KITCHEN KINGS
Plateof Origin hosts Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston and Manu Feildel have all shown they can handle a bit of heat, writes Holly Byrnes
HE’S food TV’s favourite court jester, the naughty boy made good on My Kitchen Rules. So Manu Feildel makes an easy mark when asked a cheeky question about the title of his hotly-anticipated new Channel 7 cooking show Plate of Origin.
Or, as industry wags have abbreviated it, P.O.O.
Doing his best to toe the network line, the kid inside Feildel can’t help himself, as he laughs long and heartily when asked, ‘ Who the hell thought that name was a good idea?’
“We are not allowed to talk about it,” he giggles, “we are not allowed to use that word,” he laughs uproariously.
The acronym has long been whispered between rival stations and producers since the show was announced late last year as the first new vehicle for his big-name new co-hosts Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan since leaving 10’s MasterChef.
Originally scheduled to follow Seven’s exclusive coverage of the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games, the sporting- style format was meant to capture that sense of competition; not give their competition the chance to sharpen their knives.
Still, Feildel is sporting enough to see the funny side.
“From day one, when we realised we thought, ‘ Surely, they will change it. And apparently they tried, but they could never come up with a new title,” he explains, adding with a wink, “so it’s hung around like a bad smell.”
All jokes aside, the fresh format comes hot on the heels of a wildly successful season of MasterChef, with its new custodians – Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo – surprising everyone with the seamless way they took the baton and ran with it.
Preston has already confirmed he couldn’t bring himself to watch the All Stars season – which welcomed back contestants from the 11 years he spent on the show as a judge, alongside Mehigan and third musketeer George Calombaris.
While Calombaris remained under contract with 10 when
Plate of Origin was put together, his MC mates didn’t look back as they took up a lucrative offer from Seven’s CEO James Warburton to make his network their new home.
Luckily, a decade-long friendship with Feildel, their MKR foe, made casting the new show a no-brainer; but it would be a post-bushfire season roadtrip between the new judging trio that would truly bond them.
“It was like old friends getting together,” Mehigan reveals.
“We did a road trip in the weeks before we went on set, in aid of the bushfire-affected communities.
“It was part of that ‘empty esky’ movement, supporting those small towns and producers in the country when the fires hit.
“Our sides ached from laughing so much, but it was also an emotional rollercoaster of course. One minute we’re laughing, next minute we’re on a chicken farm talking to a devastated family telling us awful stories of losing their stock, their homes, their livelihoods.”
The bad news wouldn’t end there, with coronavirus having a catastrophic impact on Australia’s restaurant and hospitality staff, many of whom were not offered help in the Federal Government’s JobKeeper and JobSeeker packages.
But, as Mehigan extols, resilient restaurateurs learned swiftly to pivot their plans and offer ready-made meals and at-home fine dining experiences. All three judges admit with food and travel at the heart of their professional and personal lives, the shutdowns cut deep.
Giving became a way of surviving the shutdown, with Preston starting a website featuring free cooking videos; and Mehigan hosting a podcast supporting industry pals.
All three cooked for a charity dinner in aid of Second Bite, a Victorian food wastage and security foundation which has given away more than one million meals to date.
“Being involved in something like that makes you feel like you’re doing ‘something’. Otherwise I think you can lose yourself in a deep, dark well of self moroseness and depression,” Preston says.
It makes the laughter and levity of a cooking show like
P.O.O a welcome comic relief for all – best described as a mix of My Kitchen Rules and Family Food Fight.
Ten teams of two, representing their family food heritage, compete in what is called ‘the arena’. In the early rounds, two teams go head-to-head, with the judges the only ones to score the food; while the remaining contestants share the meals and make a night of it, MKRdinner party style.
Mehigan admits first- day jitters got a grip of him, but the show’s commitment to serving up top- quality food would save it and show in tonight’s debut episode when Team Australia take on two friends from a Chinese background.
“[Team China] Chrys and Mandy, came up onto the arena, and did their little K-Pop- style thing, and I thought, ‘Oh here we go’,” Mehigan moans.
“So I asked, ‘Can you cook?’ And they just ranted on about all their dishes and what they wanted to show off and I looked at Manu and Matt and said,
‘ I think we’re alright.’”
PLATE OF ORIGIN 7PM, SUNDAY, SEVEN