UNPACKED REALITY - MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - JUAN

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast last week They're Life. Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading on today's episode with Juan, the seventh eliminated contestant from Mastership Australia for twenty twenty four, which is on Network ten from Sunday through to Thursday at seven point thirty. Born in Argentina, Juan de la Cruz is one of nine children. He now lives in

It's great to be chatting with you.

Then, you know, I just was doing a deep dive on the internet and found out that your brother was in Big Brother, the Argentinian Big Brother, and that makes both of you reality TV stars that runs in the family.

Yeah. Man, it was like the same year there was some popstars.

In Argentina a couple of months after my brother gets into the house.

So he lived the same experience as you.

You know what, what did what made both of you want to go on reality television?

Well, I was loving at that time. I was a teenager and I had my rock band and I was like playing in places and loving it.

And suddenly this opportunity of going to popstars was there, and I said, well, let's try it. I didn't expect to go as far as I went, you know, I was like kill.

I was seventeen. So after that, my.

Brother saw all the repercussions and he loved there. I said, okay, I'm going to try with big brother again. I don't think he was going to get in and suddenly keeps in the big brother's house too, So it was a crazy tell you.

So, if you guys are out with Mama and Papa at a restaurant, who gets recognized more?

Well, we are nine siblings.

Imagine that until they see all of us, they are probably like counting which ones they know or not.

You know, I want to ask you the comparison of being on reality television oversays versus Australia, and off the back of that has reality TV kind of changed since when you first did it.

Yes, it changed a lot in terms of well, firstly, what it's like the times that we live in, Like reality shows now are so like powered by social media at the same time, so you get this like straight feedback from people watching it and telling you what they feel about seeing you on tea. Well, twenty years ago, probably you would have to wait for a letter on the mailbox just to know, you know, what was happening. That's one of the main things. And then Australian production

Do you now want to be remembered for being a singer or a cook? You've now got these two big things on your resume.

What's more according to.

You, Yeah, that's a great question.

Look, I also make board games, I like I travel.

I just I love I love life.

I love the good things in life, and I think food and music are two of the things that I enjoy the most. I reckon that lately, the food that's been one of the most important parts of my life the last two years. So my girlfriend Amy, she's a siliac, so I have to change my whole way of cooking, like all the ingredients that I use, everything in my kitchen has been changed. So I became a seliact friendly cook and that made me more aware of how I cook, the way that I use ingredients.

Or you know.

And I think that the food has become a really important part in my life for pleasure and also for because I have to.

These are two of my favorite things. My friend, I feel like we would get along very well. I'm always so enamored by singers, but I think I'm more, you know, wowed by food, Like I just.

Talking to my soul.

Yeah.

Look, I still love to make music and I've been recording some songs, but yeah, and I prefer to be link to food now because it's what I'm doing and I'm enjoying and that's my project for the future.

So yeah, I guess it doesn't necessarily need to be one of the you know one you have to pick one, you know what I mean, you could do exactly, you could do both.

You know.

What's really surprised me about you on this show is even when I was watching you to the side, you're so impressive.

Like I don't know if you even noticed that.

In last night's episode, when they lined up the chefs and you guys are supposed to be standing there, I reckon you had about ten expressions while the others were nothing.

Look, it's a probable I cannot lie. My face says too much. I realized watching myself on Tida. My girlfriend was laughing because like when they need an expression, they put your face because it's it's like you know, it's like without words.

They get you, you saying a lot.

Yeah, I realized that my face is very expressive and now talking to you, you should see me and smiling.

Can imagine Is it an Argentinian trait to be like that though? Do you think?

I think Argentina's We're very resilient.

We've been through a lot of crisis and bad moments in history, but we are really positive people. We we enjoy the small wins. Every small thing that we can achieve is a big win, and we we love it and we smile about it and we celebrated.

But I love that.

I tell you, I come with an extra on that. I'm extremely happy it's.

Just such an effortless trait that you're saying to have, which you know, I think I think we need more of.

That, you know, in our lives.

So anyway, you know, it was interesting I was reading your Instagram this morning and you put up a post to say that you really enjoyed your Master Chef experience with the laughs, the love and the accidents.

What was your biggest accident? Did you have a lot of them?

Oh? Oh, my health, it wasn't the best.

So only two weeks into the competition, I got this accident where I was practicing in my all my practice kitchen and hot oil through a Turro, lovely Turro, and turro decided to explode in my face. So it was full of oil and it exploded in my hand, my face, and luckily JOHNA was my roommate at the time, lovely my friend, and he found me in the cold shower and said.

Now what happened? A lot of this happened, So in.

Logs from production, they took me to hospital. Lovely people at the hospital, and they kind of saved my scheme from just falling apart.

That's one you want to get a memory from Master Chef that's that's.

That's when a couple of times to for dinner, I go with Besa and Steve and I got food poisoning. So I spent a week almost disappearing.

In the toilet. And yeah, it's been a few things that they help didn't help me. It was not healthy all the time.

Yeah, well, I did notice that.

I was like, it was such a strange thing to point out with the accident, so I knew there would be a story or two.

Yeah, yeah, no, no, it's it's been a lot of accidents, but good accidents.

You know.

It gave me more resilience, morea for me was challenging to go after the accident the next day to the kitchen and being in pain, but at the same time saying, this once in a lifetime opportunity, I cannot waste it, so I'm going to just push through and go with it.

So yeah, don't you think though, It's kind of like the things that you get challenged the most buy become the most rewarding. So when you find yourself in situations, I say this to my friends all the time. You know, when you find yourself in turmoil, it's usually you're on the right path. The best things in life are usually the things that challenge you the most.

Yes Toally, I felt that that week like the reward of just like I said, Wow, I went through this and then I cook and they enjoyed my food. You and if I couldn't even think about it like so much because I was in pain, it was such a rewarding experience and saying well I can do it, you know, and that gave me more strength to keep going in the competition.

Well, I was off the back of that Instagram thing. It did say that you were going to reveal some things. I don't know if you can reveal them with me or whether you're saving them for your Instagram.

Yeah, not one hundred percent.

Basically on my Instagram, I will be posting what's next, but mainly I'm going to be sharing all the recipes that I got so much, so many messages and can you share this recipe or can you tell me the secrets.

The Triple Threat.

Yeah. Yeah.

Has Master Chef changed you though? Because is this kind of what you would be doing had you not have been picked to do the show? Like I mean, I can imagine this has kind of been in your tank, regardless as to whether or you've done Master Chef.

You know that it's funny because, as you can hear, my accent is not the proper Ossia accent.

I'm Australian, but I'm a Gentinian and I was I was thinking for a long time that I wanted to create.

These videos and these recipes, but I was a little bit like scared of the reception of it. I didn't know how I was completely going to come across through the screen, you know, Like I was comfortable in Argentina.

I guess my language and the way I talk and everything, and.

I think that mastership and this opportunity has encouraged me to do it because it proved me that people in Australia has lovely being like well received. I didn't get one single bad message since I started a competition.

There's no way anyone's saying anything bad about it.

Yeah, and that's so comporting and it makes me feel so reassured that I can do it and people will welcome it and will follow and will form me in this journey. So that actually gave me green light to go for it.

What was it like watching this BacT though? I mean, I can hear it in your voice. I can hear you thinking, oh, you know the accent, is it too thick? Or you know, you're quite reflective of how people respond to you. Are you getting a different perspective now that you've seen it back?

Oh?

Yes, it's Seriously, I cannot be more thankful about people in Australia and all around the world. It's just like they embraced me, they adopted me, and I feel so loved And seriously, I get.

Emotional because every single message.

From not only from Australia Argentinian is proud of me representing them, but from I got messages from Kenya, India, South Africa. I cannot believe the countries on the reach of this show. But also the common language you know that we all share about love for food and love for for a smile, of.

Being happy or just enjoying life.

So I think this opened in my head to welcome this and not being picking on things that are not important.

You know when you think about.

Accents or race or you know, countries or the universal language.

Yes, it's the love language is food. I think it is my house.

Yeah, oh, then the same, the same.

I just the thing is I love so much to eat that I had to cook because I love food.

What was it like cooking for Luke Luke Newan. I think the pressure sometimes when you get these renowned chefs coming into the Master Chef kitchen. I don't know how I would go. I feel like sometimes I'd be really stressed by that.

Oh you stress me so much.

Because what happened in my head I was to say, I heard the first three sentences and then my head went into this weird wind of thinking how I'm gonna showcase Vietnamese for the King of Vietnamese. I was just in my head and I didn't realized that I could have cooked ch just a dish that I'm really familiar with.

Want to ask on this though, because I saw you with lime, you know, you could not have been given something more perfect for you.

And exactly if you're reading the.

Comments on social media, and I always say, don't read the comments on social media, but I'll be your translator on this.

And people were talking.

A lot about your choice to go with Vietnamese instead of using the lime that leans into Argentinian culture, and people were wondering.

Why, Yeah, why, because you know what I mean.

I mean I kind of screamed at the screen when the lines were revealed. I was like, wow, come on, like you couldn't have gone.

Yeah, there's no chance that he will ruin this. I think the same. And I was watching the last night. I was just thinking, I think that I got overwhelmed by the situation.

As you said, you see these huge superstells of a type of cuisine, and I thought, oh, okay, we're doing and my head was dog you know, and then I.

Thought in the middle of the cook I was like, well, it's being na miss flavors. But I can put my lap in touch and then I made that using a confusion like probably people will think, and I agree, because I should have gone for something that I felt more comfortable with.

And that's why in the second.

Round I ended up making them pannounced because I thought, look, I need to be comfortable cooking something that I know, again with an ingredient that I never cooked before.

So I wasn't comfortable at all. But you know, at least the type of.

Cook is there a lot of pressure? Do you think to cook with your heritage? Because that same to be where they were going with this debate, like once the lines were revealed for you, and I know that it's interesting because when I launched this season on my podcast, I was talking to Poe and she said that she thinks it's important to lean into your culture and the cooking that you were brought up with. She could see that, and I could see her sort of saying that a

Great question.

Look, in the end, I found myself getting the best feedback when I cooked from my heart and I cooked what I knew when I enjoyed cooking, and I thought the first time that I tried to get out of that, I got eliminated. So if you ask me, I think that I should have sticked to my gowns and I should have sticked to who I am and what I know. Of course, it's great to show that you have technique,

You know, it's interesting because I don't think of us as being Australian having this particular flare about our food. But then I was thinking about you cooking here in Australia, and I wondered how Australian culture has influenced your cooking and if it has it all?

Yes, yes, and yes, you know, like I've been ten years in Australia and at first I was like clashing with this idea of its Argentina or it is Australia. And then I found that on myself cooking a proper barbie. You know that it's full of Australian ingredients, but that's for me. It's an assado from Argentina. But no, because

So yeah, well, I think that you know, this show really celebrates home cooking, and I think that's really important because I think it's important to inspire people to cook for themselves.

I think it's important to do that.

That's one of my favorite things about life is being able to get fresh produice and take it home. And you know, look, do you think the cooking at home has kind of lost a part of its appeal with home delivery over time? And do you think it's important to be making food and time for yourself.

That connection with food I hope is never lost because yeah, I think that these new trends of making everything easier. I understand because of lack of time or whatever, but I recommend people to find a little bit of time and connect with cooking, with fresh produce, with the It's an enjoyment to eat you just created with your hands. But also knowing where everything comes from. You know that those fresh ingredients that will make your dish taste much better, It's going to be healthier for you.

You're going to feel so good about it, you know, and rewarding also.

So yeah, I think that this new trend of easy easy's super easy good.

I'm not helping, so I just think it becomes addictive because you know, for me, we get to for me and my pinter, we go to the South Melbourne market and buy our fresh produce.

Now do you know what I mean?

Like as in, the more you get into putting good food in your belly, it becomes addicted.

Yeah, you know, and it makes you happy.

It is so good. Yeah, it is so good.

That whole experience of going and getting the ingredients and then seeing where you're going to cook with them and make that happen.

It's just the whole experience is beautiful.

I'm absolutely obsessed with the judges this year. I think that they're so well measured, and I think they're so well put together on their show. I'm curious, are we seeing them the way that they are from your perspective, Like what was the difference of being in the kitchen and being alongside them versus how we're seeing them on television? Because I wonder whether or not they get put into character molds.

It's important to show all the you know, shapes of a person. But I tell you that it's been a great work from the project to show pace.

Who they are.

And yes, it's been such a pleasure to see that.

Yeah, it's shown shown the way they are.

They're lovely, they are really knowledgeable, they're helpful. Yeah, I'm happy with how they show them. I was hoping they could capture that essence that each one.

Of them have, and they do that well.

You know.

And it's interesting because I've been saying to everyone who joins the podcast, which is kind of a horrible it's kind of a horrible question to ask, really, but can you tell me who your favorite out of the four of them has been throughout your journey, and.

I won't say, oh, can I say to you? I have to pick one? I have to pick one just I love the fo love the four of them.

That's only favorite because of my connection is Shan Christophe.

No, really, that man is just not such a great chef.

He knows so much output, but he's even a more lovely person.

He cares.

I could tell he would suffer for each one of us living in that kitchen. He would suffer if we couldn't perform as well as he was hoping for us. He was like a that vie for me because he would come to my ventures and I pushed through. You can do this, you know, or tell me some clips to improve my cooking.

And I just love how close he was.

Well off the back of that, which is even worse. You know who is your favorite to cook with? You know who's your favorite contestant? Leading into who do you want to win?

This show?

From day one in my first audition, I met her and I've been friends and I love her way of cooking, but I love her.

So much more.

She's for me, one of the best cooks of the Mastershire Kitchen, and she is a lovely, lovely person and she's me. I love some of it, and I hope she wins the competition.

Okay, well that's great.

You know, you're like the first person that I haven't had to, like, you know, bully into giving me an answer.

Oh, because I can mention all of the rest as a lovely, beautiful people, and I can tell you which people is excellent cook that should win the competition. But she reunates everything. She's beautiful, she's great, and she's a great cook. So yeah, there you've got something.

Well, you know, I always ended my podcast with a question, which is what is something from behind the scenes, something that you know audiences might not know. And I was thinking about this today because I'm going to ask you something specific, which I don't think I've ever done, and

Okay, that's a great question.

So we've been living in these apartments that were for two people. I was sharing my first room with Jonathan. When he left the competition, I was alone until another room with two people with would lose one of them, and then those two remaining will get together.

So who did Yeah? I was alone for a few.

Weeks, and then Doh became my roomie, great lovely Dosh, cooking so many suits.

I got so fun sharing a room with it. Oh my god, great great cook.

It's probably good that you let any competition at that point, because it sounds like he's into cooking that weird Durian or whatever it was called.

I can't remember that. I've never heard of that fruit before. Is it a fruit? I don't know what. What does that even smell like?

It is a fruit and it smells like rotten meat. Oh great, Yeah, sounds tasty. I tried.

I keep it off the show, keep it off the shopping mate.

I just want to say thank you so much for being so vivacious and gregarious and so fun to watch on television. You know I'm in your audience. I can't wait to see what you do with this whole experience, and yeah, good luck.

Thank you very much, May it's been a pleasure to talk to you.