Think you know MasterChef Australia’s Matt Preston? Think again! TV WEEK played a game of 20 Questions with the dapper food journalist and restaurant critic and some of his answers were unexpected to say the least…
If you could pick an actor to play you in a movie of your life, who would it be?
Lachy Hulme [who starred as Dr Martin Clegg in Aussie drama series Offspring] − he’d make a far better me than me!
Who would play George?
Dev Patel [the British actor who won an Academy Award for his role in Lion]. He already has the accent down pat.
And Gary?
[British action film star] Jason Statham.
Matt picks Offspring’s Lachy Hulme to play him in a movie about his life.
Do you have a go-to karaoke song?
The shortest number one ever written − The Letter by The BoxTops. I’m nothing if not a merciful man.
What’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for someone?
A huge bunch of just one simple flower, like daffodils − and given without a reason − is always good. Such a romantic!
What’s the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you?
Doing radio recently and forgetting what day of the week it was.
What can’t you live without?
The woman I love [wife Emma] and our children [Jonathan, William and Sadie], music, the beach and Carhartt jackets.
What was the last text message you sent and who was it to?
[Comedian] Tom Gleeson, telling him I loved his Hard Chat segment [on The Weekly With Charlie Pickering].
Do you have a celebrity crush?
[Comedian and The Project co-host] Pete Helliar − what a beautiful man. Or [actor] Roy Billing, who’s a prince among men. [Comedian] Sam Pang is a pretty special human too. They all do things I could never do and have skills I could only dream of possessing.
When was the last time you cried?
I had to blink back a tear or two at a recent elimination on MasterChef.
Finish this sentence: As a kid, I was…
Hungry.
Do you have a party trick?
Looking inside people’s souls to see their deepest fears.
Apart from MasterChef, what TV show can’t you get enough of?
Have You Been Paying Attention?, Gogglebox and the EPL [the English Premier League football competition].
Matt with his fellow MasterChef judges, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris.
Describe yourself in five words.
Enthusiastic food nerd who loves life… and who is rubbish at counting.
Your last-ever meal would be?
Hopefully, in about 30 years.
What’s the worst lie you’ve told?
When I was 15, I wrote a long letter to my mum telling her I had a vocation and was entering a monastery. I thought it would be funny − it was!
What animal would you like to be?
Humphrey B Bear [the fictional character from the Aussie children’s TV show of the same name] or Barney The Dinosaur [the giant purple dinosaur from the US children’s TV series Barney and Friends]. We have similar fashion sense − and body shape, for that matter.
Favourite thing to do on the weekend?
Watch sport, cook for friends, smooch the woman I love, nag the kids.
At a party, we’d most likely find you…
Still there at the end.
Best advice you’ve ever been given?
Listen all the time, because you never know where inspiration will come from. Also, when opportunity knocks, it tends to knock very quietly.
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