‘I’ll rape your wife’: Celeb chef’s social media torment revealed

He’s the celeb chef who became one of our most recognisable names in food and television. Colin Fassnidge gets candid for the Mental As Anyone podcast, speaking of everything from panic attacks to online trolls.

Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge has spoken of the panic attacks he suffered as life returned to normal after Covid while detailing the “horrible land of television”.

“I don’t buy into it that much (fame),” Fassnidge said. “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. 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.”
Fassnidge shared the harsh observations in the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast, covering everything from his own health to family, social media and the pressure chefs endure in their line of work.

Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge.

The Irishman is one of our most famous faces on Australian television, plucked from relative anonymity more than a decade ago to appear as a judge on reality cooking show My Kitchen Rules.

He is an author, has run numerous top tier restaurants, and is now also a presenter on Better Homes and Gardens.

“After Covid it was a bit shot (mental health),” he said. “When I had to go back to work, I started having panic attacks but I didn’t tell anyone. It was just because when I do a job, I give 110 per cent and I knew I was running on 60 per cent. I’m sure it’s like if you’re locked away in prison or something, and that’s what Covid was and then I had all this work come back, like TV stuff and I was like, ‘f***, I don’t think I’m able to do it.”

Those panic attacks were something Fassnidge never thought he’d experience.

“It was just sort of your heart races and you’re just like can I do it?” he explained. “You are questioning yourself and I don’t question myself, but I was.”

While confident, cocky even, Fassnidge too suffers self-doubt.

“You can’t go into every situation and think you’re the bee’s knees,” he said. “I don’t take it for granted that I’m in this position, I still have impostor syndrome. I started as a chef, just a chef in the dark kitchens. And then suddenly, like this year I’m doing five shows on TV.”

The father of two has been known for having a hothead too. He speaks his mind, which is part of his charm and appeal on TV.

Other chefs too have that reputation in the kitchen – it is a stressful place to work.

“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.”

Having two daughters forced Fassnidge to cool his temper.

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

“When we were in the kitchens, in the old days, I would lose it and generally see spots … and go into this rant. I think you’ve got to grow out of it because there’s more to life than caning someone for overcooking your asparagus,” he explained. “I think in this day and age, you can be cancelled for doing anything. We all would have been cancelled before. That’s the way we were trained and that’s the way we came up but we learnt to cook and we learnt our trade, which they don’t learn now.”

Fassnidge has seen too many of his chef friends die of suicide.

“It is a very high pressure industry and it can be a very lonely industry as well,” he said.

Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge on My Kitchen Rules.

Colin Fassnidge and Johanna Griggs on Better Homes and Gardens. Credit: Jeremy Greive

“It is sort of a high when you do a service, on a weekend and you’re busy, and then you’ve got to sort of numb the high with alcohol or whatever after that, which was seen as the done thing and that eventually takes its toll. I think we sort of wore it as a badge of honour. Like you’d drink all night, and then go to work.”

He added: “I know people who’ve done it (suicide) and I’d been with them days before and they were fine and then they took their own life. So it’s not like there’s a magic pill just to stop it because there’s not.”

Fassnidge is very active on social media. He interacts with his fans and fires up when he feels it necessary. In 2015, he went to the police when a social media user sent creepy messages to his daughters.

Colin Fassnidge and partner Jane Hyland. Picture: Christian Gilles

“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.”

He believes there should be more consequences for those using social media to harm others.

Looking ahead, Fassnidge wants to be more present.

“I don’t sort of take the moments. If I’m doing a show, I’m like, what’s the next one? How do I pay the bills on the next one? If this show doesn’t fire, the ratings aren’t good, you get cancelled, what do we do then?, I’m sort of living two shows ahead or a year ahead to pay bills, when you should sort of just sometimes just sit back, it is good.”

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