How many cooking programs does Australia need as Aussie Barbecue Heroes starts on Seven
WITH new programs announced weekly, and the SBS Food Network starting this week, just how many cooking programs does this country really need?
BEN O’Donoghue considers himself a very lucky man.
Not only was the celebrity chef, author and TV presenter chosen to host Channel Seven’s big new summer reality series Aussie Barbecue Heroes, but he also narrowly avoided being chosen to host Seven’s ratings disaster Restaurant Revolution earlier this year — famously replaced by ridicously popular cat videos.
“I actually auditioned for the role and I didn’t get the job — I think I dodged a bullet there!” laughs the English-born Aussie chef, whose work with Jamie Oliver saw him score gigs on US and British television before his breakthrough role locally co-hosting Surfing The Menu with Curtis Stone.
“Then I got a call about this concept. I had a restaurant opening (to focus on) but I liked the idea and barbecue is my kind of zone. I’ve written three barbecue cookbooks,” O’Donoghue said.
Inspired by American reality show BBQ Pitmasters, the series which kicks off on Wednesday night pits nine of Australia’s best barbecuing teams against each other for the title of ‘The One True Barbecue Hero’ and $100,000 in prizes. Joining O’Donoghue on the judges panel is barbecue connoisseur Jess Pryles (an Aussie expat living in Texas) and MKR’s Texas cowboy Robert Murphy (a Texan expat living in Australia). O’Donoghue said that as with all Aussie cuisines, barbecuing has become a lot more sophisticated in recent times.
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“Historically, Australian barbecue was pretty two dimensional — steak and sausage — throw on some sliced onions … but it’s gone way beyond that now,” he said.
“People’s appreciation of food and their knowledge has grown so much in the past eight years — and that’s partly due to the success of food reality shows like MasterChef and My Kitchen Rules. People are a lot more aware, and media-exposed to different flavours, so their tastes have evolved and expanded.”
Over recent years the public’s appetite for food television has exponentially from niche programming to one of the most popular genres. Cooking shows like My Kitchen Rules now dominate the ratings — it’s averaged 1.6 million viewers over six seasons now.
This fascination with food shows no signs of abating, with SBS yesterday launching its 24/7 Food Network mixing its own content with programming from the US Food Network, the Cooking Channel, Asian Food Channel and the former US Fine Living Network. Highlights include Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals, Reza: Spice Prince of Vietnam and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. It’s in direct competition with Foxtel’s Lifestyle FOOD and you can add in to the mix Nine’s latest digital channel 9Life from November 26.
“There’ll be a fair bit of food content,” said programmer Andrew Backwell, with confirmed shows including cooking game show Food Fighters, shown on NBC in the US, and Bravo TV’s reality series Top Chef, from the people behind Project Runway.
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Just a few years ago you’d be to see Jamie Oliver one night a week in prime time. The turning point of course was MasterChef’s first few seasons — which peaked with more than four million viewers tuning in for the season two finale in 2010. It’s now seen in 180 countries and there are 50 international versions based on the Aussie version.
“It’s a true Aussie success story to rival our soap and movie exports,” said host and food critic Matt Preston, currently filming the new season. “Australians are now regarded by top chefs — the likes of Heston Blumenthal and Rene Redzepi — as one of the most food literate countries in the world.”
It’s also been the training ground for many of the current crop of celebrity chefs, including Hayden Quinn and Dan Churchill who’ll star in a revived Surfing The Menu on the ABC next year, and Poh Ling Yeow and Adam Liaw who have carved out their own careers on SBS.
The multicultural broadcaster has seized on cooking shows as a way to help Australians celebrate the diverse cultures of immigrants — think Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam or Liaw’s Destination Flavour: Japan.
It seems the way to people’s hearts is through their stomachs. “I think it’s the only way,” said Shane Delia, from Spice Journey.
“I can only speak on behalf of the presenters in the SBS family, but everybody who does it — I know that Adam and Luke cook and present food in a way that they want people to appreciate the food and the people (of Japan and Vietnam) not them. And the same with me, I like to be in that stable.”
But with so much food content currently on air, is there a danger of oversaturating the market? Restaurant Revolution went down in flames and Nine’s MKR clone Hot Plate performed below expectations with a second season in doubt. Is there still room for a 24 hour food channel, SBS’s Thursday night cooking shows, Foxtel’s LifestyleFOOD, and new seasons of MasterChef and MKR? Preston thinks so.
“MasterChef’s finale was the most watched non-sports show of the year, MKR is still Seven’s biggest show and Great Australian Bake-Off has broken audience records for Lifestyle FOOD,” he said.
“I think it’s obvious the appetite is still there — but having said that, the audience will still vote with their feet if the format doesn’t connect with them.”
AUSSIE BARBECUE HEROES, CHANNEL SEVEN, WEDNESDAY, 7:30pm
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