‘I’d catch fire if I went to confession’: Chef Colin Fassnidge

Colin Fassnidge, 52, on the chef who made him cry, what his kids really think about his cooking, and his advice for succeeding in life.

Colin Fassnidge returns to Better Homes and Gardens on February 14. Picture: Jeremy Greive.

I tell you what … I’d catch fire if I went to confession.

I got my start as … a dishwasher. It was in the era where chefs were lunatics. It was a hard job. They would just throw pots and pans at me and leave the kitchen. It was eye-opening.

Nowadays … I would let my daughter be a chef. Sixteen years ago, I wouldn’t have; kitchens were hard, no one spoke about their mental health. Now everyone speaks about it, and it’s part of work. I worked for Raymond Blanc and it was tough. It was a time and a place, I have no regrets, but it could have been a lot easier.

The main difference between Australia and Ireland is … the weather. The weather is everything. I’d work these hard, long hours and realise afterwards, I can go to the beach.

The only chef to make me cry was … Liam Tomlin. I messed up a service on a Friday lunch at Banc. I messed it up bad. I just got everything wrong. That wasn’t supposed to happen at that level of kitchen. He pulled me aside and tore into me. The saying is that you learn from your mistakes; let’s just say I learned pretty quick from that one.

To be honest … I used to bag TV chefs out. I used to say they weren’t real chefs and that it’s not real cooking. But then I got a call from Channel 7, they were looking for someone opinionated to come on My Kitchen Rules. I gave it a go. I was absolutely terrible. I wasn’t being me. They told me how shit I was and said that I was going to get fired. I decided to just be me, I probably went a bit grumpier than I should have, but it worked.

I used to be … a grumpy person. I was trying to prove something to everyone. I’m 52 now, I’m too old for that and I’ve got teenagers now, I don’t even exist in my house.

At home … no one likes my cooking, they think I chef it up too much. My kids would prefer me to cook chicken nuggets.

For years I have been saying that … the restaurant review system needs to change. For years, it was a system of bullying. The critic had all the say and the chef had no comeback. I never liked it. You do need them, but if a place is really bad, you don’t need to go on about it, you should go on about the good places. There’s enough negativity in the world. If somewhere’s really bad, they won’t survive, don’t worry about it.

A great meal I’ve had recently was at … Porkfat in Haymarket, Sydney. It’s owned by a beautiful family. The wife’s on the floor and the husband’s in the kitchen. It’s Vietnamese but not white man’s Vietnamese, they don’t dumb it down. I actually took Nigella Lawson there when she was filming here in Australia.

The way to succeed in life is … to find people with skills better than you, sort of steal them, and put your own twist on them.

Better Homes and Gardens returns Friday February 14 on Channel 7 and 7plus.