Australia’s own kitchen goddess Silvia Colloca reveals her culinary secrets on Made in Italy on SBS
SHE’S got all the ingredients to be Australia’s answer to Nigella Lawson and now, a new cooking show on SBS to showcase her talent.
SHE’S got all the ingredients to be Australia’s answer to Nigella Lawson and now, a new cooking show on SBS to showcase her talent.
But ask Silvia Colloca what she thinks of any comparison to the original domestic goddess and the stunning home cook is coy.
“To be compared to that … who doesn’t want to look like her in her kitchen?” the effusive Italian-born wife of actor Richard Roxburgh said.
“Whatever they want to say about me, as long as it’s nice,” she adds with a huge smile.
Just as Lawson began her global food empire with a newspaper column, the former model and actor began blogging about her family recipes when she “got bored” on maternity leave with the celebrity couple’s second son.
“Raphael (her firstborn) was at daycare and Miro was a really good baby, so I didn’t know what to do with myself. My mum said ‘just do a blog, everybody’s doing blogs.’ She said, if nothing else, just collect all the family recipes and put them in one place where we won’t lose them and really it (started) as simple as that.”
That hugely popular blog turned into a best-selling cookbook, Silvia’s Cucina. Its success led to a second book, Made In Italy With Silvia Colloca, which is also the title of her new TV series. It will premiere on November 27 on SBS ONE, just in time for the book launch.
The 10-part series is a visual feast, with Colloca taking a film crew home to meet her Italian family in Abruzzo, Le Marche and Molise earlier this year — even using her mother’s kitchen as their cooking HQ.
“Everyone was so fascinated that people in Australia would even be interested in our traditions, but they really embraced it and they opened their kitchens and their pantries and dropped in to visit,’’ Colloca said.
Casting her extended family made the experience even more enjoyable, including her two children, parents, siblings and “even Richard,” Colloca said, adding “he’s a great eater and recipe tester.”
The Rake star is unstoppable in his praise of his wife’s cooking and she cheekily explains why.
“He’s very supportive and passionate about what I do. A little bit of it is that it’s palpable for him, it’s tangible. There are leftovers in the fridge and so he’s happy.”
She has also received the endorsement of foodie friend, Matt Moran, who adds: “I truly believe she’s going to be Australia’s next big thing.”
Chaser’s after a media circus
IN house, The Chaser team are calling their new ABC comedy series The Hamster Wheel Of Fortune — a clever punchline for the show’s mix of media satire and party games.
And then as now, executive producer Julian Morrow said the eight-part Media Circus, which launches on October 15, will poke more fun at its “media comrades because we have a history of hurting the people we love”.
Hosted by The Checkout’s Craig Reucassel, with Chas Licciardello as his sidekick, the half-hour show will be made up of two teams each week featuring Chaser alum and the young talent they have been working to mentor lately.
The series was meant to be 10 episodes, but a scheduling change meant it was cut short.
Or as Morrow spun it: “I suppose that’s appropriate because, traditionally, our shows get suspended for two weeks anyway, so we just factored that in upfront.”
And in a heads-up for the Australian Federal Police, the show is expected to be on air when world leaders arrive for the G20 summit — setting the stage for the kind of international conference prank that saw a Chaser crew and Licciardello detained for breaching a security cordon.
Morrow joked: “It’s a little bit harder getting in the Osama costume these days — less forgiving and decayed a little bit. I suspect lightning strikes twice more often than the Chaser does at that conference, but we’ll see how we go. Vladimir Putin may be able to wrestle bears, but I’m not sure he can handle Chas.”
Seven puts US hits on fast track
THE run to the ratings year finishing line will see leader Channel 7 fast-track popular international TV hits into its programming schedule,
Sexy legal series Suits is the first out of the blocks, with season four to premiere on September 23.
Season two of The Black List, Marvel’s Agents of S.H. I. E. L. D, The Amazing Race, Scandal, Bones and Castle will follow soon after; while — going on previous form — Downton Abbey, Revenge, Parenthood and Grey’s Anatomy is expected to be held for the first quarter of 2015.
Genevieve’s bub wins her audition
FORMER Sydney Theatre Company star Genevieve O’Reilly, a NIDA graduate who moved to the UK to build her career almost 10 years ago, will return to our small screen in Monday night’s BBC First premiere of the highly acclaimed British spy thriller, The Honourable Woman.
While she describes hers as a minor role — playing Frances, the private secretary and confidante to Maggie Gyllenhaal’s lead character, Baroness Nessa Stein — she says she was not planning on taking up any work when BAFTA-winning writer-director Hugo Blick came calling.
“I had a brand-new baby and they asked me to come, but I didn’t really think I could make it happen because I was also doing a third season of Episodes. But Hugo made it all work and it was great to be a part of it,” O’Reilly said.
Refusing his initial request to meet, while juggling her four-week-old bub, he convinced her to bring her new bundle to the audition.
“So I went in with my baby strapped to me and clearly we got the job. He’s now got a much better strike right than me, perhaps I should take him to every audition.”
One to Watch: Maggie’s one to watch again
IT’S been 50 years since Maggie Dence first appeared on Australian TV (in The Mavis Bramston Show), but this local industry marvel, whose career credits include The Sullivans, Prisoner, A Country Practice and Neighbours, is about to make a return to prime time playing Peter Phelps’ mother in Channel 10’s under-appreciated drama series Wonderland.
Loved by her peers, the stage and screen legend, aged 72, was honoured with the lifetime achievement Equity award back in 2011.
TV Gossip: Rick’s got a TV pilot with bite
THE cancellation of Rick Donald’s first US television series, Friends With Better Lives (airing 9pm, Tuesdays on Eleven) has freed up the Aussie actor to finally get a four-year-old writing project for a TV pilot off the ground.
Joined by NIDA mate, Matt Hardy, the duo have penned Only The Good Die Young, a six-part comedy Donald described to me as “two dropkick blokes, down on their luck, who get the chance to be made into vampires and think it’s a good idea”. Urm, OK. Filming starts in Sydney on September 21.
Don’t Miss: TV honours for Maggie’s role
MAGGIE Gyllenhaal has long crafted herself a career of quirky, if a little off-Broadway roles for stage and the big screen.
But the US actress takes her impressive talent mainstream — her first foray into TV — starring in The Honourable Woman.
With the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a backdrop, this addictive eight-part UK spy drama is a tour de force by Gyllenhaal and a celebration of strong female characters.
THE HONOURABLE WOMAN, 8.30pm, MONDAY, BBC FIRST
Star channels Prince Harry for Dune series
As he prepares for his Hollywood break, Australian actor Josh Heuston – best known for his role in Heartbreak High – talks about the unlikely inspiration he took from Prince Harry.
Irwin family go glam for gala dinner
Robert Irwin and his mum Terri have dressed to the nines for their annual gala to celebrate the life and legacy of Australia’s most loved wildlife warrior.