UNPACKED REALITY - MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - LILY

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast last week they light Hi guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading on today's episode with Lily, the fifth eliminated contestant on Master Chef Australia for twenty twenty four, which is now on Network ten from Sundays through to

Hi, Ben, how are you?

I'm good? How are you? I mean? This is very exciting to get picked to beyond Master Chef and then to have the anticipation of how it's all going to play out, and then to finally get to see it.

Do you know what? It's been an amazing thing.

I've been very very lucky to have support for both here and England, and so I feel very grateful for that and a bit kind of sort of across other sides of the world, but both all seem as interested as each other, which is lovely.

Well, it's a good question to ask you because I want to know from you. Master Chef is you know, a show that's made all around the world, and I want to know what was your favorite Master Chef series? Was it the UK version or the Australian one? Before doing it?

Absolutely the Australian one.

What's the difference? I mean, I've never watched the UK one, but whilst I was finishing the Internet last night, as you do, I was reading about the differences of what viewers think from you know, expats that go overseas, and there are some big differences. But I want to know what you think makes us better.

I think for me, whenever I watched the Australian Mastership in England, I always felt like there was more opportunity and more sort of cool things that they did, and the it seemed more creative and more experimental, and then the opportunity with sort of where they went and who they met and everything. It always just felt a bit a bit more sort of a bigger thing.

Well, you know that this was really quite interesting because last year, while I was doing the exit interviews for all of your fabulous people that get de picked on the show, I got this person from the New Yorker in America asking me to do a story with him, and I did the story, and the thing that they were fascinated about in America was the caliber of judges that we get the guest show.

Totally like that, you.

Know, that's where we're kind of leveling up in some.

Way totally, And I think that's the thing.

Like Australia is so massive as well, and food is such a sort of pinnacle of its culture, and I just really felt that coming here, and I think, yeah, for me, I just felt the UK one never really excited me. And maybe I can't pinpoints exactly why that is, but it never really pinpointed me or grabbed me. And I also felt it never really had a following like Australian Master Chef does, which I've realized a lot more since moving here.

Maybe it's meant to be. Who knows.

I have watched the UK one, but the Australian one always excited me much more.

Find that with international people on our reality shows. I wanted to know what sort of feelings you have going into it, because for you, what are your thoughts going in? Do you think there is any advantage or disadvantage to having an accent or being from another country.

For me, that was something that just never crossed my radar, and I think all I wanted from this whole experience was.

An opportunity to prove to myself that I can do it.

I never thought of the fact that I wasn't from Australia.

Really, I knew from watching it previously that there are some.

Phenomenal cooks from all across the world who get the opportunity to be on the stage of Mastershire. I never really thought of my culture as well as being a sort of skill, if that makes sense.

I never really went in.

Maybe it's because that is such a British thing that we always downplay everything, But I think I never really went in being like, oh, I am going to show British cuisine and I'm going.

To show this.

I just went in and was totally myself and did me And it's sort of in hindsight now I've had a lot of Oh, it's so English of you to be so sort of humble and all this sort of stuff, and I'm like, I'm just me and I just had a wicked time. And I never went in trying to think of my background and upbringing and my culture as a sort of skill or power play. I just went in to be like, here we go, ride the wave, but just make sure you have fun.

It could also be quite cliche if you were to do things like, oh, I'm going to whip up some bubble and squeak, I'm trying to think.

Of totally totally, and you'd look and I just never.

Really wanted to be like that, Lily. You don't look like that to me.

I just wanted to come in and be like, what's important to me? I think so much of my.

Vibe as a person is like a moral compass, and I just I'm happy to make a fool of myself if it makes people laugh, and that then subsequently makes people feel comfortable.

And so for me, I was like, go in, have fun, cook what you like to eat, and don't cook for other people.

And don't get me wrong, it's very very hard sometimes to stay in that lane because there's so many things going on, there's so many variables, you're exhausted all those things.

But I was like, just go in and do you. You know, you do better when you cook what you love. Well.

I think it was great that you sort of reiterated that in the episode. I mean, you left the show with this declaration of you just doing you, I'm just dreaming. And I love that because I think that's a very important It's very simple, but it's a very important reminder to the viewer that that is important for us all to do that. But how did this show change you? And because this was filmed a little while ago, you've had some time to sort of reflect on the show

I think, yeah, it's a really interesting question.

I moved here five years ago on my own and I didn't really know anyone here, and I didn't have a job when I moved, and all those sorts of things. I was a nurse obviously from back in the UK. I knew that I would be able to get work here somewhere. But I was like, just go and do it and find out what it is that you want and what makes you tick and what makes you happy.

And I to do what makes you happy. And that's a real sort of really ingrained in us. Three.

So I guess that's what's sort of given me the confidence to be someone to just be like, just try it, You've got nothing to lose, don't expect it. But if it happens, how amazing. And that's how I've tackled this whole master chef process. I've suppressed this food idea for a really really long time. I've always had wacky ideas of things that I'd love to do.

Which are a little bit off the sort of inverted Commas norm, this classic thing of.

Like, oh, you go to university in England, that you've finished school, you go to university, you get a job, and that's that and.

That's your career.

I've pingponged all over the place and it has been the most amazing thing, and I've met subsequently the most amazing people. And I'm still in Australia five years later, doing a bit of a career swivel. At the moment, it's utterly sort of solidified that I'm not meant. I'm not a one trick pony, and I'm not meant to be in one lane.

And all I hope is that I can encourage other people.

And I do it to my friends like all right, lil we get it, Like I might change it if you're not happy.

Life is so short, just change it.

Yes it's scary, Yes it's daunting, but there's an element of fake it till you make it and winning it. And that's I think there's so much loveliness within that, because life is really short, and we all know and hear these awful things that happen around the world, and I just want to leave this world being like, do you know what?

I had a wicked time. I made people feel good.

I had fun and I tried things, and you don't I get my total buzz from being like, do you know what?

I tried that?

And I've met amazing people and I've filled out my life cup with some amazing memories. And if it's not meant to be, it won't be. But how cool to be able to have the opportunity to do that Oh.

Yeah, that's a great photo to put on the wall at home. I was put in a full fun master year of Australia people walking. I know this is mine.

So lucky. I'm so lucky.

And I truly hand on heart. And I'm not just saying a splendor in. We truly hand on heart. Never ever thought I would get in. I applied on a total whim. Always loved food. It's always been this underlying passion of something that I've been able to talk so passionately about. And it's all I think about every day in the morning and I'm like, right, what are we going to have for dinner?

My partner says to me, because he's a general manager, we both work from home, he's a very busy person, so I make his lunch. It's very you know, fifty's wives, and I get so funny just every lunch he says to me, what's for dinner?

And I'm like, yeah, hey, just just do lunch.

Just doing lunch for you right now, buddy. But truly we're always thinking about our next meal. I think, bully, and.

I just think for me.

I love that I've been very fortunate to grow up with a mum who was the sort of queen of hosting.

And we were lucky to have a house where the.

Door was open, and any one of us kids who had sort of mates who were at a loose end was Mums like just bring them over and would come back from work and throw together these dinner parties for her friends, dad's friends, anything like that. And so she's

Have conversation over a plate of food.

And it just sort of drops those barriers immediately is something that I really really really adore.

About it, and that's something that I want to take forward.

Well, there's something about food. Don't you think about how it changes you? Like if you cook someone food, you know, it's like if you say to a mum that's been cooking forever, you know, what do you want? Why I can make you anything? And they sound don't care. Everything tastes good as long as I didn't have to cook it, bully, But there's something quite beautiful about putting your time and your energy into making someone a plate of food and

And I've always said, like, be vulnerable, because it's allowing someone else in front of you to be vulnerable too.

And I think that's what food doesn't exactly like you just alluded to. That's what I'm here for.

That's what it's all about in my view, and I think master chef, there's so many people who have different visions, which is so amazing, and things that I would never have thought of, things that I would never be able to cook, and that imposter syndrome and all of those things that you experienced through it. But actually I went in and I was like, the food that I love is simple, homely, good food. And yes, I didn't necessarily do that last night, and I was so creatively blocked.

That's okay too. You know, I love loved that you said the word moist on national television and I have to talk to you about this because it's in my circle of friends that my girlfriends say, do not use the word moist or panties in a conversation with me. I was off the table, so it's a known thing amongst my people. Don't say it.

There's a tea at the end of it in England, so moist. I'm mortified is that word?

Though? As to like, is that a okay? Great?

That's why you've made me blush because I'm like, oh, I've gutted, You've brought.

That half literly, You've done it. You've done it now.

I disappointed all of us. Shocker.

I had a shocker and I got oh. I mean, those interviews are so hard and you struggle for words sometimes because you're like recounting things. You're trying to think about all all the sort of variables within the cook what's happened, what went wrong?

What went, well, all those things.

You're trying to make sure that you can describe something appropriately, and I just felt like it clearly in that moment, I was to apologize the half of my whole family.

No, it's iconic. Now it's iconic. It's all right. No, yeah, well maybe maybe not to everyone. People probably listening to this and thinking that we're strange because they're like, what's wrong with this word?

But you know anyway, no, we all know, we all know that that.

Is a trigger, and no, it goes on.

But I went there, so here for it, here for a good time, and a short time.

There you go.

I've always find that the taste test challenge really stresses me out as a viewer. And I saw the plate, I mean I saw the table of cubes, and I was like, oh my god. This to me because my ADHD brain means that I would taste something and know what it is. But my brain always tells me to go with option too, do you know?

Yeah, do you know what I mean? Like totally?

But then you did well with you. I mean you had been on a licorice and those two were quite easy.

I mean licorice I was thrown because you never you know that. Well, that's what I said. So I initially was in my head thinking aniseed or have they crushed aniseed and put it into some sort of weird texture.

And then I took a while on that one. Yeah, And I just.

Took a while because I was like, if I say licorice, are they going to be like, no, that's wrong. We wanted aniseed or something. So I took a while and then I just had that completely nostalgic memory to my dad in the car growing up on long journeys would.

Have licorice all sorts.

I think they're in English, like, no, that's here, he's got them.

Yeah, h well, it's very common here in Australia, I believe, and maybe it's another one of those in my community. But fathers were bought licorice on Father's Day. It was like you buy them so fries and licorice. So that's my relationship with this with it, so it's quite hilarious.

And I remember, yeah, I remember like picking off the yellow and the sort of pink sides and giving Dad the black licorice. And I just remember then as I got older, being like, oh, I'll just try it. But it is weird and it always smells weird. And then that was the nostalgic memory that made me be like, commit to licorice, lole and just say it.

But you have to have that in the space about twenty seconds. So it's tricky.

And as soon as you're blindfolded, you feel like you've lost your sense of taste, smell, hearing everything. I couldn't like, you totally feel like you do not know where you are, and you keep your blind pods on when you sit back down. So anyone at home who's thinking that you can sit down, take your blind polls off, No, honey, they are on.

Yeah, And then that's also quite disconcerting, you know, to be in that state for such a long time, because like we're watching these things on these shows, it always seems like it's happening in real time when it's not.

We were for hours, hours, and we did really well, like we did really really well, like we were going for a long time.

There's an article today about the pumpkin you know, like they're like, how did she not get pumpkin right?

That's so easy so far, and then needs to be kind to everyone now, Oh, I know, but the world's full of ourselves.

We know that we do know that. The thing that I feel like every year I would want to take to task over this is I like this challenge. It's great TV. Don't you think it's a little unfair as to who that it determines people to be in a final cook? Because I believe this challenge has a lot to do with luck, you know, the luck of you being able to get foods that are easy like avocado. Everyone's going to get that, you know what I mean?

No? I don't think you're crazy at all. I think that.

I mean, I guess for me, when you sign up to Master Chef, you know that you're going to get curballs here, there and everywhere, and you just go and the flow and it was amazing. And I've always one thing I will say about myself is that I've always got had a very good palette, and I've always judged that like Mum and I growing up and used to go out and we'd like sit at.

A restaurant or whatever, and Dad would be like, what are we eating?

I'm going to be some sauce or something, and Mum and I like, I can taste this, and I can taste that, and that's like cool.

I can just taste like salad dressing.

Tastes great, and Mom and I like nitpicking every single ingredient that they would have put in. And so I've always really backed myself on my palette and so I'm not a.

Big like recipe user.

I use recipes a lot for inspiration and visuals because I'm not the most sort of visually pleasing, like plating sort of person.

So I use recipes a lot for that. But I will taste because I.

Go and always back my palette and friends say that they're like, oh my god, I would never have tasted that and whatever. So I was just really excited to have the opportunity to do a taste test and I was like, great an opportunity to just go for it, back myself and see what happens.

I don't know if I can do that kind of stuff, because you know, for me with music, I'm about ten to twenty years behind. I have to hear Pusic a thousand times to have a connection to it. I can't.

Yeh.

You know those people that can buy the New Tailor Swift CD and say five stars, it's brilliant, Like.

To me, I'd not like that either, like white.

Noise to me for everything when I hear it the first time, I couldn't tell you a pop song from hearing a pop song.

Yeah.

And I'm very similar as well with my brain being able to determine flavors. And I loved cook and I use all of the flavors and I think I'm good at it. Yeah, But to be blindfolded and then to guess what they were, I don't think.

That's really od.

And like you can see last night how difficult it is, like with one and the Lemon, Like it's really difficult.

It's not easy. And yes, it might seem obvious.

To the viewer and people are like, well, obviously it's going to be lemon, or obviously it's gonna be pumpkin.

Like you say, no, actually, it's really really difficult.

Is it all you can taste? Is it all you can taste? Because you were like egg planted I mean with the eggplant, and you didn't get that one right, and I what eggplant in me would be very hard because that particular food, I think tastes different to the way it's presented exactly.

That's one thing with the eggplant, which was annoy Raw egg plant has no taste and no smell, and so I was just trying to pick at this fixed skin on one side, and I was like, I know this, I know this, and I just can't get it. And then the more worked up you get in your own head, the harder it is. And that's why I was like, oh, I'm just going to say something, and they were like, you sure.

I was like, no, but I just have to commit.

But I think a lot of the stuff doesn't really sort of taste properly what it's like. And I think if it can they said, like, if it essentially, if it can be in raw form, it will be. And so for things that have to be cooked or cured or whatever, they're completely unseasoned, and so often not and maybe often and I don't know, but maybe often not necessarily in season.

Either.

Banana I had was actually really chalky and it wasn't like a fresh banana.

Like you've just taken out the peel. It was like a.

Grab a green banana from the supermarket and wait for it to be nice in three days time. It was like really chalky, weird texture and I.

Couldn't really get a huge hit of banana straight away. So you've really got to go up there and.

Just not rush because maybe certain things aren't in seasons. At the end of the day, it's great TV and it's an amazing challenge and we did really really well as a group, and I think, I mean, look at David the tuna whisper a squeaking tuna in his ear. It's just the way that people get around things is amazing. And it's yeah, it's I can't even tell you how

Where am I?

Very true? Very true. You know, my best friend and my partner they're so fussy about chicken, and I pulled chicken Marryland all the time, so I was watching you do that, and I've got various recipes I do with this. But you know, my partner and my best friend. They want their chicken to be really juicy. Where this sounds gross because everyone's going to be like, what's wrong with you?

No, I think for sure you need to be careful.

And I think I just made a stupid decision by doing a Merryland in that time.

And yeah, I was just all over the place.

I didn't want to know neither.

Oh, I just I cannot tell you how blocked I was, genuinely going into that cook off the back of that really long taste puss and then being like the pantry it's very well stocked, those one hundred ingredients, yes, but there are.

Some key credentials that aren't there. And I just so stumped. I was so tired.

I could not shake the kind of like writer's block, I imagine, like I just could not shake that, and I was really like getting I was starting to get a bit in my own head. And then I was like, no, little just like carry on, like, yes, the idea might not be the most amazing, and it's not, sort of.

It was just a silly mistake. And that's what happens.

In this show, is you don't have your best cook and you will probably go home. And I'm okay with it because I'd had good cooks and stuff. If I hadn't had any good cooks in the kitchen, i'd be really gutted. But I'm okay with it because I've had the most of it. I'm so fortunate. And I made just a dodgy error. But I looked tired and I felt tired and shake that.

You're very polite, but you know, I thought you looked fine and I.

Was so tired and just could not shake the But that's reality.

I think they cook you too. I mean the cook being the operative word. But you know, I think they do make us, make you in a certain state to make good television as well, so.

Many variables with master Chef like you, Paul, you know, like you've got such long days, you are out of your comfort zone, all these things, the uncertainty, you never know what's next. But that's why you do it, and that's what you know you're signing up for. And it's a resilient test and check a lot of the time. But we're surrounded by great people, We're very well supported.

Watching Stephen's narrative that he'd stuffed up his dish, you know, enter stage to this episode. Is that how it felt in the kitchen at the time, or is that just how they do? They go, Okay, we don't want it to be so obvious that Lil's going home, so we're going to just make this big storyline out of Stephen's being wrong. Like what did it feel like in real time?

I mean, so when you're I found anyway, Like personally when I was cooking, I was just in my own zone. Unless I was like having fun or interacting with someone next to me or people on the gantry. And I remember in that cook, I was so sort of foggy headed that I wasn't really sort of doing much other than just trying to get through this sort of abrid

And have a turn around though. I was like, you left a couple and they looked disgusting, and I was like, I don't want that.

No, he's a very very clever cook, that man. Oh I know, very clever cook.

Yeah, you can tell that. You can tell that also from his story as well.

Sure, lovely, lovely man.

Yeah, he does seem like that. It's always really interesting, you know. Everyone last night was just on this how do they serve the food hot to these judges? And I don't know why. Last night the viewers really stayed with this. Maybe they were about the merryland cooking, maybe because you know, with chicken, if you leave it out for a little bit longer, it will continue to cook a little more. But there was a lot of dialogue about it. Are you serving them hot food or are

So I think there's a factor of mass chef that a lot of people at home probably don't realize and I obviously didn't realize until I did it is the amount of logistics behind the scenes, so we don't like the viewer doesn't always see that. They try to think the judges come around to our benches and try things, mid cook and all that sort of stuff.

They can so well.

I mean something on the internet about a red plate. Is there a red plate that do you put your food to the side and they can taste off the red plate?

No, there's no red plate.

But over time, like if you're depends on it's all dependent on what you're making. And this is why it's another variable and that you have to be quite clever with what you make because there's so many things that you want to be able to, like, you've got to factor in one. But I actually hate open pantry stuff because I'm like, that's too much choice. I love a mystery box and I love a team challenge, Like I'm a team person and I love a mystery box because I'm like, Okay, this is what I've got.

What can we rustle up.

It's like a Sunday night rade before you're going on holiday, you know, we're just like, I'm just going to clear this out and I'll make something really nice, and I'm going to open up the pantry or in England.

The ladder, and I'm going to just work out what the hell I'm going to cook.

Whereas with the open pantry, I just walk in there and I'm like I'm paralyzed by decisions because there's so many things I can do. So yeah, no, totally. So yeah, you've got to be quite clever about what you make and all that sort of stuff. But there's I mean, I think like there's some cooks. Initially there's twenty two

Phenomenal and it's a big show to put together, like they do such a hot job, I mean the whole thing. Actually, you know people also on one of the Facebook groups they're going on about the music and about how the music is just so over the top.

Yeah, it's funny because obviously we don't have that when we're there.

So I'm listening and I'm like, oh, they've really gone like and you're like suddenly you're like, I've got my heart in my mouth.

I love that. There was the season where they were like singing the Hot and Cold theme song by Katie Perry the whole season they were imagining it, and that was the year they scrapped that is the theme song. Yeah, it is such a delight to talk to you. I have to quickly ask you my two questions that I've been asking everyone. Who would you like to see win? So not who, not who you think is going to win, but who you'd like to see. And then you've also got to tell me your favorite judge out of the

They're both hard, I judge wise, well does Jamie Olive account because that was a.

Real Now we're getting came out of it. We don't want to know about, but we already know we want the four.

Oh okay, I would. Oh god, they're all fun and they're all different.

I love Gankrosov because he's just the most kind hearted, lovely man but also very funny and makes really funny comments about like England and all that sort of stuff.

But also Sophia gave me real like big sister.

No, we don't want to know about the rest of them. I've already picked yours. You can't do it it well, you too, and sorry, and they can test the winner.

I think there's a couple of who could absolutely get there, the sort of Trelank and Spice Queen.

That's your peak. I've only got one and they're not going to listen to the podcast, and if they do, just tell them that you had brain frog. So I'm going to set you up with this question because everyone I think people want to know about this. But every episode of my podcast, this is episode four hundred and six, so it's a long time of asking the same question.

No story on how we have to dress other than sort of avoiding brands and stripes because they go all stroby.

I always just went for.

My lovely colored shirt because I was like.

At least I'm comfortable.

But yeah, yeah, no stripes, which is my whole wardrobe is like striped T shirt, so I have to get into the.

Color block shirt.

Okay, but yeah, stripes strode on camera, so yeah, no real And then are really glamorous steel to cupped kitchen shoes that we all wear and love you'll see us all looking like we're in clog, but yeah, kitchen shoes that we have to wear for safety. And then I'll love that you can wear what you want as long as there's no super visible brands and that sort of stuff.

Amazing, Okay, enjoy chatting, Like, thank you so much for taking the time chatting to me today. It was such such a chat, such a lovely you, and I'm thank good morning. So yeah, oh.

You're very sweet, well lovely to meet you so to speak, and thanks so

Much for your time as well, really appreciate it.