December 14, 2023 • 31 mins
On today’s episode of TV Reload I am joined by Gareth Whitton who was the winner from Dessert Masters Australia for 2023. The spin off from MasterChef Australia finished a few weeks ago and I have been looking forward to sharing this exciting look back at his time on the show.
Gareth is a chef with 18 years experience. After working in some of the world’s best restaurants, he started baking tarts at home during Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdown.
Quickly, his neighbours (and shortly the whole of Melbourne) were lining up to taste his delicious goods. Which soon evolved into the opening of two ‘Tarts Anon’ locations.
Which… landed him a role as a guest judge on Masterchef Australia in 2022 and the opportunity to compete for the bragging rights of the dessert world in this latest televised competition.
- I will find out about his relationship with the competition and why he thinks keeping it simple at times helped him win.
- Garath will talk about the effect COVID had on the cooking world and why he felt disillusioned by the whole industry.
- If you have wondered what kind of preparation and planning goes into these cooking shows. Gareth will also share what dishes he already locked in prior to filming the series.
Plus we will get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes of ‘Dessert Masters’ Which is still available to watch on Ten Play if you missed any of the delicious episodes.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's in the news today, but it was actually on
TV Reload, the podcast past weep that line. Welcome back,
guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name
is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get
all the inside goss on the popular TV shows that
you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our
TV sets are still a major part of our home entertainment,
and yet very little is known about how our favorite
(00:21):
shows get made. So each episode, I've been finding guests
that want to dive just that little bit deeper to
the shows that they're currently making, so that you can
hear all their exclusive stories and gain access to some
of the biggest names in Australian television. I want to
thank you for downloading or subscribing to this podcast however
you've found me. I really do love hearing your feedback,
so if you can leave a review or a comment
(00:43):
on your chosen podcast platform. On today's episode of TV Reload,
I'm joined by Gareth Whitten, who was the winner of
Dessertmasters Australia for twenty twenty three. The spin off from
Mastership Australia finished a few weeks ago and I've been
really looking forward to sharing this exciting look back at
his time on the show. Gareth, as you may know,
is a very well known chef with eighteen years worth
(01:05):
of experience. After working in some of the world's best restaurants,
he started baking cakes at home during Melbourne's COVID nineteen lockdown. Quickly,
his neighbors and shortly the whole of Melbourne were lining
up to taste his delicious goods, which soon evolved into
the opening of two tuts and on locations, which landed
him in a role as a guest judge on mastershef
Australia in twenty twenty two and the opportunity to compete
(01:27):
for the bragging rights of the dessert world in this
latest televised competition. I will find out about his relationship
with his fellow competitors and why he thinks keeping it
simple at times helped him win the show. Gareth will
also talk about the effects that COVID had on the
cooking world and why he felt disillusioned by the whole industry.
(01:47):
If you've ever wondered what kind of preparation and planning
goes into these cooking shows, Gareth will also share what
dishes he'd already locked in prior to filming the series. Plus,
we will get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes
of Dessert Masters, which is still available to watch on
Tenplay if you have missed any of those delicious episodes. Anyway, guys,
let's bring Gareth into the podcast and I hope you
(02:09):
enjoy this very exciting unpacking of the most exciting cooking
show of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Min My hair literally just woke up.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Hair. Yeah, no, that's totally fine. I mean, what do
you do when you win Dessert Masters. I'm sure you've
had some like a like a decastage of wine. Maybe.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Well, we yeah, we have a few biers, some people around.
We had a little bit of a viewing party at
sort of like a friend's workspace. Things was really good,
like a few big screen TV. Some catering was good
and then yeah, a couple of drinks afterwards, and yeah,
it's nice to spend it with some friends and family.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I don't even know you, and I feel like I
wish that I was invited to that.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Ah, I wish i'd been beforehand.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, congratulations mate on winning Dessert Masters. This is wild.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It is, it really is. I guess like kind of
like semi prepared for this with the the half knowledge
and what the.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Result may be.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I felt pretty confident coming out of the cook and
then hearing a lot of reassurance from the guys who
were watching from the gantry, et cetera, et cetera. Plus
there's always a lot of that speculation really entirely sure
is exactly how.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It was going to pan out. So it was a
nice surprise.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
There was a few people saying that you might have
Stephen bradburied the thing because in a way, everyone else
was making things a little bit more complicated to make
it more sensationalized. Where you learned throughout the competition to
really stay in your lane, and that's kind of how
you ended up winning, right.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I mean, I don't want to downplay my efforts to
say that word I did was manipulative or I flew
under the radar.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
There was a bit of that, for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I played to my strengths, and I think that's the
thing that you really kind of got to do. And
especially when you're talking about like sticking to your guns
and any Bowdie talked a lot about this because one
thing I knew that he was hesitant to join the
competition with was the fact that he's known for doing
things that are wholesome and generous and bordering on rusty,
(04:10):
especially in its appearance. But like the focus is so
honed in on flavor and how things are to eat
and what they mean, and that they're relevant at a
particular time of a meal or a particular setting in
which it served. And I think for me as well,
like I definitely that's very much a part of my
philosophy as a chef, is that it's relevance and its
(04:32):
importance in a meal setting is paramount. Things are tasty,
and I get like deliciousness and flavor and other thing
that sort of stuff is like that should always be
at the forefront of food, regardless of what it is
you're doing. But having anything, but I do think that
there was a certain thing like.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And everyone did. Everyone really wanted to celebrate that on
the show.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
But I kind of felt as though, especially in the
public eye, so again like I'm not going to get
another rabbit hole and and read Reddit, Twitter, Instagram.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
There's people going to have their opinions. Is always going
to exist.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You can't read any of those, mate, because you know,
I didn't know that Reddit existed though. It was so wild,
and you know, I was in a reality yeah, eleven
years ago, and I was like, maybe I'll type in
my name and don't. It's like the stuff that's on
Reddit is obviously it's a different category to itself. It's
it's like nice on Twitter. It's like they're trying to
(05:28):
compete for what's the worst thing that I can say about?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
What? What did I do to you? What have I
done people?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I've worked out that they what they're saying online about
people they don't know is actually what they think of themselves.
That's what I think.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Probably, Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I think you read it with that mindset, you make
a lot more sense because like a lot of stuffy're
saying is fucking nonsense, and a lot of it I
think a lot of it comes from a place of
passionate enthusiasm that sort of stuff, as well as like
I think a lot of that of patriot that I'm always.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Going to you know, probably a crew online comes.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
More from a place of who they like more so
than subjectively disliking me. Except I said, I found one
person who just really just did not they did not
like me at all and I don't sort of like
I'm only doing enough to scrape by, and I was like,
I like. And the other thing as well, is like, yeah,
they did try and pit me as the like the
(06:24):
flavor guy, and I was like like thanks, Like that's
nice because in that sense, you're just saying that my
food is delicious, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
The value it well, it's kind of a different thing
as well. Being on a TV show is different to
sort of the reviews that you're going to get, like
on a menu log. I'm so out of it, but
do you know what I mean? Like when you're a
restauranteur and you are needing to interact with the people
to come into your restaurant, so you want to read
that because there can be some constructive criticism. It's kind
of a different sessialon do you know what I mean?
(06:52):
Like it's different.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, sorry, I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I don't remember you eating this, but you know, thanks,
like you know you know what I mean, Like that's
sounds awful, Like well you didn't, how do you know
I can eat it?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Idiot? Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And like this I mean again like getting cut down
because I didn't like in the in the semi final,
I mean people, Yeah, they didn't know what to hate on,
Like did I play it safe? Because I did a
relatively conservative plate of dessert and I didn't make a
bird cage or a bonds eye tree or a log.
I didn't I didn't try and wow the judges with
like to the I just made a tasty plate of
(07:25):
food that I thought fit the brief really well. And
I kind of thought I nailed it in that respect.
I know also because they were like, oh, but the vegetables,
like you're too many fells, Like you didn't eat this,
it's a dessert, and like you know that in.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Years to come, though, we'll have one of those not
smell of smell of vision and taste vision, you know,
one of those finals, you know, challenges where everyone you
know you're cooking for so many people the TV screen
or just hand out one of the one of the tarts.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, exactly, like a Willy wonkle when the snowsbreeze tastes
like you licked the wallpaper.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, just lick your TV screen.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Then you might actually have a bit more of a
a fair adjudication of what it is that you're talking
about here, because a lot of it's madness, it is,
but like fuck it. I mean, I guess I said,
I've never trained in that thing as well, so like
why would I? And I know that Generalman Jess and
Reynold are not classically trained either, So the fact that
they haven't done any kind of skilled work in those
(08:21):
areas but are still achieving it, that's examply.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I applaud them for that.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
But like I got nearly twenty years of restaurant training.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Some of the restaurant food idiots, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Like I want to win, and like if Kirstin Tibble's
comes in and doesn't do any chocolate, Everyone's like, oh,
what do you doing, Curson, where's the chocolate?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
You're the chocolate queen. It's like, oh, I really.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Wanted to push myself and you know, make fucking Pavlo
like no, but everyone loves her for that. But I
do what I and Andy Body does what Andy Baddy does,
and I do what I do.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
In Kaylene Tanner does what Kaileaene tan does. No one's
yelling at Morgan telling them to do more donuts.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
What I was thinking throughout the competition where some people
had been guest judges, So you'd been a guest judge
and some people have been contestants. I wondered whether or
not being a contestant previously was an advantage in some way,
because you know, it was interesting to see the way
in which the cookie crumbled throughout the series and who
left and who stayed, and you know, you were a
(09:18):
guest judge and you've got two other people that have
been in the competition before. I just wanted to know
your thoughts on that. Was it somewhat more of an
advantage maybe if you've been a contestant before.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I don't ever want to discredit what those guys achieved,
but I think if you look at how they performed
in those first couple of cooks, you kind of like,
these guys they feel comfortable here. You know, they know
the dynamics, they know what it means. Sure like you
in the first couple of episodes of a Master Chef season,
there's like thirty people and there's a lot less equipment
(09:49):
in per person, there's a lot less space. But even
just like the knowledge is sort of actually, I know
that how the pantry is set up, I know how
I need to go, and but the best. These are
the tips and tricks, and it's the sort of thing
that like we all work as chefs, so when we
do all workers chess, it's the sort of things you
need to learn, Like you need to get those of
(10:11):
evolutions in you work in places and I've worked in
places like Dinnerway Hessen, like learn where a lot of
this shit that you do is the exact same every day.
Like the number of tipsy cakes that I've seen, Like
I can't even look at one now and not just
get trauma. Like it's six years working with that restaurant
group and it never came off the menu and it
(10:32):
was the most popular dish, so like yeah, but every
day that I went in there, I'm sort of like,
I know how I can like get you know, ten
minutes per tray faster on rolling briansh. I know the
best time of day to make this brush because the
temperature is going to be right, there's going to be
less people in the kitchen, so I have a bit
more freedom and space to work with. I know they're
(10:53):
not going to need the bench at this time. So
these are these little tiny things. It's a little bit
kooky because you just literally the minor the most minor
of details and how you can improve yourself, your product,
your efficiency, and I guess, your life in general.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Just by making small little tweaks.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
So having that knowledge in the Master Chef kitchen, I
guess also would just serve as a slight advantage. And
when we're getting to a competition of this caliber, you like,
these are well for one of a better term there,
they're just the smallest things that they over time will
accrue and have big, big rewards.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I mean, for me, I just was like, I couldn't.
I was so surprised that they'd want to put people
like yourself and Adriano and Kirsten. I just was so
surprised that you'd all want to be in this competition
because I'd be so because if it was me, I'd
be scared that I'd ruin my you know, my credibility.
But then there's also people that probably never watched Assert
Masters that it wouldn't even affect them at all, do
(11:52):
you know what I mean? Like that maybe if they
googled you before they went to your restaurant, they'd be like, oh,
I can't believe that you ktes on this show. Maybe
I'll go, yeah, well.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
There was always that fear, I think, and no one
wanted to be the first to go. And then that
was I think a lot of us is all as
long as the first to go that I'm good. But
there was also like the sense of you know, the
first people. You know, we knew that we had reputations
at stake, and there was going to be a lot
of that. And even then there were there was I mean, again,
we're not going to delve too much onto into the
(12:21):
online hate, but like, yeah, there's there's a lot of
opinions being shared around people because of how they performed
on the show, and their reputation was tarnished, like somewhat
in the eyes of the insignificant. That would would probably
you know, if it was relevant, like actually have an
impact on them. But yeah, there was a lot of stake.
You know, if I if I was if I was
(12:41):
dismissed early or something like that, then you know it
would have been.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Like okay, therapy after that before you could go back.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Probably I just hope that you just hope that it
wouldn't have a negative impact on the business and like.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The negative impact on your career following because they were changed.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I mean, you would know that even from COVID, like
the world be quite a dangerous place. Like you know,
when COVID happened, I remember reading something about it as
we were coming out of COVID, something that you'd said
about you were out of the job and then you
were redefining whether or not what you would do with
your career. Am I right by saying that? I remember
reading something somewhere where you were like, maybe, yeah, maybe
I'll go and get a corporate job, which, yeh is
(13:19):
mind blowing that something in the something can happen to
us in this world that could change our mindset like that.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
I think it was, to be honest, it was more
of like a slow burnout, and I was become so
disillusioned by the industry. There was like I was exhausted,
Like so, I mean, I've always had like a really
strong friendship circle outside of the industry.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
My partner's not in the industry.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I have a lot of hobbies and activities that usually
best enjoyed in the hours that are not conducive to
hospitality work.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You know, I love live sport.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I love to go watch the foot I used to
play a lot of footy, like the weekends, the weekend things,
last evening thing. It was like, and I always resented
hospitality for that that it took that away from me,
and I kind of took it for granted in the
sense that like, yeah, of course, I'm part of this
and it's my passion, it's my lives is with my
skill set, and I'm doing it forever and I love it.
(14:10):
But I just craved like that normality and I really
just wanted to sort of have Friday night knockoffs, you know,
with my mates. I wanted to sort of have those
Saturday morning. I wanted to play footy, like play sport
on the Saturday morning. I want to go go to
the game on Saturday night. I want to have Sunday session,
like get breakfasted on Sunday morning. And I just, you know,
(14:31):
that old gone back to work Monday kind of feeling.
I almost even wanted that, you know, and I never
had it because of HOSPO, and I was torn between
this like high performance, high achievement thing. And I even
took a little break at one point in my career
before I moved to Melbourne and worked at Dinner and
did a bit of catering at the Comic Bank. It
was like for a year or something of that, and
(14:52):
I loved it. Like the work itself was draining and
soul destroyings. I felt like I'm not getting that satisfaction
through my work. But I was out of there at
three o'clock every AVO. I had every weekend off, making
good enough money to really enjoy that lifestyle. BONDI beach
during the summer, just incredible, playing sport, engaging with friends
(15:12):
who have not really seen for so long. So yeah,
and then after dinner and then having all these awful,
awful things happen to us, these wage scandals, these talks
of abuse in the industry, like having whistleblowers calling out
friends of mine for making up lies about their behavior
just because they want to shine a light in the
(15:33):
toxicity of the hospitality industry. Having like our practices and
our behavior as management within like a very reputable restaurant
that's run by passionate and determined and like so highly
motivated people being shot on because of some entitlement of
people who don't really see Italian hard work. Now I'm
(15:55):
all across, and I'm all for like legalities and they
paying for money owed of work. But it was it
seemed like people were like putting their foot down and saying,
like I deserve this. I deserve more because I've shown up,
like I've come to work, so like this is what
I'm owed and like, well that's true to a certain extent.
And then we sort of imposed the hospitality industry awards.
(16:17):
So this is getting maybe a little bit controversial here,
but there was a lot of stuff that I thought
was like, it's kind of unfair on people who want
to be motivated and want to be driven in their
careers because of what this was. And so anyway, I
think at the end of the day, it all very
much like kind of broke my spirit a little bit.
So coming out of dinner by Heston, I just thought, well,
I don't like I can't stand this and I don't
(16:39):
see myself doing it. I thought this is a good
opportunity for me to maybe start a new So yeah,
I looked at working with some of the suppliers that
I'd worked with all like an agency that we used
to use to get our kitchen hands. It's like, what
if I worked within the industry and tried to like,
you know, engage in another aspect of it and like
work with product instead of the service side, and yeah,
dip my toes in there and like put the feelers
(17:00):
out at least, and COVID happened and they all kind
of went away, and then I just sort of did
what I needed to do to get by and worked
in the supermarket, started baking it home.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
It's kind of interesting though, because it's kind of like
the superhero complex in a way. If you gave that
all away, would you be fulfilled creatively? If you were
to be going to the footy with your mates or
you're just out having a drink with your mates. I
guarantee you in ten years, knowing that you had that superpower,
you would feel depleted.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I think one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And no matter how much joy I would bring to
people through like exploring new products or whatever, I feel
that was always going to be a compromise. And it
took only it was like a couple of months and
I was just like what am I doing? I just
I have to be cooking. I'd have to be And
it seems so like like chef bro I'm not sure
that's a concept that you're familiar with, but like these
(17:49):
guys whose personalities are their job, you know, they go
foraging on the weekends, they only go out to restaurants,
you know, on their time off.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
That like, chefing is your life.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And I feel like, oh, it's so nauseating, But then
I go and do it and I was like back, like, yeah,
this is actually me, but it is.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
That's why you've got that balance. You've acknowledged that yourself
in the sense that you know your partner isn't. In
the industry, you've obviously craved that balance, and we do
that behind the scenes of our minds sometimes, you know,
where where we make sure that sort of stuff happens
to give us the balance that we know that we need.
You know, I agree where if you were this arrogant chef,
like some chefs have that reputation to be, and they're
(18:31):
consumed by the industry, you know, it sort of overrides
everything in that and in their lives, they don't have
that balance that I guess we all crave to a
certain extent.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
It's true, and I think that what I did that
I'm grateful for now is that I decided just to
pivot more so than actually give it up. And now
working in production, working in retail, like we do the mony,
we don't do the money a Friday, but we finished
work in the afternoon. We have our nights off a
bit antisocial in the sense that you know, I'll work
(19:01):
most days of the weekend and I'm having to go
to bed rest early because I've got you know, five
thirty start. But you know, I think that in itself,
we're it all pays off in the end because I've
got the evening's back. I've got a young family now,
so I see them every night. I spend time with
my partner every day, which is always a plan. Like
when I was working at Dinner and she was working
at the hospital. She'd monaed a Friday nine to five,
(19:22):
and I'd see her on Sunday and for a few
hours on Saturday morning before I went to work. And
it's not and Monday nights when she got home from work.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
For a man who loves coffee and tarts, like you know,
you're programming yourself to work the hours that you want
to work. You know, getting up early, you can't have
a delicious coffee, do you know what I mean? I'll
see you through the disastrous alarm clocks that we yes, yeah, yeah,
working those sort of hours, I guess it's remissing me
not to ask winning this competition, how do you think
it's going to change your life? And how are you
(19:53):
going to spend this hundred thousand dollars?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I certain, No, I mean I think I know it
will change my life somewhat. I don't know if this
is really going to like catapop me into the public eye.
I don't really know. It's so hard to see. I
know the show, the show has had such great like
it's been received so well, and I'm so grateful for that.
We are hoping to use this as a ways to
(20:15):
sort of, like you, launch our brand somewhat and actually
get us into a into a new space where we're
kind of like, I guess I'm using my own personality,
in my own public status to promote the Tarts and
not just let the business be its own promotional tool.
It's going to be a bit of a different next
(20:37):
few months. But I think what we're really hoping to
do is just use this new energy, in this new
excitement around around the success to actually launch ourselves into
that space.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
How long have you had to think about all of this? So,
I mean, did they film you winning when it was recorded?
Or was there multiple endings recorded, Like, at what point
did you find out that you'd want like if you
had time to process.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
I found out I've been on the on the ride
with everybody else, it's all been and that they have
their ways, but we did. Yeah, it was not until
last night, but actually, you know, it was one hundred
percent confirmed when and I was actually was pretty grateful
that I could actually share that moment with people and
that I was just as Yeah, it was just.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
As much in the dark as everybody else, which is
kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Your mind must be spinning now, it.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Is, And again like there was because we obviously we
lived with the cook itself and there was so much
uncertainty around what was happening. So but to know that
I was in the top three, I think what what
I did know was that like being then, the same
way that I'm sure Reynold and Jess will also feel,
(21:51):
is that we're now like going to We're now going
to have so much more opportunity to sort of launch
and to sort of like leverage our success off the
back of being in that top three with so many
eyes on us that regardless of the result last night,
this was a great launch pad for us, and I
guess the.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Being coming out with top going has only made it
that much sweeter.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Did you try and plan anything before coming onto the show?
Like I was wondering how much of the cooks did
you know? We're going to be set for you? And
then of course there's going to be if you make
it to the end, you're going to have that service challenge.
Had you planned those particular set dishes for that?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Oh no, no, no, no no, there was like a
there's a little bit of preparation that we get, but
it's very little. They really do want, I think, and
what they did say to us that we don't want Jeopardy,
we don't want drama, which you're also going to take
with a pinch of salt because it's TV and that's
that cells we know that.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
It's going out on a date and saying that you
don't want to get late.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, exactly, Like, come on, guys, let's be honest, you
know what are we here looking for?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Friendship? Yeah? Really?
Speaker 3 (22:57):
When in reality we all knew that was going to
be the the result eventually.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
You know what I was also thinking, you know, off
the back of you saying what you could do with
your profile? It was interesting. While I was watching the
show with Melissa and Amory, I was thinking, don't you
love how I say his name with my Australian accent,
like come.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Oh, Amor I'm not going to do it because I
know I don't do it, I won't do it well
and all that's going to I mean, if I'm going
to get scrutinized by the French, I may as well
do it.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And you know, on my my own.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Right, melissaly On does it so well that it now
scares everyone out. I know, good lord, if.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
You can saund like that, you set the barhid.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Mail every single time, every single time. But I did
think watching this show, I wonder whether or not being
a judge on a cooking show like this has now
become of interest to you. I think that there will
be more media interest in what it is that you do.
Could you see yourself hosting a show like this?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I don't know, I think, I mean, look I could.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I don't know if I want that to be my profile,
because I still I really just I.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Love what I'm doing right now. I love my business.
I love working his other band, Creative.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I love I'm still you know, and this is not
going to come as a surprise, I'm sure, but I'm
still on the tools four to five days a week.
I'm actually going to go in there later and do
some prep with the guys because we're busy and lots
of new stuff coming in and like if I'm not
in there, you know, cooking with them, Like you know,
I think I've handed over some of the more logistical
running of the actual kitchen to a very competent team.
(24:24):
So I'm in there just sort of like you know,
I'll run a few dishes through the potwash, I'll sheet
the dough, or i'll aligne tartshells and that sort of stuff.
So there's still a lot of hands on work and
I want to stay with that, but you know, opportunities
will come up. I think everything needs to take into
consideration judging a show like that. I think anyone who
knows me personally might not think that's the best things
(24:47):
suited to me in that I have some very like
strong opinions about things, and there's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I actually think we're heading towards more of that, though.
I think, you know, i'd love to see it for
a time we see on television, and you know, being
in the public eye that you know, people are so
two dimensional. We're actually like, if you want to engage
with audiences more, if you want audiences to engage I
think you kind of need to polarize them in a way.
I think we're going to need to offer them. We're
(25:16):
going to need to offer audiences more to digest and
sometimes that means putting yourself on the line.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And I agree one undercent and I think, and I'll
use I'll reference that one of my favorite TV shows
for this in that I don't think we see enough
of it. But America is a country that is known
for like lifting up and heralding the successes of others.
They just love this promotional stuff. They really want to
(25:43):
get behind their people. It's uplifting. It's very American. You know,
if you say that you're engaged whatever, the whole audience
will chair. It's not very much ingrain as the Australian culture,
but it's slowly creeping in. But my favorite, one of
my favorite shows, Top Shit, which is an amazing watch.
They're fucking brutal and they are cut through. Like these
days they kind of like soften a little bit. But
(26:04):
the earliest seasons they were just like they were to
the point they were like, why are you doing this?
Like like I would send you all home if I could,
that kind of stuff, And I think, like, you want
to see more of it. You have Padna who's very
like lifting and beautiful, Tom Fleecko man, he's brutal because
he's honest, and I think people want to see more
of that, and I'd love to see more of that.
And it was one of the things I really really
really respected Amory Melfall is that you could tell, like
(26:27):
you could tell one hundred percent that every single thing
that they were saying in all of that judging came
from their heart. Was sort of like this, like there's
no agenda, we're not we're not trying to curate character arcs.
There's none of this, there's no you know, no, there
are no favorites. You know, there's no one here who's
whose successes are being promoted ahead of others to suit
(26:49):
the Channel ten's plan.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
They were sort of like, where here to judge some food?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
And then he came in and they were so meticulous
on that, and I was not only grateful but also
just so respectful of them for that.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
It's wild to me that you know, we kind of
know that the key to connecting to audiences is authenticity
and being honest and being real, but yet as time
goes on, we sort of cookie kutter. Anyway, this is
a much different podcast, But I appreciate, I appreciate where
you're coming from, and I agree, I really do everyone
who joins the podcast, though I finish off with asking
(27:24):
them a question, what is something from behind the scenes,
kind of like a behind the scenes secret of what
it was like to be on Dessert Masters.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Well, I mean, actually behind there was a lot, like
there was a lot just a lot of carrying on.
Like I was saying before you, the one thing that
I've always loved about hospital in general was that there
was this semileance of personality that you could bring in.
And I remember when I was doing a few interviews
and chatting with like, you know, recruiters or key account
(27:54):
managers and that sort of stuff, Like when I had
this sort of midlife coarter life criss with what I
want to call it, and I was seen in these
interviews and it was so stuffy and formal and like
the banter was just off. When I've had interviews for
jobs like on a milk crate in next to a bin.
I'm sort of like, do you want the job, mate?
Do you think you can do it? I'm like, yeah,
(28:14):
I sear, I can give me a chance, coach, you know.
And like there was this sort of organicness that's so
like raw about HOSPO. And despite how passionate and motivated
and driven we are as individuals, we're kind of like
a bunch of kids, and you took all of us
out of our comfort zone. You take us away from
our businesses where we need to be respectful, respectable leaders,
(28:39):
role models, professionals, and you lump us all in together.
It's like a fucking zoo and the carrying on and
just like the general shenanigans, like at the end of
the week after IVS were like where we're off to,
you know, we're in the green room, Like there's a
white board full of requests and everyone's just like riding
out junk food and we're sitting around just like inhaling
(29:02):
these like little packets of the veggie straws and stuff.
To the point now that our group chat is just
so center around every single time you see I want
to see the veggie straws to take a photo, put
it in the group chat. You know, just the band
turned that like the forming of those friendships, because there's
this cabin feverish and that's something that is so inherent
in hospitality culture that as soon as you put you know,
(29:22):
these stoughts in the industrym together, it was kind of
like adding sourdo started to the theme, just going just grow,
just growing from there. And yeah, but we would go,
we got we had gelato runs on the Friday nights.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
We'd He was saying that he was like, oh my god,
in his as M three scoops of ice cream.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, Adriana three scoops three.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
On the Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
And he've been obviously being up in Noosa like he's
you know, he's got some good ice cream.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Up there, like it's part of the culture.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
But like we're blessed in Melbourne picked Alina Cory, you know,
there's Carrat and all the Messinas. You know, you can
poke a fucking stick at Peter Pipo, Luther's scoops like
some of these iconic like ice cream jokes around Melbourne,
and he was just like, ah, this is incredible, and
so we would.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Kayleen lives up in whittle.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
See, so she's got a bit of a drive, so
she'd always have a car there, and so she'd come in,
we'd all like crammed to the back seat and just
sort of like all like squished into like shoulders shoulder,
and there's like five business tinl hatchbags driving around, you know,
dotting about all the sorbet Gelado shops of Melbourne together,
which is was great.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah, money can't buy it, you know, and what an amake,
you know, and it'll stay with you for the rest
of your life, you know. I just I really appreciated
the chat with you. I think that you want to
offer and it was quite exciting to unpack this show
with you because I think when people are listening to this,
they'll hear your passion and I think people connect. That's
the currency, you know, people's passion for what it is
(30:55):
that they do. So yeah, for sure, thank you for
taking the time.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
No, thank you. I really enjoyed it.
It's in the news today, but it was actually on
TV Reload, the podcast past weep that line. Welcome back,
guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name
is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get
all the inside goss on the popular TV shows that
you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our
TV sets are still a major part of our home entertainment,
and yet very little is known about how our favorite
(00:21):
shows get made. So each episode, I've been finding guests
that want to dive just that little bit deeper to
the shows that they're currently making, so that you can
hear all their exclusive stories and gain access to some
of the biggest names in Australian television. I want to
thank you for downloading or subscribing to this podcast however
you've found me. I really do love hearing your feedback,
so if you can leave a review or a comment
(00:43):
on your chosen podcast platform. On today's episode of TV Reload,
I'm joined by Gareth Whitten, who was the winner of
Dessertmasters Australia for twenty twenty three. The spin off from
Mastership Australia finished a few weeks ago and I've been
really looking forward to sharing this exciting look back at
his time on the show. Gareth, as you may know,
is a very well known chef with eighteen years worth
(01:05):
of experience. After working in some of the world's best restaurants,
he started baking cakes at home during Melbourne's COVID nineteen lockdown. Quickly,
his neighbors and shortly the whole of Melbourne were lining
up to taste his delicious goods, which soon evolved into
the opening of two tuts and on locations, which landed
him in a role as a guest judge on mastershef
Australia in twenty twenty two and the opportunity to compete
(01:27):
for the bragging rights of the dessert world in this
latest televised competition. I will find out about his relationship
with his fellow competitors and why he thinks keeping it
simple at times helped him win the show. Gareth will
also talk about the effects that COVID had on the
cooking world and why he felt disillusioned by the whole industry.
(01:47):
If you've ever wondered what kind of preparation and planning
goes into these cooking shows, Gareth will also share what
dishes he'd already locked in prior to filming the series. Plus,
we will get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes
of Dessert Masters, which is still available to watch on
Tenplay if you have missed any of those delicious episodes. Anyway, guys,
let's bring Gareth into the podcast and I hope you
(02:09):
enjoy this very exciting unpacking of the most exciting cooking
show of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Min My hair literally just woke up.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Hair. Yeah, no, that's totally fine. I mean, what do
you do when you win Dessert Masters. I'm sure you've
had some like a like a decastage of wine. Maybe.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Well, we yeah, we have a few biers, some people around.
We had a little bit of a viewing party at
sort of like a friend's workspace. Things was really good,
like a few big screen TV. Some catering was good
and then yeah, a couple of drinks afterwards, and yeah,
it's nice to spend it with some friends and family.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I don't even know you, and I feel like I
wish that I was invited to that.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Ah, I wish i'd been beforehand.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, congratulations mate on winning Dessert Masters. This is wild.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
It is, it really is. I guess like kind of
like semi prepared for this with the the half knowledge
and what the.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Result may be.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I felt pretty confident coming out of the cook and
then hearing a lot of reassurance from the guys who
were watching from the gantry, et cetera, et cetera. Plus
there's always a lot of that speculation really entirely sure
is exactly how.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It was going to pan out. So it was a
nice surprise.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
There was a few people saying that you might have
Stephen bradburied the thing because in a way, everyone else
was making things a little bit more complicated to make
it more sensationalized. Where you learned throughout the competition to
really stay in your lane, and that's kind of how
you ended up winning, right.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I mean, I don't want to downplay my efforts to
say that word I did was manipulative or I flew
under the radar.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
There was a bit of that, for sure.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I played to my strengths, and I think that's the
thing that you really kind of got to do. And
especially when you're talking about like sticking to your guns
and any Bowdie talked a lot about this because one
thing I knew that he was hesitant to join the
competition with was the fact that he's known for doing
things that are wholesome and generous and bordering on rusty,
(04:10):
especially in its appearance. But like the focus is so
honed in on flavor and how things are to eat
and what they mean, and that they're relevant at a
particular time of a meal or a particular setting in
which it served. And I think for me as well,
like I definitely that's very much a part of my
philosophy as a chef, is that it's relevance and its
(04:32):
importance in a meal setting is paramount. Things are tasty,
and I get like deliciousness and flavor and other thing
that sort of stuff is like that should always be
at the forefront of food, regardless of what it is
you're doing. But having anything, but I do think that
there was a certain thing like.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And everyone did. Everyone really wanted to celebrate that on
the show.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
But I kind of felt as though, especially in the
public eye, so again like I'm not going to get
another rabbit hole and and read Reddit, Twitter, Instagram.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
There's people going to have their opinions. Is always going
to exist.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You can't read any of those, mate, because you know,
I didn't know that Reddit existed though. It was so wild,
and you know, I was in a reality yeah, eleven
years ago, and I was like, maybe I'll type in
my name and don't. It's like the stuff that's on
Reddit is obviously it's a different category to itself. It's
it's like nice on Twitter. It's like they're trying to
(05:28):
compete for what's the worst thing that I can say about?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
What? What did I do to you? What have I
done people?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I've worked out that they what they're saying online about
people they don't know is actually what they think of themselves.
That's what I think.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Probably, Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I think you read it with that mindset, you make
a lot more sense because like a lot of stuffy're
saying is fucking nonsense, and a lot of it I
think a lot of it comes from a place of
passionate enthusiasm that sort of stuff, as well as like
I think a lot of that of patriot that I'm always.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Going to you know, probably a crew online comes.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
More from a place of who they like more so
than subjectively disliking me. Except I said, I found one
person who just really just did not they did not
like me at all and I don't sort of like
I'm only doing enough to scrape by, and I was like,
I like. And the other thing as well, is like, yeah,
they did try and pit me as the like the
(06:24):
flavor guy, and I was like like thanks, Like that's
nice because in that sense, you're just saying that my
food is delicious, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
The value it well, it's kind of a different thing
as well. Being on a TV show is different to
sort of the reviews that you're going to get, like
on a menu log. I'm so out of it, but
do you know what I mean? Like when you're a
restauranteur and you are needing to interact with the people
to come into your restaurant, so you want to read
that because there can be some constructive criticism. It's kind
of a different sessialon do you know what I mean?
(06:52):
Like it's different.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, sorry, I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I don't remember you eating this, but you know, thanks,
like you know you know what I mean, Like that's
sounds awful, Like well you didn't, how do you know
I can eat it?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Idiot? Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And like this I mean again like getting cut down
because I didn't like in the in the semi final,
I mean people, Yeah, they didn't know what to hate on,
Like did I play it safe? Because I did a
relatively conservative plate of dessert and I didn't make a
bird cage or a bonds eye tree or a log.
I didn't I didn't try and wow the judges with
like to the I just made a tasty plate of
(07:25):
food that I thought fit the brief really well. And
I kind of thought I nailed it in that respect.
I know also because they were like, oh, but the vegetables,
like you're too many fells, Like you didn't eat this,
it's a dessert, and like you know that in.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Years to come, though, we'll have one of those not
smell of smell of vision and taste vision, you know,
one of those finals, you know, challenges where everyone you
know you're cooking for so many people the TV screen
or just hand out one of the one of the tarts.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, exactly, like a Willy wonkle when the snowsbreeze tastes
like you licked the wallpaper.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, just lick your TV screen.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Then you might actually have a bit more of a
a fair adjudication of what it is that you're talking
about here, because a lot of it's madness, it is,
but like fuck it. I mean, I guess I said,
I've never trained in that thing as well, so like
why would I? And I know that Generalman Jess and
Reynold are not classically trained either, So the fact that
they haven't done any kind of skilled work in those
(08:21):
areas but are still achieving it, that's examply.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I applaud them for that.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
But like I got nearly twenty years of restaurant training.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Some of the restaurant food idiots, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Like I want to win, and like if Kirstin Tibble's
comes in and doesn't do any chocolate, Everyone's like, oh,
what do you doing, Curson, where's the chocolate?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
You're the chocolate queen. It's like, oh, I really.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Wanted to push myself and you know, make fucking Pavlo
like no, but everyone loves her for that. But I
do what I and Andy Body does what Andy Baddy does,
and I do what I do.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
In Kaylene Tanner does what Kaileaene tan does. No one's
yelling at Morgan telling them to do more donuts.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
What I was thinking throughout the competition where some people
had been guest judges, So you'd been a guest judge
and some people have been contestants. I wondered whether or
not being a contestant previously was an advantage in some way,
because you know, it was interesting to see the way
in which the cookie crumbled throughout the series and who
left and who stayed, and you know, you were a
(09:18):
guest judge and you've got two other people that have
been in the competition before. I just wanted to know
your thoughts on that. Was it somewhat more of an
advantage maybe if you've been a contestant before.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I don't ever want to discredit what those guys achieved,
but I think if you look at how they performed
in those first couple of cooks, you kind of like,
these guys they feel comfortable here. You know, they know
the dynamics, they know what it means. Sure like you
in the first couple of episodes of a Master Chef season,
there's like thirty people and there's a lot less equipment
(09:49):
in per person, there's a lot less space. But even
just like the knowledge is sort of actually, I know
that how the pantry is set up, I know how
I need to go, and but the best. These are
the tips and tricks, and it's the sort of thing
that like we all work as chefs, so when we
do all workers chess, it's the sort of things you
need to learn, Like you need to get those of
(10:11):
evolutions in you work in places and I've worked in
places like Dinnerway Hessen, like learn where a lot of
this shit that you do is the exact same every day.
Like the number of tipsy cakes that I've seen, Like
I can't even look at one now and not just
get trauma. Like it's six years working with that restaurant
group and it never came off the menu and it
(10:32):
was the most popular dish, so like yeah, but every
day that I went in there, I'm sort of like,
I know how I can like get you know, ten
minutes per tray faster on rolling briansh. I know the
best time of day to make this brush because the
temperature is going to be right, there's going to be
less people in the kitchen, so I have a bit
more freedom and space to work with. I know they're
(10:53):
not going to need the bench at this time. So
these are these little tiny things. It's a little bit
kooky because you just literally the minor the most minor
of details and how you can improve yourself, your product,
your efficiency, and I guess, your life in general.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Just by making small little tweaks.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
So having that knowledge in the Master Chef kitchen, I
guess also would just serve as a slight advantage. And
when we're getting to a competition of this caliber, you like,
these are well for one of a better term there,
they're just the smallest things that they over time will
accrue and have big, big rewards.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
I mean, for me, I just was like, I couldn't.
I was so surprised that they'd want to put people
like yourself and Adriano and Kirsten. I just was so
surprised that you'd all want to be in this competition
because I'd be so because if it was me, I'd
be scared that I'd ruin my you know, my credibility.
But then there's also people that probably never watched Assert
Masters that it wouldn't even affect them at all, do
(11:52):
you know what I mean? Like that maybe if they
googled you before they went to your restaurant, they'd be like, oh,
I can't believe that you ktes on this show. Maybe
I'll go, yeah, well.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
There was always that fear, I think, and no one
wanted to be the first to go. And then that
was I think a lot of us is all as
long as the first to go that I'm good. But
there was also like the sense of you know, the
first people. You know, we knew that we had reputations
at stake, and there was going to be a lot
of that. And even then there were there was I mean, again,
we're not going to delve too much onto into the
(12:21):
online hate, but like, yeah, there's there's a lot of
opinions being shared around people because of how they performed
on the show, and their reputation was tarnished, like somewhat
in the eyes of the insignificant. That would would probably
you know, if it was relevant, like actually have an
impact on them. But yeah, there was a lot of stake.
You know, if I if I was if I was
(12:41):
dismissed early or something like that, then you know it
would have been.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Like okay, therapy after that before you could go back.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Probably I just hope that you just hope that it
wouldn't have a negative impact on the business and like.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The negative impact on your career following because they were changed.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I mean, you would know that even from COVID, like
the world be quite a dangerous place. Like you know,
when COVID happened, I remember reading something about it as
we were coming out of COVID, something that you'd said
about you were out of the job and then you
were redefining whether or not what you would do with
your career. Am I right by saying that? I remember
reading something somewhere where you were like, maybe, yeah, maybe
I'll go and get a corporate job, which, yeh is
(13:19):
mind blowing that something in the something can happen to
us in this world that could change our mindset like that.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
I think it was, to be honest, it was more
of like a slow burnout, and I was become so
disillusioned by the industry. There was like I was exhausted,
Like so, I mean, I've always had like a really
strong friendship circle outside of the industry.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
My partner's not in the industry.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I have a lot of hobbies and activities that usually
best enjoyed in the hours that are not conducive to
hospitality work.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You know, I love live sport.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I love to go watch the foot I used to
play a lot of footy, like the weekends, the weekend things,
last evening thing. It was like, and I always resented
hospitality for that that it took that away from me,
and I kind of took it for granted in the
sense that like, yeah, of course, I'm part of this
and it's my passion, it's my lives is with my
skill set, and I'm doing it forever and I love it.
(14:10):
But I just craved like that normality and I really
just wanted to sort of have Friday night knockoffs, you know,
with my mates. I wanted to sort of have those
Saturday morning. I wanted to play footy, like play sport
on the Saturday morning. I want to go go to
the game on Saturday night. I want to have Sunday session,
like get breakfasted on Sunday morning. And I just, you know,
(14:31):
that old gone back to work Monday kind of feeling.
I almost even wanted that, you know, and I never
had it because of HOSPO, and I was torn between
this like high performance, high achievement thing. And I even
took a little break at one point in my career
before I moved to Melbourne and worked at Dinner and
did a bit of catering at the Comic Bank. It
was like for a year or something of that, and
(14:52):
I loved it. Like the work itself was draining and
soul destroyings. I felt like I'm not getting that satisfaction
through my work. But I was out of there at
three o'clock every AVO. I had every weekend off, making
good enough money to really enjoy that lifestyle. BONDI beach
during the summer, just incredible, playing sport, engaging with friends
(15:12):
who have not really seen for so long. So yeah,
and then after dinner and then having all these awful,
awful things happen to us, these wage scandals, these talks
of abuse in the industry, like having whistleblowers calling out
friends of mine for making up lies about their behavior
just because they want to shine a light in the
(15:33):
toxicity of the hospitality industry. Having like our practices and
our behavior as management within like a very reputable restaurant
that's run by passionate and determined and like so highly
motivated people being shot on because of some entitlement of
people who don't really see Italian hard work. Now I'm
(15:55):
all across, and I'm all for like legalities and they
paying for money owed of work. But it was it
seemed like people were like putting their foot down and saying,
like I deserve this. I deserve more because I've shown up,
like I've come to work, so like this is what
I'm owed and like, well that's true to a certain extent.
And then we sort of imposed the hospitality industry awards.
(16:17):
So this is getting maybe a little bit controversial here,
but there was a lot of stuff that I thought
was like, it's kind of unfair on people who want
to be motivated and want to be driven in their
careers because of what this was. And so anyway, I
think at the end of the day, it all very
much like kind of broke my spirit a little bit.
So coming out of dinner by Heston, I just thought, well,
I don't like I can't stand this and I don't
(16:39):
see myself doing it. I thought this is a good
opportunity for me to maybe start a new So yeah,
I looked at working with some of the suppliers that
I'd worked with all like an agency that we used
to use to get our kitchen hands. It's like, what
if I worked within the industry and tried to like,
you know, engage in another aspect of it and like
work with product instead of the service side, and yeah,
dip my toes in there and like put the feelers
(17:00):
out at least, and COVID happened and they all kind
of went away, and then I just sort of did
what I needed to do to get by and worked
in the supermarket, started baking it home.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
It's kind of interesting though, because it's kind of like
the superhero complex in a way. If you gave that
all away, would you be fulfilled creatively? If you were
to be going to the footy with your mates or
you're just out having a drink with your mates. I
guarantee you in ten years, knowing that you had that superpower,
you would feel depleted.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I think one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
And no matter how much joy I would bring to
people through like exploring new products or whatever, I feel
that was always going to be a compromise. And it
took only it was like a couple of months and
I was just like what am I doing? I just
I have to be cooking. I'd have to be And
it seems so like like chef bro I'm not sure
that's a concept that you're familiar with, but like these
(17:49):
guys whose personalities are their job, you know, they go
foraging on the weekends, they only go out to restaurants,
you know, on their time off.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
That like, chefing is your life.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And I feel like, oh, it's so nauseating, But then
I go and do it and I was like back, like, yeah,
this is actually me, but it is.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
That's why you've got that balance. You've acknowledged that yourself
in the sense that you know your partner isn't. In
the industry, you've obviously craved that balance, and we do
that behind the scenes of our minds sometimes, you know,
where where we make sure that sort of stuff happens
to give us the balance that we know that we need.
You know, I agree where if you were this arrogant chef,
like some chefs have that reputation to be, and they're
(18:31):
consumed by the industry, you know, it sort of overrides
everything in that and in their lives, they don't have
that balance that I guess we all crave to a
certain extent.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
It's true, and I think that what I did that
I'm grateful for now is that I decided just to
pivot more so than actually give it up. And now
working in production, working in retail, like we do the mony,
we don't do the money a Friday, but we finished
work in the afternoon. We have our nights off a
bit antisocial in the sense that you know, I'll work
(19:01):
most days of the weekend and I'm having to go
to bed rest early because I've got you know, five
thirty start. But you know, I think that in itself,
we're it all pays off in the end because I've
got the evening's back. I've got a young family now,
so I see them every night. I spend time with
my partner every day, which is always a plan. Like
when I was working at Dinner and she was working
at the hospital. She'd monaed a Friday nine to five,
(19:22):
and I'd see her on Sunday and for a few
hours on Saturday morning before I went to work. And
it's not and Monday nights when she got home from work.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
For a man who loves coffee and tarts, like you know,
you're programming yourself to work the hours that you want
to work. You know, getting up early, you can't have
a delicious coffee, do you know what I mean? I'll
see you through the disastrous alarm clocks that we yes, yeah, yeah,
working those sort of hours, I guess it's remissing me
not to ask winning this competition, how do you think
it's going to change your life? And how are you
(19:53):
going to spend this hundred thousand dollars?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I certain, No, I mean I think I know it
will change my life somewhat. I don't know if this
is really going to like catapop me into the public eye.
I don't really know. It's so hard to see. I
know the show, the show has had such great like
it's been received so well, and I'm so grateful for that.
We are hoping to use this as a ways to
(20:15):
sort of, like you, launch our brand somewhat and actually
get us into a into a new space where we're
kind of like, I guess I'm using my own personality,
in my own public status to promote the Tarts and
not just let the business be its own promotional tool.
It's going to be a bit of a different next
(20:37):
few months. But I think what we're really hoping to
do is just use this new energy, in this new
excitement around around the success to actually launch ourselves into
that space.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
How long have you had to think about all of this? So,
I mean, did they film you winning when it was recorded?
Or was there multiple endings recorded, Like, at what point
did you find out that you'd want like if you
had time to process.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
I found out I've been on the on the ride
with everybody else, it's all been and that they have
their ways, but we did. Yeah, it was not until
last night, but actually, you know, it was one hundred
percent confirmed when and I was actually was pretty grateful
that I could actually share that moment with people and
that I was just as Yeah, it was just.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
As much in the dark as everybody else, which is
kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Your mind must be spinning now, it.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Is, And again like there was because we obviously we
lived with the cook itself and there was so much
uncertainty around what was happening. So but to know that
I was in the top three, I think what what
I did know was that like being then, the same
way that I'm sure Reynold and Jess will also feel,
(21:51):
is that we're now like going to We're now going
to have so much more opportunity to sort of launch
and to sort of like leverage our success off the
back of being in that top three with so many
eyes on us that regardless of the result last night,
this was a great launch pad for us, and I
guess the.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Being coming out with top going has only made it
that much sweeter.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Did you try and plan anything before coming onto the show?
Like I was wondering how much of the cooks did
you know? We're going to be set for you? And
then of course there's going to be if you make
it to the end, you're going to have that service challenge.
Had you planned those particular set dishes for that?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Oh no, no, no, no no, there was like a
there's a little bit of preparation that we get, but
it's very little. They really do want, I think, and
what they did say to us that we don't want Jeopardy,
we don't want drama, which you're also going to take
with a pinch of salt because it's TV and that's
that cells we know that.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
It's going out on a date and saying that you
don't want to get late.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, exactly, Like, come on, guys, let's be honest, you
know what are we here looking for?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Friendship? Yeah? Really?
Speaker 3 (22:57):
When in reality we all knew that was going to
be the the result eventually.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
You know what I was also thinking, you know, off
the back of you saying what you could do with
your profile? It was interesting. While I was watching the
show with Melissa and Amory, I was thinking, don't you
love how I say his name with my Australian accent,
like come.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Oh, Amor I'm not going to do it because I
know I don't do it, I won't do it well
and all that's going to I mean, if I'm going
to get scrutinized by the French, I may as well
do it.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
And you know, on my my own.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Right, melissaly On does it so well that it now
scares everyone out. I know, good lord, if.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
You can saund like that, you set the barhid.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Mail every single time, every single time. But I did
think watching this show, I wonder whether or not being
a judge on a cooking show like this has now
become of interest to you. I think that there will
be more media interest in what it is that you do.
Could you see yourself hosting a show like this?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I don't know, I think, I mean, look I could.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I don't know if I want that to be my profile,
because I still I really just I.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Love what I'm doing right now. I love my business.
I love working his other band, Creative.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I love I'm still you know, and this is not
going to come as a surprise, I'm sure, but I'm
still on the tools four to five days a week.
I'm actually going to go in there later and do
some prep with the guys because we're busy and lots
of new stuff coming in and like if I'm not
in there, you know, cooking with them, Like you know,
I think I've handed over some of the more logistical
running of the actual kitchen to a very competent team.
(24:24):
So I'm in there just sort of like you know,
I'll run a few dishes through the potwash, I'll sheet
the dough, or i'll aligne tartshells and that sort of stuff.
So there's still a lot of hands on work and
I want to stay with that, but you know, opportunities
will come up. I think everything needs to take into
consideration judging a show like that. I think anyone who
knows me personally might not think that's the best things
(24:47):
suited to me in that I have some very like
strong opinions about things, and there's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I actually think we're heading towards more of that, though.
I think, you know, i'd love to see it for
a time we see on television, and you know, being
in the public eye that you know, people are so
two dimensional. We're actually like, if you want to engage
with audiences more, if you want audiences to engage I
think you kind of need to polarize them in a way.
I think we're going to need to offer them. We're
(25:16):
going to need to offer audiences more to digest and
sometimes that means putting yourself on the line.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And I agree one undercent and I think, and I'll
use I'll reference that one of my favorite TV shows
for this in that I don't think we see enough
of it. But America is a country that is known
for like lifting up and heralding the successes of others.
They just love this promotional stuff. They really want to
(25:43):
get behind their people. It's uplifting. It's very American. You know,
if you say that you're engaged whatever, the whole audience
will chair. It's not very much ingrain as the Australian culture,
but it's slowly creeping in. But my favorite, one of
my favorite shows, Top Shit, which is an amazing watch.
They're fucking brutal and they are cut through. Like these
days they kind of like soften a little bit. But
(26:04):
the earliest seasons they were just like they were to
the point they were like, why are you doing this?
Like like I would send you all home if I could,
that kind of stuff, And I think, like, you want
to see more of it. You have Padna who's very
like lifting and beautiful, Tom Fleecko man, he's brutal because
he's honest, and I think people want to see more
of that, and I'd love to see more of that.
And it was one of the things I really really
really respected Amory Melfall is that you could tell, like
(26:27):
you could tell one hundred percent that every single thing
that they were saying in all of that judging came
from their heart. Was sort of like this, like there's
no agenda, we're not we're not trying to curate character arcs.
There's none of this, there's no you know, no, there
are no favorites. You know, there's no one here who's
whose successes are being promoted ahead of others to suit
(26:49):
the Channel ten's plan.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
They were sort of like, where here to judge some food?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
And then he came in and they were so meticulous
on that, and I was not only grateful but also
just so respectful of them for that.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
It's wild to me that you know, we kind of
know that the key to connecting to audiences is authenticity
and being honest and being real, but yet as time
goes on, we sort of cookie kutter. Anyway, this is
a much different podcast, But I appreciate, I appreciate where
you're coming from, and I agree, I really do everyone
who joins the podcast, though I finish off with asking
(27:24):
them a question, what is something from behind the scenes,
kind of like a behind the scenes secret of what
it was like to be on Dessert Masters.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Well, I mean, actually behind there was a lot, like
there was a lot just a lot of carrying on.
Like I was saying before you, the one thing that
I've always loved about hospital in general was that there
was this semileance of personality that you could bring in.
And I remember when I was doing a few interviews
and chatting with like, you know, recruiters or key account
(27:54):
managers and that sort of stuff, Like when I had
this sort of midlife coarter life criss with what I
want to call it, and I was seen in these
interviews and it was so stuffy and formal and like
the banter was just off. When I've had interviews for
jobs like on a milk crate in next to a bin.
I'm sort of like, do you want the job, mate?
Do you think you can do it? I'm like, yeah,
(28:14):
I sear, I can give me a chance, coach, you know.
And like there was this sort of organicness that's so
like raw about HOSPO. And despite how passionate and motivated
and driven we are as individuals, we're kind of like
a bunch of kids, and you took all of us
out of our comfort zone. You take us away from
our businesses where we need to be respectful, respectable leaders,
(28:39):
role models, professionals, and you lump us all in together.
It's like a fucking zoo and the carrying on and
just like the general shenanigans, like at the end of
the week after IVS were like where we're off to,
you know, we're in the green room, Like there's a
white board full of requests and everyone's just like riding
out junk food and we're sitting around just like inhaling
(29:02):
these like little packets of the veggie straws and stuff.
To the point now that our group chat is just
so center around every single time you see I want
to see the veggie straws to take a photo, put
it in the group chat. You know, just the band
turned that like the forming of those friendships, because there's
this cabin feverish and that's something that is so inherent
in hospitality culture that as soon as you put you know,
(29:22):
these stoughts in the industrym together, it was kind of
like adding sourdo started to the theme, just going just grow,
just growing from there. And yeah, but we would go,
we got we had gelato runs on the Friday nights.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
We'd He was saying that he was like, oh my god,
in his as M three scoops of ice cream.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yeah, Adriana three scoops three.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
On the Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
And he've been obviously being up in Noosa like he's
you know, he's got some good ice cream.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Up there, like it's part of the culture.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
But like we're blessed in Melbourne picked Alina Cory, you know,
there's Carrat and all the Messinas. You know, you can
poke a fucking stick at Peter Pipo, Luther's scoops like
some of these iconic like ice cream jokes around Melbourne,
and he was just like, ah, this is incredible, and
so we would.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Kayleen lives up in whittle.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
See, so she's got a bit of a drive, so
she'd always have a car there, and so she'd come in,
we'd all like crammed to the back seat and just
sort of like all like squished into like shoulders shoulder,
and there's like five business tinl hatchbags driving around, you know,
dotting about all the sorbet Gelado shops of Melbourne together,
which is was great.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah, money can't buy it, you know, and what an amake,
you know, and it'll stay with you for the rest
of your life, you know. I just I really appreciated
the chat with you. I think that you want to
offer and it was quite exciting to unpack this show
with you because I think when people are listening to this,
they'll hear your passion and I think people connect. That's
the currency, you know, people's passion for what it is
(30:55):
that they do. So yeah, for sure, thank you for
taking the time.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
No, thank you. I really enjoyed it.
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