Speaker 1: Hi, welcome back to Bounce Forward with me, Tip Paul.
Speaker 1: I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodience of the land
Speaker 1: on which I'm recording this podcast. The wereundre people of
Speaker 1: the cooler Nation. I pay my respects to elders past
Speaker 1: and present. Today on Bounce Forward, we have the wonderful
Speaker 1: Melissa Leoon. You may have seen her on your TV
Speaker 1: screens a lot in the past years, from being a
Speaker 1: judge of Masterschef Australia and now the hosts of Channel
Speaker 1: ten's Dessert Masters. She's a TV Week Gold Logie nominated presenter,
Speaker 1: a food and travel writer MC and a cookbook editor,
Speaker 1: and she dabbles in BJJ and now she is a
Speaker 1: guest on Bounce Forward. Welcome Melissa, Melissa. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to have you on Bounce Forward. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. I halcome to start with a question,
Speaker 1: how much delicious food do you think you get to
Speaker 1: eat on a likely basis for your job?
Speaker 2: It depends on the week, and that I know that
Speaker 2: that sounds like a deeply unsatisfying answer, but it.
Speaker 3: Really just depends.
Speaker 2: I have the most unpredictable week, So there could be
Speaker 2: a week where I am in the studio shooting a
Speaker 2: show that involves food, and then it's every day and
Speaker 2: it's an abundance and a wealth of experience that comes
Speaker 2: along with that. And then there are other weeks where
Speaker 2: I might be at home finishing an article or out
Speaker 2: on the road or something like that, And I think,
Speaker 2: then it just becomes a subjective thing when it comes
Speaker 2: to what I decide to eat. So there's I think
Speaker 2: it's more about when I have choice and when I
Speaker 2: don't have choice, because I'm when it comes to like,
Speaker 2: when it comes to the standard of food.
Speaker 3: I consume, it's.
Speaker 4: You know, I have standards, Yes, of course you do.
Speaker 1: So we Dessert Masters, for example, Yeah, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of sugar and like more decadent things. How do you
Speaker 1: balance a more like a nutrition has diet and how
Speaker 1: do you work that out amongst work?
Speaker 2: That is actually a little bit easier because we know,
Speaker 2: going into Dessert Masters.
Speaker 3: We're talking about the magic of sweets.
Speaker 2: We're talking about things that defy logic, that are special foods.
Speaker 3: That you don't eat on a regular basis.
Speaker 2: And you know, we shoot for about a month, so
Speaker 2: we know that it's a limited time and we need
Speaker 2: to kind of keep a little bit of a balance.
Speaker 2: And I think one thing that's really good is that
Speaker 2: Amari and I are both very much into fitness and
Speaker 2: into balancing what we do in the world of food
Speaker 2: and how we like to feel in our bodies. So
Speaker 2: for us, we would always make sure that the other
Speaker 2: foods that we eat in the day to design to
Speaker 2: kind of counterbalance and give us fuel and make us
Speaker 2: feel a little bit more sort of sated and nutritionally balanced,
Speaker 2: if you like.
Speaker 3: Outside of that.
Speaker 2: So we're talking grilled chicken, charred greens, sushi, things that
Speaker 2: just kind of have that good balance of carbohydrates, fats,
Speaker 2: and proteins. And I know you talk about macros a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but you know that it's important for a reason. I
Speaker 2: think there are times to enjoy food and not worry
Speaker 2: about that, you know, what the calories and the new
Speaker 2: nutritional panel of it is or anything like that, and
Speaker 2: then there are other times when we need to just
Speaker 2: sort of, you know, just calm down a little bit
Speaker 2: and then think about how we want the food to
Speaker 2: make us feel in the long term.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a that's a great philosophy for life.
Speaker 1: I reckon, like you know, you can have your treats,
Speaker 1: but then you know, most of the time you've got
Speaker 1: to think about your macros a little bit and about
Speaker 1: the long term what am I, how am I going
Speaker 1: to feel in the future, and how am I going
Speaker 1: to be and new fitness goals and things like that totally.
Speaker 4: So where does your love of food come from?
Speaker 2: Melissa Well, I always like to say it's it's just
Speaker 2: it's DNA. I'm Singaporean Chinese, so that just means that
Speaker 2: it's a cultural thing. We are born with a love
Speaker 2: of food. It's something that's passed down from general to generation.
Speaker 2: Eating out is a huge part of Singaporean culture. So
Speaker 2: on the island's very tiny island, but everybody loves to
Speaker 2: get out and socialize and eat great food. And great
Speaker 2: food is a really egalitarian pursuit. You know, it doesn't
Speaker 2: cost a lot to eat really really well. And I
Speaker 2: think that that's something that was gifted to me from
Speaker 2: since before I could remember, and then as I got
Speaker 2: to learn about food when I was a child, I
Speaker 2: discovered that I really love I'm a total feeder. So
Speaker 2: I really love watching people discover the joy of something
Speaker 2: new or I'd love to encourage people to try something
Speaker 2: that they would never conceive of, And I kind of
Speaker 2: get a little bit of a kick out of seeing
Speaker 2: people achieve something orld defy their own expectations when it
Speaker 2: comes to food, and I think that that's just ended
Speaker 2: up sticking with me and now I get to call
Speaker 2: it part of my career.
Speaker 4: It's amazing. It's amazing. Do you have a favorite dish
Speaker 4: or a favorite food?
Speaker 2: That's something that I get asked all the time, and
Speaker 2: it's a fantastic question and it's very context driven for me.
Speaker 2: So when people say, you know, what's your favorite dish,
Speaker 2: I really struggle to pull out a very simple answer,
Speaker 2: purely because it's about where you are, who you're with,
Speaker 2: what's the season, you know, what's available in that part
Speaker 2: of the world, and that tends to kind of make
Speaker 2: my choices for me. So, you know, thinking about to
Speaker 2: I was lucky enough to go on holidays to southern
Speaker 2: Italy last year and just you know, going to the
Speaker 2: market and finding these beautiful, you know, Sicilian olives that.
Speaker 3: Were almost the size of small plums.
Speaker 2: They were just so huge and verdant and just gorgeous
Speaker 2: to look at. You know, a hunk of prosciutto, a
Speaker 2: hunk of parmesan cheese, some bread, some olive oil, and
Speaker 2: some really really ripe, juicy tomatoes, the kind that you
Speaker 2: can smell before you And I just bought all of
Speaker 2: these little bits and pieces, and I just sat at
Speaker 2: the beach and just kind of I didn't have a
Speaker 2: knife with me. I just sort of tore it all
Speaker 2: up and just made a makeshift sandwich out of those things.
Speaker 2: And the saltiness from the seawater having a swim and
Speaker 2: having the salt crystals drying on your face, and the
Speaker 2: pushutto along with the acidity from the tomatoes, and the
Speaker 2: you know, the savory quality of the parmesan cheese, that
Speaker 2: beautiful bread, I mean perfect right.
Speaker 4: Oh so that just made me so hungry, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think it's a lot about context.
Speaker 1: Context. It absolutely makes sense. And you know, even people
Speaker 1: have asked me that question before, what's your favorite food?
Speaker 4: And it is It is about context. Absolutely. Can you
Speaker 4: tell us what a.
Speaker 1: Day in the life is like on dessert masses, like
Speaker 1: how many meals would you eat in a day?
Speaker 4: What is the process like on a show like up.
Speaker 3: It's an all singing, all dancing production.
Speaker 2: It's a very big day, and especially with something like
Speaker 2: Dessert Masters, it's a shorter season than Master Chef that
Speaker 2: goes for months and months, but they're much more concentrated days.
Speaker 2: So it really depends on the kind of challenge that
Speaker 2: we have. But because pastry challenges, we need to tend
Speaker 2: to give people more time to create things, because foods
Speaker 2: need time to set and to freeze and to do
Speaker 2: all of the things that they're meant to do. So
Speaker 2: we might be setting say a four and a half
Speaker 2: hour challenge, so there's a lot of there's a lot
Speaker 2: of a waiting around, and b it's just an exhausting
Speaker 2: day because it's just drawn out just a little bit longer.
Speaker 3: So a day in the life for me on set.
Speaker 2: With Dessert Masters would be sort of turning up in
Speaker 2: the morning round sort of say anywhere between five thirty
Speaker 2: five forty five six ish, depending on the length of
Speaker 2: the day, go into hair and makeup. Robe will have
Speaker 2: been decided and finalize the night before, so we know
Speaker 2: what we're doing with the hair and makeup to put
Speaker 2: on the clothing. We get miked up, and we go
Speaker 2: through a briefing with our producers to talk about what
Speaker 2: the challenge is for the day, what the steaks are,
Speaker 2: what we really need to drive home, what the storylines are,
Speaker 2: and then we get into the studio and we crack
Speaker 2: on with the day, we set the challenge, and then
Speaker 2: usually just before we actually hit the go button, that's
Speaker 2: when the crew get a little bit of a break.
Speaker 3: We have a little bit of a meal.
Speaker 2: And I should also say during the briefing is when
Speaker 2: we'll sort of have a little bit of breakfast or.
Speaker 3: Something like that.
Speaker 2: And for me, it's usually something very simple, so you know,
Speaker 2: soft worlled eggs, some avocado, piece of toast, which is
Speaker 2: something that's going to set me up well for the
Speaker 2: day so that I don't feel, you know, angry, and
Speaker 2: then I go and reach for an extra bite of
Speaker 2: something amazing that's going to feel wonderful in the moment,
Speaker 2: but then make me feel less able to do my
Speaker 2: job six or seven desserts down the line. So yeah,
Speaker 2: so that we have it morning, a little morning break,
Speaker 2: and then we go into the challenge. And then during
Speaker 2: the challenge, Marie and I are either.
Speaker 3: Sitting in the.
Speaker 2: Control room looking at what's going on on the cameras,
Speaker 2: or we'll be on the stage talking to the contestants,
Speaker 2: or we'll be side of stage watching what's going on,
Speaker 2: so we're always aware of what's happening so that we
Speaker 2: can jump in and provide advice or ask a question
Speaker 2: and to sort of keep the show rolling. And that
Speaker 2: can go on for quite a few hours before we finish,
Speaker 2: and that's a purely unbroken challenge time. So if the
Speaker 2: challenge goes for five hours and we start the clock
Speaker 2: and we finish the clock and there's no gaps, so
Speaker 2: you're on that whole time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so we need to know what's going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then after that, the kitchen gets reset, the
Speaker 2: crew get a break, and then you go into judging.
Speaker 2: That is a whole other sort of series of setups,
Speaker 2: and we're tasting the food, we're talking about what we're loving,
Speaker 2: we make decisions, and then the set gets reset again
Speaker 2: and then we go and deliver it the you know,
Speaker 2: the verdict. So it's a lot of chopping and changing
Speaker 2: and moving around. But the Master Chef crew are one
Speaker 2: of the best in the biers. They've all been together
Speaker 2: for a very very long time, so we feel very
Speaker 2: safe in their hands in terms of they know exactly
Speaker 2: what they're doing, and we are just they're along for
Speaker 2: the ride with them.
Speaker 4: Amazing.
Speaker 1: It's always really cool to hear behind the scenes of
Speaker 1: like what happens on television shows, Like a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't get to see behind the scenes, so it's
Speaker 1: really cool. What does healthy look like to you, Melissa,
Speaker 1: in a physical sense and also in a mental sense.
Speaker 2: I think that's really astute of you to divide that
Speaker 2: up into two different things, because of course healthy feels
Speaker 2: a certain way in the body, and it feels a
Speaker 2: certain way in the mind, and those two things are
Speaker 2: really really important for me. If one's not right, then
Speaker 2: the other's not right, and there's definitely a relationship between
Speaker 2: the two for me. Physiologically, I feel better when I'm
Speaker 2: moving regularly. I feel good when I'm mostly eating a
Speaker 2: fairly sort of sensible diet, and I kind of I'm
Speaker 2: not really good with restricting myself, so I'm fairly intuitive
Speaker 2: with the way that I eat. I tend to kind
Speaker 2: of gravitate towards what I know makes me feel good,
Speaker 2: what gives me energy, and then I leave about twenty
Speaker 2: percent for life and my job and sol.
Speaker 3: Those things the soul. Like you need to eat for
Speaker 3: your soul.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you know, especially when you're feeling a little bit hormonal,
Speaker 2: it's like, don't absolutely don't deny.
Speaker 3: Yourself the thing that your soul is asking you for.
Speaker 1: I know, like my soul really wanted a burrito last
Speaker 1: night and if no, and I just have to have
Speaker 1: a Mexican burrito, and I just had to do it.
Speaker 4: It was and that time.
Speaker 2: Don't you find that if you go for say the
Speaker 2: substitute thing, like the healthier option, or oh no, I
Speaker 2: should have the grilled chicken and not the burrito, it's
Speaker 2: never going to scratch the itch.
Speaker 4: No, and it doesn't go.
Speaker 3: Away for me.
Speaker 2: It's like if I if I don't have the thing,
Speaker 2: I will I will think about it and think about
Speaker 2: it and think about it. So I'm much better off.
Speaker 2: If I really want the cheeseburger, I'm just going to
Speaker 2: have the cheese.
Speaker 3: We all need. We all need a cheeseburger for our soul.
Speaker 1: So really, I'm really happy to hear that you are
Speaker 1: like eighty percent, have twenty percent treats and work and
Speaker 1: you know the soul.
Speaker 4: That's really good.
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave that chat right there and come
Speaker 1: back with part two very soon. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: listening to Bounce for Hey, I love having your company,
Speaker 1: so please DM me on in Instagram at tip haul
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