Sledging Curtis Stone is part of fun for the new co-hosts of Surfing The Menu - The Next Generation

THE baton has been passed from Curtis Stone and Ben O’Donoghue, but the new co-hosts of Surfing The Menu say “the gloves are off!”

Supplied Entertainment EMBARGOED ONLINE FRI OCT23 Surfing The Menu - The Next Gen stars Dan Churchill and Hayden Quinn,

HE might be one of the world’s most famous chefs and was recently voted the best restauranter by the fickle folk in Tinseltown.

But the new co-hosts of Surfing The Menu - the cooking show which made Curtis Stone a star - say they know his Achilles heel and they aren’t afraid to sledge him about it.

MasterChef Australia poster boys, Hayden Quinn and Dan Churchill, who are about to wrap filming on a ‘next generation’ series of the ABC food program which gave chef Ben O’Donoghue and Stone their TV starts have dished the dirt on the latter’s lame surfing skills.

Praising Stone in the kitchen, but sledging his form in the surf, Quinn got straight to it when asked which hosts would rate better in a battle of the boards, telling NewsCorp Australia emphatically: “I can guarantee you we’re both better than those two.”

Joining in the dig as the duo were on the road to their final filming stop in Noosa today, Churchill said: “oh, yeah, the gloves are off!”

Road runners...Quinn, Churchill and crew have toured Australian filming a new series of Surfing The Menu - The Next Generation. Picture: Alun Bartsch

“When I’ve worked with Curtis before, one of the things I was told not to talk to him about was surfing...he’s not too fond of it,” Churchill revealed, “but Hayden and I just love the water.”

The larrikin pair have thrown themselves into the new food adventure, mixing their contrasting cooking styles with a shared passion for the ocean and tucking into a good meal.

But while they talked themselves up in the surfing stakes, Quinn admits they haven’t had much luck during filming when it comes to catching the best waves.

“The hardest thing we have found is finding good surf. Everywhere we turn up, it’s flat or small or ‘we should have been there yesterday, or last week’, he said. “Surfing and catching fish as well...we’d have more luck catching colds out there. There was one instance where Dan was using a net and the camera man reckons the fish suicided,” Quinn joked.

Ten years after the global success of the original series NoMa Films has announced the new series will air next year on ABC1 in Australia, ABC Television worldwide and the Discovery Network across Asia.

Dudes on the loose...both Churchill and Quinn will head to America after filming to pursue more work opportunities. Picture: Alun Bartsch

With a companion cookbook also in the offing, both Quinn and Churchill have plans to hit the US in pursuit of their solo projects and plans to make the next move in Stone’s footsteps.

Churchill, who did the rounds of the US chat shows including Good Morning America and The Chew with his Dude Food range and The Healthy Cook book earlier this year, confirmed he will return to the US in December.

“A lot of it was launching that brand and we worked hard with the time over there from Simon & Schuster. The plan was to come back here to do the series and then will head straight back over for me to pursue other things,” Churchill said.

All jokes aside, Quinn paid tribute to his MasterChef beginnings and Stone, who he said he’s “always had a pretty good relationship” with.

“Now, being able to have the baton passed on to Ben and I, it’s pretty cool. I think the Australian public are going to love it. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. A lot of hard work, but we’ve finally got there,” he said.