Matt Moran BACK TO BAKE!
The iconic Australian celebrity chef is ready to cause a stir on the new season of The Great Australian Bake Off
It was great to have the team back together,” Matt Moran says of reality series The Great Australian Bake Off, which hasn’t been seen on our screens since 2019. Promising a diverse group of amateur bakers who aren’t afraid to push boundaries, the 52-year-old chef says this season was “really good”, with 12 new cooks trying to impress Matt and fellow judge Maggie Beer.
What impact did COVID have on
Bake Off?
It was a little bit different, but being in hospitality, I was very accustomed to what the dangers were. There were changes, but it was pretty painless. Obviously getting tested all the time, but I’d been getting tested all the time because I’d been going out to the farm quite a bit.
We were lambing and calving at the same time. You won’t even notice – there was nothing mentioned on air. It will look like a normal series.
The cast is incredibly diverse this time around, in terms of their ages, backgrounds…
That’s the great thing about Bake Off
– people of all ages love to bake, whether you’re an 18-year-old kid or a retired gent or a female truck driver, which we had one year. I think that’s a plus for the show. And there are lots of different cultures, too. You get to see a very wide variety of things all the time.
People put in their heritage. It’s always nice when you get to see something you’ve never seen before.
And there’s a nonna this season. You’ve got to have a nonna!
Yeah. And we had a doctor and a guy that’s done honours and an English teacher and a girl who’s in travel. It was a really nice group of people.
What was the level of talent like?
It gets better and better, I think. And particularly during COVID – a lot of people were just sitting at home and baking all the time. These guys were locked in their rooms, practising a lot. They’re not there to win a sh*tload of money – they’re there because they love it and are passionate about it, and that always makes great TV.
What’s your favourite part of
Bake Off?
The showstoppers are always fantastic because [the bakers] get to really show what they’re made of.
Any spectacular fails?
There’s always something that goes wrong – a collapse, something missed, something overcooked – and that’s just the way it is. Particularly in the beginning with the time restraints, because normally they’re doing it at their leisure at home, but after a couple of weeks they get better at that. You do see the things they’re going to do that are probably a mistake and you kind of want to say something to give them a bit of an indication, but if you do that, you’ve got to give it to everyone at the same time.
A gentle, “Are you sure about that?”
Exactly, and Maggie likes to do that, too. It makes them think.
How do you think you’d go on a technical challenge – in terms of the time constraint, of course?
How do I say this without sounding too arrogant? I’ve been cooking for 37 years and spent many, many hours in the pastry department. And I cook at home all the time – the main reason is because I do it in half the time. [Laughs] But we go, “That would take me an hour-and-a-half, let’s give them an extra half an hour.”
THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN BAKE OFF returns Thursday, 8.30pm, Foxtel Lifestyle