Anna Gare is having her star turn on Junior MasterChef, but she long ago found the recipe for success as a rock star, mother, and wife to a basketball legend, writes Michael Sheather.
SOMETIMES, IT’S HARD to see the basil for the lemongrass. For Anna Gare, the guest judge introduced to millions of Australians on Junior MasterChef, that basil moment came when, as a caterer in Perth, she inexplicably declined an offer to become a TV cook, an opportunity she’d salivated over for years.
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If not for the chutzpah of her brother-in-law, British writer and comedian Ben Elton, Anna might still be pushing pastry in relative obscurity. Anna, a former ’80s rock chick famous as one of the Perth-based indie queens The Jam Tarts, tickled the right tastebuds a few years ago when she catered a local wedding in Perth. The bride was a TV producer looking for a cook who could handle a “live” five-minute spot on a new afternoon show.
“The bride said how much she loved the food and wanted to know if I’d be interested in being on TV,” recalls Anna, 41. “But it was live; no room for mistakes. I freaked out. In the end I said, sorry I don’t think I can.”
A few days later, Anna got home to an agitated rant on her machine from her famous brother-in-law. “Ben often calls with long messages, usually complimentary, but that day he went off,” she laughs. “He said: ‘You’re mad! I can’t believe you turned it down. Do you know how many people would die for that job? You’ve been performing for the past 10 years. That’s what you’re good at – so do it!’”
Anna listened to that message over and over. “I knew he was right,” she says. “It was a great opportunity and I was crazy. I called them back, and gingerly asked if the job was still going. It was. I auditioned. I got it. I loved it. I still do.”
It seems the camera loves Anna, too. She was a stand out on Junior MasterChef, alongside the more familiar George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston, as much for her personality and warmth as her expert opinion.
Yet she’s hardly a TV newbie. Anna has carved herself a much-lauded career as host on two highly successful cooking shows for Foxtel’s Lifestyle Channel, The Best In Australia with chefs Darren Simpson and Ben O’Donoghue, and the more saucily titled Quickies In My Kitchen, now in its third series.
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Junior MasterChef exposed Anna to millions of viewers and may well lay the foundation for a glittering new phase of her life. The irony is that before she was a TV cook – “please, don’t call me a celebrity chef” – , before she was a rock chick, Anna was a junior master chef in her own right.
Read more of this story in the November issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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