Manu Feildel and Matt Preston are back with new TV show, Plate Of Origin
Manu Feildel has revealed how he has reached out to Pete Evans as his new Plate Of Origin co-star Matt Preston has told of how he missed out on an overseas TV opportunity.
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He’s food TV’s favourite court jester, the naughty boy made good on My Kitchen Rules.
So Manu Feildel makes an easy mark when The BINGE Guide targets him with a cheeky question about the title of his hotly-anticipated new Channel 7 cooking show, Plate Of Origin.
Or, as industry wags have abbreviated it, P.O.O.
Doing his best to toe the network line, the kid inside Feildel can’t help himself, as he laughs long and heartily when asked ‘who the hell thought that name was a good idea?’
“We are not allowed to talk about it,” he giggles, “we are not allowed to use that word,” he laughs uproariously.
The acronym has long been whispered between rival stations and producers, since the show was announced late last year as the first new vehicle for his big name, new co-hosts, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan, since leaving 10’s MasterChef.
Originally scheduled to follow Seven’s exclusive coverage of the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games, the sporting-style format was meant to capture that sense of competition; not give their competition the chance to sharpen their knives.
Still, Feildel is sporting enough to see the funny side.
“From day one, when we realised we thought ‘surely, they will change it. And apparently they tried, but they could never come up with a new title,” he explains, adding with a wink, “so it’s hung around like a bad smell.”
Feildel also warned TV fans to “do your own research” when it comes to his former presenting partner Pete Evans’ wild claims that coronavirus is a hoax.
The French-born celebrity chef, who has long been a lone defender of Evan’s paleo posturising, told News Corp Australia he had reached out to his one-time My Kitchen Rules mate, worried at times by his erratic social media posts and bizarre conspiracy theories.
“As a friend, sometimes I do worry,” Feildel said, “but I will pick up the phone and have a chat with him. He seems to be on top of his life, seems to be very happy and he’s not worried himself [by the criticism].”
Feildel said Evans had “his own lifestyle and his own thoughts but if he wasn’t known by the public, nobody would care. He’s got his lifestyle and ways and I’m not here to criticise them. We all have our thoughts, but he likes to express them.”
When it comes to the more dangerous health messages Evans has told his followers in recent months — including selling a $15,000 ‘Biocharger’ which wrongly claimed to cure COVID-19 — Feildel said: “It’s up to you to do your own research. The same with paleo … you either follow the guy and believe it, or you don’t, so don’t follow him. It’s as simple as that.”
MKR has been shelved indefinitely by Seven following poor ratings last year, while Evans’ $800,000 contract with the network was not renewed.
Instead, Feildel was paired with Preston and Mehigan for Seven’s new food series.
He was also signed to star in another season of Australia’s Got Talent, now postponed because of COVID restrictions and the closure of Seven’s in-house studios.
The fresh format of Plate Of Origin comes hot on the heels of a wildly successful season of MasterChef, with its new custodians – Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo – surprising everyone with the seamless way they took the baton and ran with it.
Preston has already confirmed he couldn’t bring himself to watch the All Stars season – which welcomed back contestants from the 11 years he spent on the show as a judge, alongside Mehigan and third musketeer, George Calombaris.
While Calombaris remained under contract with 10 when Plate Of Origin was put together, his MC mates didn’t look back as they took up a lucrative offer from James Warburton, Seven’s CEO to make his network their new home.
Luckily, a decade-long friendship with Feildel, their MKR foe, made casting the new show a no-brainer; but it would be a post-bushfire season roadtrip between the new judging trio that would bond them like never before.
“It was like old friends getting together,” Mehigan reveals. “We did a road trip in the weeks before we went on set, in aid of the bushfire-affected communities.
“It was part of that ‘empty Esky’ movement, supporting those small towns and producers in the countries when the fires hit,” he says.
“Our sides ached from laughing so much, but it was also an emotional rollercoaster of course. One minute we’re laughing, next minute we’re on a chicken farm talking to a devastated family telling us awful stories of losing their stock, their homes, their livelihoods.”
The bad news wouldn’t end there, with coronavirus having a catastrophic impact on Australia’s restaurant and hospitality staff, many of whom were not offered help in the Federal Government’s Jobkeeper and Jobseeker packages.
But, as Mehigan extols, resilient restaurateurs learned swiftly to pivot their plans and offer ready-made meals and at home fine dining experiences.
All three judges admit with food and travel at the heart of their professional and personal lives, the shutdowns cut deep.
For Mehigan and Preston, the plans they left Ten to pursue were also casualties.
“This year I had India, Sri Lanka and Japan booked, for work and pleasure. And I was heading back to the UK to see my parents, because dad hasn’t been well, so that’s been difficult,” Mehigan says.
“Not being able to travel and not being able to socialise, I didn’t realise how important those things are to me,” Mehigan adds, “but then, in the pit of my stomach there’s an awful feeling for all my friends and colleagues in restaurants and hospitality who are just … their backs are against the wall.”
English-born Preston was set to make a huge career move and film a new cooking shows in the UK, for an international audience, before COVID would strike.
“I lost a UK show and was scheduled to fly over there and film something but that went by the by,” he says. “I had plans in India and they went by the by too. I was going to do more in Portugal after the success of the book last year, so yeah it’s been a pretty challenging situation but I’ve still got the News job and Plate to look forward to. Lots of friends in food and in media went from having full diaries for the next six months to having nothing, so I’m grateful for what I’ve got.”
Giving became a way of surviving the shutdown, with Preston starting a website featuring free cooking videos; and Mehigan hosting a podcast supporting industry pals.
All three cooked for a charity dinner in aid of Second Bite, a Victorian food wastage and security foundation [Preston is on the board] which has given away more than one million meals to date.
“Being involved in something like that makes you feel like you’re doing ‘something.’ Otherwise I think you can lose yourself in a deep, dark well of self moroseness and depression,” Preston says.
On his home front, Feildel has been desperately worried about his France-based mother, Evelyne, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and underwent treatment while the pandemic took hold.
“She’s doing well now, actually,” Feildel assures.
“She finished her chemotherapy a few months ago and then she went through radiation and she finished that a couple of weeks ago.”
An early diagnosis has given the family great optimism, while the community support of her small village helped through hard times.
“She was stuck at home to be honest with you, but it’s easier in small villages because you’ve got fishermen that come to you, maybe the local butcher comes to your door, so they were fine,” he says.
It makes the laughter and levity of a cooking show like P.O.O a welcome comic relief for all – best described as a mix of My Kitchen Rules and Family Food Fight.
Ten teams of two, representing their family food heritage, compete in what is called ‘the arena.’ In the early rounds, two teams go head-to-head, with the judges the only ones to score the food; while the remaining contestants share the meals and make a night of it, MKR dinner party style.
Mehigan admits first day jitters got a grip of him, but the show’s commitment to serving up top quality food would save it and show in tonight’s debut episode when Team Australia take on two friends from a Chinese background.
“[Team China] Chrys and Mandy, came up onto the arena, and did their little K-Pop-style thing, and I thought ‘oh here we go,’” Mehigan says.
So I asked, ‘can you cook?’ And they just ranted on about all their dishes and what they wanted to show off and I looked at Manu and Matt and said, ‘I think we’re alright.’”
* Plate Of Origin, 7pm, Sunday, Seven.
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