New MasterChef judge Melissa Leong opens up about her new position
As the search for MasterChef’s new judges got underway, Melissa Leong watched on with interest as her name was thrown into the pit. Here’s why she couldn’t read the messages when the show’s producers got in touch.
Entertainment
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Melissa Leong was stepping on to a boat on the Mekong River when her phone began buzzing frantically.
A flurry of messages sent via email and social media had arrived in her inbox from the production company Endemol Shine.
She could see that they were from the producers of MasterChef Australia but couldn’t open them.
Like the rest of Australia, the experienced food writer had followed with interest the news of the axing of MasterChef’s three judges after a decade on air. She’d heard too her name being mooted alongside such culinary luminaries as Maggie Beer, Curtis Stone and Nigella Lawson as replacements for Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris.
Leong had the culinary credentials MasterChef were looking for when rebooting the show. In addition to working as a critic, she had hosted The Chef’s Line on SBS, made regular appearances on Justine Schofield’s Everyday Gourmet and helped chefs such as Colin Fassnidge pen cookbooks.
But the messages from the show’s production chiefs still came as a surprise.
And, despite her obvious interest, the timing could not have been worse.
“I was about to go sailing on the Mekong for five days. No reception. No internet,” she says.
Fortunately, as the boat was about to leave, she was able to forward them to her manager saying: “About to go off comms for next five days. Don’t know what this is, but can you find out for me?”
As she disembarked five days later in Phnom Penh, the reply popped up: “Well you went from the short list, to being on the list and yes it’s about MasterChef.”
What a landing.
“When the news came out last year about the changing of the guard, I did not think for one second that it would be me,” she recalls.
Although thrilled by the proposition of heading up what she describes as “the biggest cooking show on earth”, Leong says she still needed time to think about it.
For starters, she was eager to know who they had planned to join her on the new-look judging panel. Those other new faces would prove to be Adelaide chef and restaurateur Jock Zonfrillo and Melbourne’s 2012 MasterChef winner Andy Allen.
Unlike the tight-knit Preston, Mehigan and Calombaris, who were friends before they did MasterChef, the new trio have forged their bonds on the set.
Leong is the first to admit that the camaraderie between Preston, Mehigan and Calombaris was a large part of what people enjoyed about MasterChef.
“The dynamics of the three judges is key and obviously for the past decade, we have had lightning in a bottle,” she says.
“That’s not easy to create. It’s magic.”
Leong is right. Ask any television executive and they will tell you that chemistry can’t be manufactured. And even the most skilful presenters can fall short if the program is missing that magic ingredient.
That was evidenced when Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight fronted Channel 9’s Today Show and when the network rebooted The Footy Show with Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann, Neroli Meadows, Brendan Fevola and Dylan Alcott.
Viewers were also turned off by Channel 7’s recent attempt to freshen up the My Kitchen Rules, with the show suffering its lowest ratings of all time and rumoured to be headed for the scrapheap in 2021.
Leong doesn’t believe MasterChef will suffer the same fate. She says the executive producers made a compelling case why they had chosen this precise group to take over.
“I knew Jock, but I’d never worked with Andy before,” she says.
“Once they explained the logic behind why they had chosen the three of us, it all made sense very clearly and very quickly.
“And you know, this is not their first rodeo. They do this extremely well globally. So, there’s lots of consideration that goes into making choices like that.”
Filming started at the Flemington Showgrounds in January with old favourites such as Poh Ling Yeow, Hayden Quinn and Callum Hann returning for another tilt at being named MasterChef.
Leong says she wasn’t familiar with all the past contestants before filming began.
“I’ve watched MasterChef on and off over the years, but I can’t tell you I am a mega-fan,” she admits.
Ling Yeow enthuses that Leong has brought a “gorgeous feminine energy” to the show.
“Her commentary always strikes the perfect balance of cheeky, empathetic and beautifully emotive — she’s the storyteller,” Ling Yeow says.
Season two runner-up Hann echoes the judgment of the new judge saying his favourite thing about Leong was how she could spin a story for any dish put in front of her.
“Chefs season with salt; Melissa seasons with nostalgia,” he explains.
Another returning contestant Ben Milbourne says Leong has an extraordinary memory for food and is the judge that he most wants to impress with his creations.
“All three judges bring something special to this season, but Melissa is the person we plate for,” he says.
“She’s the personification of the diner, the end result if you will. A smile on her face when she tastes your food is that spark that drives you to do more, push more, simply be better. You want to see that smile again.”
Leong believes that coming into the cooking competition with fresh eyes (and a fresh palate) with the seasoned chefs in the kitchen made it easier to judge the food without any preconceived ideas.
She also enthuses that the long hours on set, shared passion for food and a few long lunches at her home in Melbourne’s trendy northern suburbs have created a great bond between the judges that she believes will translate on screen.
“The three of us get along very well, we are sort of like siblings in a way because we tease each other and have fun,” she laughs.
“The hours are so long on set that if we didn’t get along, it would wear thin really quickly.”
Leong says there are no hard feelings between herself and Mehigan, Preston and Calombaris.
“After the announcement was made, I wrote a note to each of the boys and sent them a bottle of champagne,” she says.
“I think it’s very important as a person to express gratitude when an opportunity like this comes to you.
“Yes, it is the changing of the guard and so it’s a happy time and a sad time all at once. But I think it’s important to acknowledge the vital contribution these three men have made to the food landscape, the IQ of food and to Australia in general.”
Leong hastens to add that the new trio aren’t trying to replicate what Mehigan, Preston and Calombaris did and have instead brought their own “flavour, humour and style” to the program.
Obvious comparisons have been drawn between Leong and Preston because they are both respected food writers with a passion for fashion.
But, don’t expect to see her donning cravats and flamboyant suits. The self- confessed fashionista says she will be showcasing a colourful array of Australian designers on the show.
“The comparison to Matt is very flattering because he is a very stylish man,” she laughs.
“I think anyone who feels like fashion is frivolous, doesn’t really understand fashion.
“It’s a vehicle to communicate ideas and to command attention in order to be able to express what you want to say. In this case, about food and the way that food connects us.
“Fashion has always been an incredibly important part of the showmanship of being in television, in that food space.”
Although she has relocated from Sydney to Melbourne after marrying her husband, bar-owner Joe Jones, that doesn’t mean she’s started filling her wardrobe with Melbourne’s signature colour – black.
When she arrives for her interview with Weekend (pre coronavirus restrictions), Leong instantly stands out from the crowd of diners at the trendy Babajan cafe in North Carlton in an eye-catching floor-length green dress and gold statement jewellery.
“I feel like finding your own style is about becoming comfortable in your own skin.
And I love fashion. I love art in general,” she explains.
“How people express themselves tells you a lot about them as a person. I love that style is something that you have to earn. You can’t buy it. You have to develop it over time.”
The danger, of course, in combining a penchant for high fashion with an appetite for good food is a large dry-cleaning bill due to the ever-present risk of slurping stains.
She says the wardrobe department were often on tenterhooks when there were dumplings or saucy noodles on the menu for tastings and laughs that the three judges kept a running tally of their spillages.
When she’s not on the set, Leong enjoys walking along the Yarra or checking out the latest exhibition at the NGV in her adopted city.
“One of the nice things about being married to someone who also works in the industry is that a lot of what we do recreationally also involves food in some way,” she says.
“It might be spending the afternoon pickling, jamming or baking. We go to a lot of amazing farmers’ markets picking out produce. We like eating out with friends or cooking with friends.”
Exercise, she says, is also very important to her especially now that, as a MasterChef judge, there have been days when she’s having to eat 20 portions of food in one sitting.
A risk-taking diner who has chowed down on rats and tarantulas, Leong says there isn’t a food she wouldn’t sample.
Leong has been saddened by the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating impact on the Australian food industry. Ever-tightening restrictions on trade to reduce the spread of the virus has led to increasing numbers of restaurants shutting up shop, including those owned by her fellow judges, Allen and Zonfrillo.
As a first-generation immigrant of parents who came to Australia from Singapore in the 1970s, food is about more than simply filling one’s belly to Leong. Its about
creating a sense of community and showing affection.
“Food is just part of our DNA,” she says.
“When you come from such a small island where people love to eat and shop, you become very good at both — and I have.
“When you come from a family where food is how you communicate, it’s your love language. Like a lot of Chinese families, we are not a very touchy-feely family. We don’t hug all the time. Food is the way we show love.”
One of Leong’s earliest memories is cooking with her mother.
She and her brother would help to make dumplings, her Italian neighbours taught her to make fresh pasta and Greek family friends introduced her to the delights of lamb on the spit.
At school she wanted to be like the other kids and begged her mother to pack a lunch box with a simple ham sandwich and juice box.
“And I would open my lunch box and find a fancy bread roll with double-smoked ham and seeded mustard on it,” she laughs.
She knows it will be a source of great pride for her parents to see her fronting MasterChef.
After all, when she was growing up there weren’t a lot of people who looked like her on prime-time television.
“You don’t think about it at the time. I’m an Australian. I am growing up in Australia.
“So, I just want to see myself Australian. It wasn’t until I started doing television myself and people would come up to me and say, ‘Hey, we really love seeing you on the screen because we see ourselves in you.’
“I think it’s important to note that diversity doesn’t mean exclusion of others, it just means a broader spectrum of stories are being told.”
She also knows that the new crew may not be everyone’s cup of tea and that some viewers may take time to get used to the changes.
“It’s the same with unfamiliar food, people will always be a little bit resistant,” she says.
“Jock and Andy and I are so excited about what we are doing and the vibe in the kitchen is just so special that I dare people not to love it.”
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