Heart of the home
Matt Moran takes matters into his own hands with online series Kitchen Tales
Every household gathering ends up in the kitchen – all of the best conversations happen there.
It’s one of the many reasons why chef Matt Moran decided to film his series Kitchen Tales in his own kitchen at home.
“Whenever you go to someone’s house, you tend to end up in the kitchen, that’s where all the best stories are told I think,” Moran said.
The idea came to him one day during the pandemic to create a new series which he could share on his own social media platforms.
“It was during COVID, I was cooking a lot more at home and I was doing a lot of Zoom classes for corporate groups and things like that and I just thought ‘This is great, cooking from home’,” he said.
“I built the kitchen 10 years ago and I did it to actually film in it but I never really had. So now that I was using it for these Zoom classes I thought ‘This is fun’ and so the idea for Kitchen Tales built from that.”
For the show, Moran invites celebrities and well-known faces into his kitchen for conversation and food. The food is dished up by him but with a twist – this is food that relates to his guests’ backgrounds or their upbringing, and it’s designed to make them talk or open up.
“I do a bit of research on all of them and interview them, whether it’s on Zoom or in real life, and I talk to people that they know because everybody’s got some sort of food story to tell about how when they were a kid they didn’t like this certain thing, or something reminds them of someone in their life,” he said.
Last November he released season one on his YouTube and Instagram accounts, with guests including TV presenter Deborah Hutton, fashion designer and seaweed farmer Sam Elsom and actor Meyne Wyatt, who delivered a powerful monologue on Q+A supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and indigenous rights in Australia.
“I saw that monologue that Meyne did and I just sent him a message and said ‘Mate, I was really moved by it. I think you’re an absolute legend’. Then months later I contacted him and asked him to do this show and he said he’d love to,” Moran said.
“I like people who make a stance and have got something to say.”
He’s continuing that trend in season two with gender activist and actor Zoe Terakes featuring in his first episode, and a selection of people from all areas of life including Jane and Jimmy Barnes, OzHarvest founder Ronni Kahn, and the Stefanovic brothers – including
the lesser-known Tom Stefanovic.
“To have the three Stefanovic brothers all in one room has never been done before apparently,” Moran said.
“Tom actually produces almond milk so that’s a great story within itself. I know Karl and Pete really well, but it was just really nice to have Tom there and watch the banter between them.
“I actually didn’t talk to them about their food history, I went to their mum and she told me that they didn’t like brussel sprouts and cauliflower and all that sort of stuff so I cooked some brussel sprouts for them.”
Of course, Moran doesn’t torture his guests with foods they don’t like, but cooks it in a way that shows them how appealing it can be – even brussel sprouts.
“It’s about trying to bring some memories to the table but also at the same time to make sure that it is appealing and they do want to eat it,” he said.
For singer Jimmy Barnes and his wife Jane, it was about bringing out what he already knew about them as his friends.
“Jimmy is someone I’ve known for a long time and Jane’s a great cook, and she’s not just a great cook of Thai food she can cook any food. The first meal she ever cooked for Jimmy was apricot chicken and Jimmy said the minute he ate it he knew he wanted to marry her. And then Jane tells me later on that it was pretty average but I think Jimmy’s diet was pretty average back in those days,” Moran said.
“For the show, I made
Jimmy mince on toast because that’s what his mother used to give him. And then Jimmy sings a song at the end of it which is really nice.”
Moran also reached out to people he saw making a stir online, such as comedic influencers The Inspired Unemployed.
“Those young boys are on the rise but they really had no idea about food. What they eat at home is lots of takeaway and one of them does a pesto pasta but he just gets pesto out of a jar, so I showed him how to make pesto. He had no idea how easy it was. So there are little moments like that that are a lot of fun,” he said.
Everything is catered with his guests in mind, take Kahn for example, the founder of food rescue charity OzHarvest.
“With Ronni I used a chicken and did lots of different things with it so there wasn’t any wastage whatsoever and made soup at the end,” Moran said.
And there are some pretty revealing and surprising moments as his guests let down their guard in Moran’s kitchen.
“Matt Wright is an outback wrangler, the crocodile guy, a big alpha male, but I didn’t realise that for 10 years of his early life he was a vegetarian,” Moran said.
The episodes come out weekly on Moran’s YouTube channel and Instagram account, giving the chef and his team a lot of freedom, but he is open to bringing it to other platforms.
“You have a little bit more freedom and you can edit the way you want it. I don’t know what the future holds in it. Some people have shown some interest in making it into some sort of TV series but I’m not too sure yet, I’m going to see what happens,” he said.
■ Kitchen Tales, new episodes Sundays, streaming on YouTube and Instagram @chefmattmoran