Television crews today swapped their Melbourne studios for St Paul’s Park in Kyneton, with the central Victorian town providing a quaint backdrop to a new cooking show concept.
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Channel Nine program Family Food Fight pits six families, each from a different ethnic background, against one another in a series of culinary challenges.
Judges Matt Moran, pastry whiz Anna Polyviou and former Masterchef contestant Hayden Quinn were all on the makeshift set in Kyneton this afternoon.
Mr Quinn, who believed it was “a lot less stressful” on the judge’s side of the table, said the show would remind audiences about the importance of family dinners.
“Sometimes we forget that moment when you sit down at the table and say, ‘What did you do today?’” the celebrity cook said.
The food was also more homely than what was plated up on other cooking shows, he said, describing the dishes as what you might expect to eat for dinner at a friend’s house.
The sojourn away from its Melbourne location meant more than just a change of scenery for the production; it also offered contestants their pick of local produce.
Members from each team spent the morning sourcing ingredients for a main meal and dessert from nearby farms, finding a smorgasbord of fresh fruit and vegetables on offer.
Another local touch was the inclusion of Source Dining owner and chef Tim Foster as a guest judge for the Kyneton episode.
Not accustomed to the bright lights of TV land, Mr Foster admitted to some nerves but said he was excited to see if contestants could bring a fresh approach to ingredients with which he was intimately familiar.
Much of what ended up on the plate at Source came from Mr Foster’s property just outside of Bendigo and the restaurant’s menu adapted with the changing of the seasons.
Although TV cooking programs could make the food industry look deceptively simple, Mr Foster believed their popularity was to thank for an increased interest in fine dining.
The new concept struck a chord with the local man, who learnt to cook in the kitchen of his maternal grandmother, relying on little more than a wooden stove to feed the family.
“It instilled in me that technique is a good thing to have,” he said.
Family Food Fight is due to air later this year.