Matt Preston: ‘I don’t think I dealt with fame very well’
MasterChef Australia made Matt Preston an instant celebrity 14 years ago, but in a candid admission, the food writer reflects on why his first brush with stardom regrettably made him become “a bit of a dickhead”.
Stellar
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It has been 14 years since he first beamed into living rooms across the nation as a judge on MasterChef Australia, the success of which made the food writer – and his trademark cravat – an instant celebrity. In a candid conversation on the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About, he recalls being “a bit of a dickhead” when he first tasted fame, reflects on how dancing helped him cope with the loss of his mother – and reveals why he keeps his family out of the public eye
On stepping outside his comfort zone as a contestant on this year’s Dancing With The Stars (currently airing on Seven Network) and what he has learnt about himself in the process: “I’ve turned 60. An opportunity like Dancing comes along and you go, ‘I don’t need to do it.’ And then you go, ‘Well, let’s have a crack.’ Everyone I talk to, they’ve got something; maybe it’s dancing, maybe it’s learning to play the guitar, maybe it’s starting to play golf. That joy of starting something with low expectations so that you actually find joy in the small victories – that’s been one of the great things about dancing.
For the full interview with Matt Preston, listen to Stellar’s podcast Something To Talk About, below – or wherever you get your podcasts.
I thought I’d do it, it’s a job, I’ll be professional, I’ll make an effort. But pretty quickly, [when]dancing with [DWTS partner Jessica Raffa], we started laughing. I think some of that was her laughing at me. But after a while, it actually got to the point where we were really enjoying it, so much so that since finishing on the show, I now dance with Jess once a week. We’re learning the cha-cha at the moment. We’ve done tango and we also train twice a week together because that’s been one of the other big changes: fitness. There’s one word that I keep hearing a lot from certain people of a certain age who’ve achieved a lot, and that’s the fear of ‘humiliation’. I think this is a really debilitating idea, this idea that your children are going to think less of you or your friends are going to joke about you. Humiliation is just an anxiety that really has no place in the modern world.”
On losing his mother at the end of last year, and how grieving her loss helped him forge a deep bond and friendship with his dance partner Jessica Raffa: “I did my ankle five minutes into the first training session, and it was like, OK, well, maybe this is a sign that this isn’t for me. I talked to Jess about it and what I hadn’t realised about Jess is that she was coming off a six-month battle her husband had been having with blood cancer, and this was her chance. If I stopped, she stopped. This was her chance to get back into dance and to find that joy. She’s kept her family together, she’s supported Tony, her husband. And because my mother had died four months previously, also of blood cancer – she’s the one who got me into food in the first place – there was this moment of, ‘I need to be here.’ One of the great things is the emotional release you get with dance. [At the start of DWTS] my mother’s death was still really, really recent… There were periods when Jess and I were both dancing with tears streaming down our faces. It’s helped bring us closer together.”
On becoming “a bit of a dickhead” after his first brush with fame and how he dealt with becoming a household name when MasterChef Australia launched in 2009: “I had done a show for [Channel] Seven called My Restaurant Rules [in 2004]. I had that thing of going from hardworking writer and then suddenly you fly to the country and the guys scanning the bags know you and the passport control guy knows you. I don’t think I dealt with it very well. I became a bit of a dickhead, but it was very, very instructive.
With MasterChef, two things happened. One, I knew the other two judges [George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan] really well, so there was nowhere to hide. If you acted like a dickhead, the other two would tell you you’re acting like a dickhead. That kept all three of us honest. I think the other thing that happened is that it took off so quickly and we had no idea what was happening. Suddenly it’s the number-one show in the history of reality television. And then next year it eclipses that. When something like that happens, in your immediate world nothing changes. Your friends, the people who know you, that doesn’t change. But the whole world moves a metre to the right. So other people you don’t know treat you differently. But that’s why core friends and family are so important because they go, ‘Yeah, we remember when you tried to dye mashed potatoes blue. It was disgusting.’”
On why he deliberately keeps his wife and three children out of the public eye: “I’ve chosen the life I’ve chosen and they have to have the freedom to [choose theirs]. What happened with my eldest son, he was at primary school [when MasterChef first aired] and there was this brilliant moment where it wasn’t, ‘Oh my gosh, Matt Preston’s son is in the school.’ It’s like, ‘Look, there’s Jono’s dad and he’s on the telly!’ That changes the dynamic. It makes it much more normal. When I’m out at netball with my daughter, she decides who is able to take a picture. She has control over that. You have to be thoughtful. You’re always mindful of the fact that your primary need is to be with that person. But I’m lucky.
My kids are very strong, very independent. And so far, they’ve been a real pleasure to be around… Winning is when your children still want to spend time with you even if you’re a bit into embarrassing them by dancing on a television show.”
On whether he regrets taking a role as a judge on the ultimately unsuccessful 2020 Seven Network reality TV cooking show Plate Of Origin: “What none of us predicted was the two years that were coming. I had a show that had been green-lit in the UK that went. I had live shows in South Africa and India to do – they went. You can’t predict what’s going to happen next, so just grab the joy now because who knows what’s around the corner? I was lucky Seven picked up Gary [Mehigan] and myself – we got to make another show [My Kitchen Rules in 2022]. But do I regret doing Plate Of Origin? No, because I think there were some really good relationships that came out of that. Would I have loved it if more people had watched? Yeah, of course I would.”
On finishing his memoir, which (he hopes) will be released later this year: “I’m a terrible over-writer, so when someone says ‘95,000 words’ and then it’s now around 185,000… Some poor editor is going to have to spend an awful lot of time trying to work out the least boring bits to leave in. There are some crazy things I found out. Who am I, where I came from, what happened? And then you remember all the terrible things you did and you realise what an idiot you’ve been at times in life. That’s also quite revealing as well.”
Matt Preston is on Dancing With The Stars at 7pm on Sundays on the Seven Network.
Read the full interview with Stellar this Sunday, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD), and Sunday Mail (SA).
Originally published as Matt Preston: ‘I don’t think I dealt with fame very well’
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