MasterChef judge Matt Preston serves up gossip and meatballs as part of national tour for Ikea
Matt Preston says he didn’t cut Manu Feildel’s lunch to claim the top judging role on MasterChef, revealing how he was hand-picked for the show more than a decade ago.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
MasterChef’s Matt Preston says he didn’t cut fellow celebrity chef Manu Feildel’s lunch over the coveted Channel 10 judging role.
Preston spilt the beans on how he landed the top spot on the Channel 10 cooking show at an exclusive demonstration for Ikea this morning.
“Manu’s been saying that I pinched his spot, but that’s not what happened,” Preston said.
RELATED
MANU’S NEAR-MISS ON MASTERCHEF
MASTERCHEF COOKING IN QUEENSLAND
MATT SINCLAIR TO BE MASTERCHEF MENTOR IN 2019
“I was curating the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival at the time and got a call from a producer looking for information about chefs.
“I went through who was doing interesting things; we talked about good chefs who were bad presenters; good presenters who were bad chefs.”
The award-winning food critic was then asked to supply a photo.
“I sent one of me eating a salad, looking shabby.
“That was it. I wasn’t asked for a CV; no one cared about any awards. It was all down to how I looked.
“Fremantle Media then created a role for me. I think they thought they had found their ‘bad guy’. That all happened in December (2008) before the auditions for the chefs started.”
Preston said the final choices of Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris were perfect.
“I’m the home cook, George is the master plater and Gary, Gary is the king of technique; he can break down a chicken just by looking at it.
“It’s the three sides of the triangle.”
Feildel went on to become a judge on the ratings juggernaut My Kitchen Rules on Channel 7.
Preston hosted two free cooking demonstrations at Ikea Springvale today (March 12) as part of a national collaboration with the retailer.
The hero ingredient was the meatball sold at Ikea’s Swedish Food Market.
Preston reinvented the iconic dish by adding a Mexican twist.
He ditched the potato mash, creamy gravy and lingonberry jam traditionally served with the meatballs and created a taco with charred corn and red pepper salsa, guacamole and pickled red onion.
He also whipped up a “ball-onaise” with a vegan sauce and the choice of vegetarian or Swedish meatballs.
“So many of us have a vegan or vegetarian in the family and end up cooking two different meals.” Preston said.
“This dish is easy to modify.”
The dish also gave Preston the perfect segue into spruiking his next cookbook, due out in November.
“I’m working on one that converts dishes to vegan or vegetarian,” he said.
The Swedish meatball is one of the most popular items in the flat pack furniture giant’s in-house restaurant and Swedish Food Market.
Last year the Springvale Ikea alone served 1.5 million meatballs to hungry customers.
The delicacy is so popular the global flatpack furniture retailer is investigating stand alone restaurants with pop ups trialled in London, Paris and Oslo in 2017.
See Preston’s recipes at IKEA.com.au