UNPACKED REALITY - MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - LOCHY

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload.

The podcast last week Neverline.

Welcome back, guys to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading. On today's episode with Lockie, the sixteenth elimited contestant from mastershef Australia, which is on Network ten from Sundays through to Wednesdays at seven point thirty. Inspired by his travels including to Europe, Vietnam and Mexico, and he's time spent living in London, Charleston and Detroit.

I'm all right, yeah good? Hell are you?

I'm good? I did see that look on your face in the last night's episode because I feel like if I was on this show, I'd practiced my elimination faith for months leading up to it, just to make sure that I looked like I was coping, but I think we saw some cracks in the look on your face of disappointment.

Oh yeah, there was definitely disappointment.

That's why I said straight out to how devastated I was.

It's never a good feeling.

To go home from a competition like that, esally when your mindset is really trying to win. But I mean, still pretty happy with how things ended up, and there are there's some great cooks still left.

I just think you must have exceeded your expectations when it came to this, because it's hard for us as a viewer to kind of understand or predict a journey for anyone on this show because you just never know. But I felt like at times you were a bit Wuieter up against some of the other people. So it made me wonder, well, maybe they're not showing a lot of him because he's not going to be around as long. And yet you kind of slow and steady stayed in there in the background.

You know. I think I came in there to cook, and to cook only.

I didn't feel like I needed to explain my story at every moment as such, Like I really wanted to come in there and let my cooking do the talking. So I guess that's why you probably saw me a little bit quieter. But I'll tell you what, behind closed doors, I'm not that quiet.

I could start and to hear that in the sound of your voice in the back, Curber, what would you say that the mastership experience teached or taught you? I should say in terms of maybe this being a money can't buy in training school.

I mean, it really taught me that I know how to push myself in situations where you literally backed up against the wall and the only way to get out of that situation is to just do your best and run straight through it.

Like I'm talking specifically about.

Like Mum's passing and that first challenge with Andy's Mum's coming in for that that was a really, really tough moment that I never saw coming.

Kind of blindsided me a little bit.

But to be able to make it through that cook and that day and cook, well, that really gave me a lot of confidence and a lot of energy going into the rest of the competition.

Some of those things in these realities shows can be quite difficult at times. I remember with Big Brother, they made a mistake because on Father's Day they decided to call us all into the diary room to leave a message for our dads, and my dad had passed, and so it was a very differ. They were expecting to click together a montage of everyone having this happy experience, but when you have lost a parent, there's nowhere to go emotionally.

Do they did their homework one that one for you or it.

Turned out later on I did some research on that one and it was a mistake someone who was organizing the challenge for that, and so I did get an apology. But it just was such a strange thing because I was like, when you're on reality television, you think you can control your emotions a little bit better, but when something as deep as the loss of a parent can sometimes impact you, it culminates explodes.

Yeah exactly.

I mean that those days after coming back from mom's death were obviously difficult, but being a part of the Master Chef crew and everybody there, it.

Was the most.

It was the most although actually the best place to be for me at that point. Everybody was so lovely, so supportive, and it just made me feel better about the whole situation.

And your mum would be so proud.

Yeah, I mean, I hope. So she wasn't a big fan of my cooking. Yeah, just in her.

Lady is spice and chili and stuff like that, which I love to you so much. Wasn't a big fan for her stomach. So there was always a little bit is there chilli in this?

Is there chili?

I'm like, yeah, there's a little bit. There's a little bit, like I don't know if I can have it, then I'm like, just try it please.

My mom is exactly the same, Like I've got a spaghetti a sauce that I make and I love it, and it's like I try to show off with it.

You know.

Everyone has that kind of meal that when their friends are coming and it's spaghetti's basic, but you know they've all got their own spin on it. And I put chilli in it. And so my mom doesn't like it, and so I'll never forget going over to her place and making it for her, being like, well, I don't want to eat it, you know.

Yeah, I know. The feeling the Hong.

Kong episodes felt like a real win for everybody in terms of a huge cherry on top of what had already been a our phenomenal experience. How was that for you? It kind of looked a bit surreal in some ways. It was almost like master Chef leveled up Master Chef on holiday kind of thing.

Yeah, I mean I backed myself on like traveling for food. That's where I got my love and my inspiration of the food was traveling and having what the locals had, learning about the history of the food, where it came from, and to be able to do that with a whole crew of people that are there for the food. Yes, it's a TV show, but essentially it is the show based around food.

Was just an experience that I'd.

Never thought I would be able to haven't actually had the pleasure of doing, and so being there in Hong Kong with everybody.

Was just You're right, it was surreal.

It was completely surreal to be able to cook in these beautiful locations. I've always thought about cooking outdoors beautiful locations, and We've got to do that, And that for me really was like, Yeah, I really want to do this for the rest of my life.

I feel like there's a really good idea in that. As I was watching the Hong Kong episodes, I felt like you know there's been a spin off with Dessert Masters, but they could easily be a large chunk of the elimination process out of this show. Just to sort of take maybe five or six amazing up and coming chefs around the world and watch them interact with different culture and different food and maybe keep everyone in the competition until you bring them back to Australia and then do an elimination.

That would be phenomenon. Sign me up tomorrow.

Hey, look, let's ring Channel ten and we'll pitch it. Then you and I can produce that show.

Ah, absolutely lovely speaking my language. I'm already trying to think about things that I can do and do stuff just like around Melbourne, around Australia for now, until I get some funds to go overseas to do that type of thing.

I've always a big lover of Anthony Baudain.

And the way that he talks about culture and food and everything that brings people together over like a meal on the table. I love that type of thing and like where we get our food from and stuff like that.

The idea of this concept that I was sort of talking to you about is giving some up and comers some shared experience and allowing them all to be washed over with different culture to then be able to see how they draw those elements together in the end. Like I think that's where I think that sort of concept would work really well.

Oh yeah, yeah for sure.

Like I mean everybody when they travel, when they come back, I mean of people that I know, they're like, oh, I remember this dish that I had in this spot, Like I really want to recreate that. That's what drove me. I guess when COVID first hit, was like, I can't travel anymore. How am I going to get this food? And then I'm like, well, you know what, I'm just

What, I can do this.

I don't have to go to these places to put that food on my table.

I can actually just cook it myself.

And because I try and pay homage that it's traditional, it possibly can be. I go around Melbourne and I go to like three different supermarkets or like little supermarkets to get the exact ingredients that I need.

I don't try and short shortcut anything.

Remember going to Vietnam and my partner said to me on the Thursday, I've booked us in to cook traditional Vietnamese food. And I was like, oh, this sounds a bit hokey. But what they did was they took us into the markets and we bought all of the ingredients. Like it wasn't just like a bunch of wanky tourists standing around, you know, just being shown a one two three how to paint by numbers type cooking experience. They really bought us about flavors that I still use to this day.

I do that to every place that I travel.

Every place I travel, I'll do like a local cooking class and want to do a tourist do one.

It'll be one that.

We get to go to the markets or meet some producers or some food and then cook with that after. I do it everywhere I go, and I always get so much out of.

It to the experience of going overseas. Add to the bond between who was left in the competition, Like I wondered with Sav not going whether or not when you returned back to the kitchen, not that she was unfairly disadvantaged. I think in any way, was it noticeable that the rest of you had bonded in a way that Sav might have not been able to tap into at that point.

I don't think so.

I think Sav is able to bond herself in situations with people that she really enjoys being around.

And I think we just generally missed her because I knew she would have enjoyed the food over there.

I don't think that she was upset or anything, or like we had like an extra bond. I think we shared the experiences with her along the way and everything else, so she kind of felt like she was there. Can we just talked about the food and what we had and like, yeah, no, I think she. I think with not being there, she was able to experience what we all felt and what food we tried and all the like the good times that we had.

She was able to experience that through our story.

Well, that's amazing, which I think is good. You know, I was wanting to ask you about I don't know if you saw this, yes, because I saw this over the weekend a couple of times that someone shared like a I think it was TikTok. I'm not really sure where it originated from, but the US version had some footage seen here in Australia of the contestants fighting during an episode, and it was so hilarious to read the comments from US here in Australia because our version is

I didn't see it over the weekend, but I have seen a couple of clips recently of the US Mastership and it is just, oh, it is just drama heavy, which I just don't think has a place to do with food at all.

I mean, I think I've tried to use like Hell's Kitchen. There's been some other shows that have come into the country where they've probably toyed with that kind of experience for us, and those shows aren't on TV anymore, you know, what I mean. I mean, that's that's kind of academic as to you know, what is and isn't working in terms of what audience is here in Australia wants when it comes to something like food. I think, but how do the producers control this element? I mean, aren't we

Look, you'd think that.

But if you were in on this season with the contestants as we were, I mean, there was nothing of a sort. I mean, we were just such a great bunch of people and I think from day one everybody kind of understood that we were like this beautiful collection of different cultures, different backgrounds, and then were the sole reason we were there was for food, and like everything

No unnecessary drama for no reason in that it was just it was. It was beautiful.

I don't know how it can come up like that with people that are doing this filming and doing these long days and all of that together without having some narkinness against each other. But there really really wasn't and that's what made it so special.

It's also interesting because you think about maybe in the psych tests, because they psyched test you for these shows, there must have been like a selection of questions which is like, if you overcook your carrots, do you a start again? B throw them on the ground, see throw them at another contestant. Well, okay, this person's coping mechanisms proves that they can deal with it.

Yeah, they they can deal with anything that kind of comes their way. They're not going to outlash against somebody else.

Well, the cook that sent your home last night was down to four people in that elimination cook, and everyone seemed to really get some great reviews. You did sort of maybe have the most amount of a tease to maybe thinking it could be you going home. They weren't sort of saying that the Slavers all came together or they married together, as well as maybe some of the others. And that's a really small detail, I guess at this

Home, not really till right at the end where they were going through all the dishes and saying how good of a job each was, And after they finished with all of that, I was like, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, I think it's going to be me Like, yeah, the technique, the flavor of each individual stuff's there, But.

I don't know. In my mind, I was like, I don't know how well they're going to marry together.

If I had I had got that damn spice, I think everything would have married really well together because it would have been the undertone of spice that went through the whole dish.

But without that, I knew.

At that point that it was like, yeah, it hasn't It hasn't come across on the plate the way that I wanted it to.

It's interesting the way in which you can do that with cooking and making a comprehensive dish is by having a spice that can pull through, that can marry the flavors all together. So I think that that. I mean, it's kind of interesting because in this type of at this point of the competition, to have an auction to determine how you're going to survive in the competition. I wonder if that's fair because changing the variables and the elements,

I mean, I think it is quite fair.

I think if you really want to grow as a cook, those situations are the ones that you really need to relish and be able to work with what you're given and what you've got depending on what there is and who gets what or what everything or anything like.

That, You've got to be able to.

Overcome that and still put something that is cohesive and delicious on the table. Like I mean, if I had my time again, there'd be other things that I would do in that dish to try and make it a bit more cohesive or go down another route. But I mean that's how you grow, I think as a cook or as a chef is being able to work with what you're given and make the best of it.

So it's a level headed approach to being able to sort of see it that way, I think, and it's probably important to see it that way. I mean, the strategy of having the most amount of time do you think that works for you.

It wasn't my strategy going in to get the most amount of time. It just kind of fell in my lap a little bit, really, and.

I think maybe I had a little bit too much time to think about things that first. What it was at fifteen twenty minutes or so before the others got started was a very weird experience in the Master's Jeff kitchen, being the only one cooking, and then how quiet it got. At some point I was like, wow, yeah, she's the all eyes are on me right now.

I loved the Star Wars reference though, I thought the Star.

Wars from Harry Yeah, God, that was good. I didn't actually know that he said that until watching last night.

I thought that was hilarious.

I think you'd have to have seen that, you know, you have to have seen Phantom Menace to get it. But it was yeh once it was articulated really well because you could you could feel that, you could hear the Star Wars sound effects.

Yeah, I could.

As soon as he said, I just I know that scene quite well. It's an amazing scene.

And yeah, as soon as.

He said, I'm like, that is actually one of the perfect way to describe this situation.

When you're talking about how quiet it was, and you know how stressful you are in that situation. Can you overthink things at that point, like having that longer period of time? I think it was eighty minutes, right, yeah.

It was eighty minutes. Okay, yeah, I think so. I think there is a point where like, am I doing enough? Can I can I do this? Is it going to be enough? Yeah?

Those all those thoughts came in into my mind, that's for sure, But ultimately I'm still happy with what I did. I mean, chefs on the outside world, what do they do for a menu? They test and test and test over over months to get things on the menu, and us in the master chef kitchen, it's right then, right there, So there are going to be lots of tweaks that need to be made, so.

You can't really be too upset about.

It maybe not being easy, because if you have your time again, you'd be like, no, maybe this might have worked better, and maybe this might have worked better, and the next two three times you cook, that is when something becomes amazing. And that's just the nature of the competition. That's what that's what it is, that's what we all signed up for. That's what I signed up for, so I can't be too disheartened or heavy about it.

Kind of like going on a roller coaster and being disappointed that you sort of want that experience of what you've signed up for. You want to be surprised, You want a couple of loops thrown in it.

Yeah, exactly exactly, So.

Nat, Dash and Mimi were all lucky enough to be safe in that elimination cook Would you say that it's fair to think that maybe that they are the best cooks in the competition at this stage, and that's why they were up there.

I reckon from about probably top eight. It could have gone really any way on any given day. It's just how the competition goes. I mean, Dash obviously can cook a dessert probably better than anybody there. But I mean I can probably cook better than the rest of them on a dish that's probably more catered to around what I know, vice versa for any of them. I think at that point in the camp it was any given day, anybody could have been better than somebody else. It wasn't

You really have to be on your a game every day.

Sav Pezzer and then Harry, who you're cooking up against, have arguably stood out in terms of their personalities, and this sort of ties back into something we discussed right at the start. Do you think that having a bit of an X factor will help any of the participants at this point succeeding outside in the cooking world once this show finishes.

Yeah, I think having a little bit of an X factor and showing really some more deep personality will give.

You a bit more on the outside world. And I'm really hoping to do that on the outside world.

I feel what I know and like my knowledge of food is really going to push me ahead. I'm able to cook things from lots of different places around the world because.

I have such an understanding and love for food from around the world.

But I mean, yeah, I think personality wise and that little X factor, yeah, I think really will help each contestant.

Who do you think deserves to win? Then at this point we're getting right down to it.

I mean, it could be any one of them that I'll be.

Rooting for Harry as if you've known an on screen, it's my good mate.

From day one. It just clicked instantly.

And being able to finish a day, come home from Cooks and just hang out and talk about the day, cook each other dinner on any given night was just it just made the whole experience so much better being being with Harry.

I think anyone in the world would end up with a Harry Man crush. I think Australia has got a bit of the Hairy Man crush to.

Be Oh, I definitely do.

I love it. Who you know, It's funny as we've gone along with these podcasts, I've been making people answer some of these annoying questions, but who is your favorite judge? Because at this point everyone seems to be saying Poe or Christoph And it's interesting that people aren't mentioning Andy and Sophia. So are you going to jump on the bandwagon of Poe and christophor or were the others going to be one of your pips?

Oh God, it's so hard to pick. They all have their pros and cons. I love Andy because of his background where he came from sparky trady like me, and then made it into what he is today as a host of Mastership Australia is in three Blue Ducks.

Like he's done so well out of this that it is amazing.

But I mean Jean Christoph his passion and love for food and the energy that he brings.

That there, he just.

I just can't describe enough the man that hears that you see on screen. He's just an unbelievable individual that looks it. I really really took to because he just he wants to see you do so well, and he may be harsh at some points, but it's only.

Out of love for food and love for wanting to see you do well. Yeah. That I really really took to.

Him for Like he's the one that if I disappointed in a cook or if I did well and a cook, his feedback was the one that I was like, yeah, okay, whatever I need to do to impress this man is the thing that I need to do.

I think he's going to be a part of the show for a long time and it'll be interesting for people who go back and see how he started.

I really hope he is a part of the show for a long time.

He really does deserve to be there in this part of his career because he does have that beautiful story of what he's done in his life, who is cooked with, what is cooked for his Michelin stars. All of that is the perfect judge at this point in his career because that passion really shines through as soon as he does his little smell and his little taste on any dish.

You can just.

Tell that there is so much in that brain working at all times obsessed.

Well, my last question to ask you is what is something from behind the scenes, Like, what's something that where as an audience watching this show wouldn't really.

Know, I guess the community of what mastership is between the crew, the camera crew, the story team, all of all of those people combined us as contestants. It is like one massive, happy family every day to.

Come into and cook.

It is just the most wonderful bubble that is created that you wouldn't You wouldn't give it up for anything in the world, Like I'd sign up again and again and again to go back.

Well, who knows people get brought back on this show could be you. I would say thank you, I mean thank you for taking the time and being so generous and talking to me today. I'm such a big fan of this show. It's such a delight to have met everyone this season, and it's so exciting to be in all of your audience at this point to see where you guys take it and where you want to go from here. Congratulations on making it so far unbelievable. And yeah, thank you for talking to me.

Thank you so much for the time. I've been loving this chat.

You always think, I imagine if you're so annoying, and these people are like, why are you asking me all these annoying questions? But when I watch these shows, I just don't like. I get so excited. I'm like, oh my god, I get to get to unpack this, and yeah, it's exciting.

No, I will talk any day. I love talking about food and where it comes from and what it means to me. So thank you so much.