say on Reddit with the Earth's flat.

So you know, the thing about Master Chef compared to other shows, and like I've obviously got no experience with other TV shows, but like Master Chef, they don't have to create drama because the cooking creates the drama, do you know what I mean?

So, like any of those.

Things that happened where it's like oh, like as you said, like on Mimi's ovens too high or low or you know, there's absolutely no way to be able to predict or force any of that to happen. It's purely like where they're cooking, you know, like last night, like you know, I put the fish into the steam oven without the cling film. I just completely skimmed over it. And I skimmed over the cling film and the Gion BRAHAMI pressure

Being a butcher as well was kind of an equal advantage. I mean, like he people talked about it.

Because it was an obvious thing to say, seafood fish carry Yeah, but I also think, you know, Pezz also had a skill set that really played into being able to do well yes.

And no, like you know, yeah, sure he's got a lot of experience with butchering red meat for his shop and that sort of thing, But like that flounder is so fid ly dude. And I don't know if anyone's taken notice of the size of Pezz's fingers pretty much the same as the sausages that he sells in the shop.

You know. I think for any advantage, he had a few disadvantages too. I'm sure won't miss out that way.

I was going to come back to this thought that I had we kept hearing last night that one of the reasons why you came out of the competition was because you were so enamored by our celebrity chefs that's there this day. I don't believe it. I'm calling bullshit on that. I believe that you're at the emotion at the start of the episode when he arrived, But I don't believe that that has anything to do with the fact that you might have fumbled with this cook Can you clarify?

Yeah, Like, I'm a massive fan of Gosh, Like I've

Trying to be perfect than doing my best, do you know what I mean?

And I think when you're trying to be perfect as opposed to doing your best, if you make a mistake or you get a little bit behind, or something rattles you, it's just so much easier for it to spiral.

Yep, I can see that.

I also think that time is going to haunt you when you watch that episode back in the Needs to Come, because it was time that for me was this.

You know, you slowed.

Down at some points and you were like just taking your sweet ass time, and then time would speed up and you would get anxious by it. I feel like that is the real kryptonite in that episode for you, was the management of time for sure.

Yeah.

And I think I just I was just in love with like the dish and like the technique, and I was just, to be honest, just enjoying like that first part of the Cool Girl. I was making the Harissa and building the flounder and you can probably see that. And then I think I was just so in love and like enjoying that part of it. But then I was like, oh shit, I've got like a whole other cookit.

I've got to do so and.

Someone cre me with just some dream music playing and playing you in slow motion because I did. Couch thinks that I was mad at it, because like, as that was happening, I was smashing the side of my couch.

Move move what I'm.

Doing, Like it's a I think it was three hours, and I was like, this is a tightly packed operation here. You know, there isn't any time to slip into that dream mode. Oh so relaxing.

I know it probably haunted me forever, but.

I'm still proud of like the cook I'm super proud of the competition up until then as well, and the opportunity it's going to give me. And I'm just proud of the way that I sitt have handled myself. It's a really high pressure environment and I'm actually really not great at public speaking or anything like that. Well, I definitely wasn't going into it, so that was just another sort of thing that I had to overcome.

Yeah.

So a likable element to you though, is that And it goes back to what I was saying to Mimi, and that is that the best people for reality television aren't show offs. They aren't the loud people, They aren't the ones that this sort of stuff comes easy to. They are the people that are authentically just being themselves and that are up loving themselves just that little bit.

I mean that's really nice and really well said, but honestly, like anyone could do it. I would encourage anyone out there that you know is a passionate home cook to give it a crack because even if.

You come last, or even if you don't make.

It, even that like just the personal growth and like

But they stay for you. So I think that's sort of what's it the core of it all?

As your wife had to bring you down a few notches throughout this season, like there's been some check paper going on after watching an episode where you've done well, like how's she coping with your ego at this point? Because I could say that even for a shy guy or someone who has some security, you.

Should be feeling pretty good after watching some of these episodes.

In what I'm saying, yeah, one hundred percent. No, we've honestly just been loving watching it back.

But I think little my wife's definitely keen for it to be over so that we can talk about her now. We got married during the filming of the season, so it was kind of nice to get home and have a few weeks together like where we could just relax and spend time together. But even since then, like it's essentially been like months and months and months and throughout

So did you give her a wink when there was that episode a few episodes back where you said she'd sacrificed a lot for you to be in this competition?

Did she appreciate that?

Not?

At that point, she was pretty stoked with the call out our bloody dog knock you though. She's got no idea that she was on TV. You know, she went through that shot and yeah, I've got no idea.

She's asleep on.

Our couch at the moment having puppy dreams and there's no idea that she's famous.

Yeah.

I mean, I've been asking all the contestants about the judges and I think it's interesting with this show because they're there to judge you, but Australia judges them. And there's been so much talk about this lineup of judges this year and what everyone thinks of them. Are you able to help me with some perspective on Jean Christophe Andy Allen Paulin Yao, and Sophia. What are these people really like? Can you tell me something, just something small about each of them?

Yeah, for sure.

I'll start with John christoph look is just like a gentleman and one of the funniest and nicest bokes I've ever met. Like going into it when I heard that there's like a French mission judge, I was shitting myself, to be honest with you, because I thought of taking dishes up to him. But he was so supportive, happy, charismatic and exactly how he comes across on screen except funnier. One of his things one of his bits of feedback that he said, well time that didn't make the cart,

We all just like lost it, like I couldn't breathe. It was hilarious that he's a legend. Sophia, she's incredible.

Like she can articulate food just from like one mouthful, like no one that I've ever met. I think she brought something really unique from that perspective where she wasn't a chef or a contestant, but can articulate food incredibly well. And then obviously like Poe and Andy, Poe and Andy both shared the fact that they were intestines, so they for us as contestants, were really relatable, you know, whenever

Knowing Andy Allen as well as I do, the way that I watch him is very different. It's a very different lens to how some of the viewers watch him. They might see him being very critical. I know him well enough to know that he is putting himself in your shoes every time, and he is so self critical of himself and the pressure that he puts on himself to do well.

He feels that so he is secremented.

Giving you those critiques because that I know is what he would be saying inside his head to himself.

That's where I think it.

Yeah, and from a contested point of view, we definitely feel that his feedback and mentorship was incredible because you knew that what he was saying wasn't just about the food, it was about you as well, and wanting you to do well. Absolutely love Andy and hopefully coming to catch up with him outside of the competition. And yeah, lastly make a quick bit po as well as just one of the happiest, most lovely people that I've ever met, so down to earth and genuine and are real.

What you see is what you get to the character. I think her smile, so that says everything. Yeah, the way that she smiles is how she is as a person. If that makes sense.

It does.

Yeah.

I mean I've spoken to the number of times, and I always think to myself, after I've spoken to her, you're walking away from any interaction, even if you're just talking about the weather, feeling better about yourself somehow. For me, for sure, there's something kind of magical about her calmness, her stillness that is transpired to you in a weird way, and so you walk away thinking, I wish that happened to me effortlessly every day to be that kind of a person.

Absolutely, And even if there was a dish that she straight up said to you that she hated, you should still walk away the way that she delivered it.

You're like ah. And then.

All four judges lovely people, and I'm really grateful to have gotten to know them.

And I think they.

Each bring something so unique to the show, Like maybe the concept of having three judges at the four judges at the start and may have been a bit confusing to some people, but they're each there for a reason. They bring something so unique and special to it.

I love them obsessed.

I think the preview for next week is also really hilarious. We get a glimpse of the four judges cooking alongside the three remaining contestants. You know, it looks like they're a fumbling mess. It looks like they are not coping. Is that a good thing for us as viewers to see the judges buckle under the pressure like that?

Like, I don't want to give away any spoilers or anything, but I would encourage everyone to tune in. I was watching from the gantry and it was awesome. It was funny but also really good to watch as a cook, because you know, you watch the way that some of the move and do things and organize their benches and also their dishes, and so it was entertaining, hilarious, a little bit chaotic, but also just really educational as well. So it was one of my favorite ones to have been able to spectate.

Last question I have to ask you, which is a hard one at this point. This question got harder every time I asked it because once you remove a person out of this competition, there's less people to pick and it's harder to say why. But who is going to win this show? With the three people we've got left in terms of how you felt, not what you know now, but what and how you felt as you came out of the competition. You've got those three people left, who do you want to win?

It's a tricky question.

I knew this one was going to come up. I'm going to give you the answer that you're probably going to hate. But I think they've all got.

No, we don't know, no, no merit. How do you win on that effect?

That goes?

Just got one?

One?

The reason why is because everyone wants you to be put on the spot. Everyone wants to know.

Okay, so a quick quick summary and recap. But I think Pezz his growth and also his fight and ability to smash pressure tests makes him a huge threat. I mean, Nat has proved the whole competition and that she's sort of a threat and the one to beat, Like week in week out, she's delivered banging dishes. But Sad is a fighter, and if she comes in and goes like I can do this, I'm going to She pretty much always does. And when she cooks from the heart, I

So if I have to pick one, I'm locking in Sad.

Oh my god, I did not see that one coming. I did not see that coming. It's fine. I love a sav I mean a cab sav savvy b I didn't think about that.

I what is something from behind the scenes. I want a behind the scenes secret from you, Like, what is something that you know we as an audience get a chance to see from you like a Harry secret.

Okay, Harry secret, not so much of a secret, but so obviously like early on I got married, I think after the first like a couple of weeks of filming.

But one of my best mates is Jill, and.

Like literally from like the first moment, we're just like, you know, connected, We're really good mates. And I was just like, I think it was like week one or two, I was like, oh, by the way, I can getting.

Married, which is like, oh, yeah, can't come.

I was like, yeah, so sorry, I probably can't swear.

Yes you can swearing podcast not every way to be an S and C.

But if it's wark you're aloud, well I was.

I was like, yeah, yes, please Jill come to the wedding. And so anyway, Jill like straight away, like after knowing each other like a week or two, book flights to the wedding and requested permission to come from from the producers and that all got to prove. So yeah, Jill literally after like one or two weeks of knowing me,

On the bus with all my family.

Yeah, it's absolutely classic. But that's that's probably my behind the scenes thing is that, yeah I got got some Master Chef fan at the wedding and we all had a great time.

That's my favorite secret this series of Martins.

When audiences come to watch this show, so we come to watch something, there's something about it that's quite magical. And I want to say to you that there's something about you as a person that almost summarizes what it is that Australia loves about this show.

I think you were so amazing. I think you were so open.

I think you let the entire challenge wash over you in a way that made it so enjoyable to watch. I can't wait to see what you do with this. It's going to be amazing. I think this is just the start.

Thanks mate. Yeah, it really means a lot. And yeah, I'm just glad that.

Australia seems to have just seen me for me. So yeah, I'm really grateful for that opportunity, and yeah, I'm keen for what's to.

Come as well. I think I mentioned before I'm going to be doing.

A lot of social media like YouTube, Instagram, all sort of like ocean to plate based.

Where I'll be doing like tutorials.

Recipes even just like go and fishing and taking everyone along for the ride. So I'm really excited for that. I obviously want my own restaurants and venues one day, but whoever's listening, if they want to follow along, it's just Harry Butterfield underscore on all the different platforms.

And yeah, hopefully I can keep.

Bringing that chill sort of vibe with my seafood knowledge, and yeah, keep entertaining people.

The sky's the limit, I think.

Thanks mate, hopefully hopefully amazing.

Look after yourself.