Chef Adam Liaw reveals why there is always a queue of celebs waiting to appear on The Cook Up

Adam Liaw is taking the mystery out of meal time and revealed some of the stars queuing up to appear on his TV show.

Adam Liaw is remarkably calm for someone who is in quarantine with his three children. Without internet. For days.

“Our internet partially came back on an hour ago – I’m in a much better mood than say 90 minutes ago,” he laughs.

There’s the noise of his three exuberant children in the background as we chat – two of his brood and wife Asami had Covid.

“They were all asymptomatic thankfully,” Liaw explains.

“We just picked it up in a school RAT test and they should all go back to school tomorrow – thankfully.”

What’s been a way more exciting start to 2022 was the announcement that his SBS show The Cook Up With Adam Liaw has been commissioned for another huge 200 episodes.

“We thought (the first) 200 would be enough – but the response to the series has been phenomenal,” Liaw says.

“A cooking show of this kind of size and regularity hasn’t been made in Australia in a long time.

“But people have really loved it. I heard from people who watch it at the same time every single night. So it’s kind of their ritual.”

Chef Adam Liaw is back for season two of the SBS cooking show The Cook Up.

Liaw will be back whipping up more dishes centred on a nightly theme with two food-loving friends each episode, for 30 minutes of good food, fun and conversation.

Season two will bring more delectable dishes served by Liaw and easy-to-follow recipes and tips from his guests.

“You’d be surprised how many people have a secret lifelong desire to be on a cooking show,” Liaw laughs.

“Since the first season I have had so many people come out of the woodwork and message me on social media and say, ‘I would love to be on the show’.

“It certainly helps us from a casting perspective – it means we don’t have to be reaching out to people so much.

“We are really committed to getting another great round of people, not just all celebrities.

“Sometimes people who had an interesting story to tell, sometimes great chefs, sometimes newsreaders.”

The new season includes celebrity chefs, cooks and personalities such as Colin Fassnidge, Julie Goodwin, Pia Miranda, Mark Humphries, Costa Georgiadis, Dean Widders, Virginia Gay, Sarah Wilson and Bruce Pascoe. And even some first year TAFE students taking their first steps in the culinary world.

Chef Adam Liaw with Julia Zemiro and Morgan McGlone for season two of the SBS cooking show The Cook Up.

Unlike other cooking shows that want to make food look aspirational or fancy, Cook Up wants to show what the nation is cooking.

“I think in Australia there is a sort of disconnect between how people cook at home and how they think everyone else cooks at home,” Liaw says.

“People are going, ‘I just do this kind of stuff and everyone else is making these fancy meals’.

“We’re all doing simple stuff. I’m doing the simple stuff.

“People might look at my Instagram and think, ‘How did you make that on a weeknight with three children?’.

“It might look different to your dinner but trust me I am not spending 20 hours a day cooking my family dinner.”

And, yes, a quick look at his mouth-watering Instagram, and it doesn’t quite look like what I’m whipping up for my teens.

Take his shrimp and prime rib. “Surf n’ turf” as we’d call it in Australia. Or 1.3kg grass-fed tomahawk with prawns in garlic butter cream sauce.

“A combination of two children who watch too much American content and constantly ask to eat shrimp and prime rib, and a niece living on her own where the cost of living in Australia means she doesn’t buy or eat much meat and was craving steak,” Liaw posted.

Adam Liaw's delicious shrimp and prime rib.

He assures, however, that he is definitely up for takeaways – popping out for some fish and chips. And he’s not bursting with joy every time he is cooking in his own kitchen. He tries to simplify all parts of the dinner time process.

“Cooking is just one aspect of that 5-6.30pm period – there’s a lot that happens in every family, particularly when you have kids,” Liaw says.

“So for us, it’s like, sure I might save some time on cooking, but let’s save some time on cleaning as well. For me it’s wander out to the barbecue, which is five steps from my kitchen, and throw a couple of things on there – meat, vegetables, seafood.

“And then maybe mix up a little bit of sauce – maybe chimichurri or a dipping sauce.

“Food for us is very rarely a big production.”

Australians have been embracing home cooking in Covid times – partly forced to by having so much time in their homes.

“I think people are dying to get back to restaurants but the great thing about cooking is, it is not a thing you pick up and drop,” he muses. “It’s a skill you have your whole life and I personally think that it is something you should get started on early.

“Another wonderful thing about The Cook Up is I get messages from people saying how much it has made them enjoy cooking again, trying different things after seeing how it easily it can be done.

“Quite often it’s from people in their 50s, 60s, 70s. I got a message the other day from a guy who is 82 saying he’d never really got into cooking in his life and now he was making up for lost time.”

The Cook Up With Adam Liaw, weeknights 7pm, SBS. Season two starts Monday, March 21