Celeb chef Colin Fassnidge: ‘if you thought kitchens were bad’

Celeb chef Colin Fassnidge has appeared on the Mental As Anyone podcast. True to reputation, he has held nothing back, speaking of everything from family to online trolls.

Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge has lifted the veil on the brutal world of television.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone Podcast, the popular Irishman says the reality of television is not as fabulous as people may think.

“I think TV, the people who run it are a horrible land of people. If you thought kitchens were bad, TV and the entertainment world, they will knife you in the back while talking to you. If I was 20, I would have bought into that and believed everything they said,” Fassnidge said.

Colin Fassnidge recording Mental As Anyone podcast at ProPodcast in Sydney.

“But now I’m 50, I’m very sure of who I am and I know who my friends are and I don’t really need to get my arse sucked up.”
MKR star Fassnidge shared the harsh observations in the wide-ranging Mental As Anyone podcast interview, in which he spoke about everything from panic attacks to online trolls.

“It was just sort of your heart races and you’re just like can I do it?” he explained of the panic attacks he suffered as life got back to normal after Covid. “You are questioning yourself and I don’t question myself, but I was.”

Father of two Fassnidge pulls no punches. He is upfront for fear or favour.

“I’ve been fired before, from TV, and what you realise is you get fired and then you get rehired,” he said. “It’s not the end of the world. Life goes on. The f***ing world keeps spinning. There’s bigger things in life. In the old days, I’d just fire off left, right and centre. You can’t be stupid either but you’ve still gotta have your own opinions. You can’t be cookie cutter.”

Daily Telegraph. 10, October, 2022. Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge at the Bestest Chef Gala Dinner, at Bennelong Point, Sydney, today. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Daily Telegraph. 01, November, 2022. Chef Colin Fassnidge, at The Big Dance on Cup Day, at Royal Randwick, today. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

You could say Fassnidge is prolific on social media. He calls out trolls when required.

In 2015, he went to the police when a social media user sent creepy messages to his daughters.

“I had someone say he’d molest my kids,” he said. “Someone said they’d rape my wife. Someone said they’d burn down my house. That’s just because they don’t like your TV show.

And I’m like, ‘really?’ People think they can say whatever they want. I don’t mind when they attack me but when they go to the next level, that is when I flip out.”

* A new episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast drops each Tuesday at 6am.

Originally published as Celeb chef Colin Fassnidge: ‘if you thought kitchens were bad’