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Speaker 1: Job mission with Jones and Amanda.

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Speaker 2: Well our next guest food writer turned master Chef judge.

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Speaker 2: She's back on the Telly with Master Chef Junior, watching

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Speaker 2: over tiny chefs in the making cook better meals than

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Speaker 2: the rest of us put together. She joins us Now, Melissa, Hello.

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Speaker 1: Hello, thank you so much for having me.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's good to have you on the show. These kids,

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Speaker 3: I didn't expect them to be making such elaborate meals.

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Speaker 3: I thought it was going to be two fruits and

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Speaker 3: ice cream.

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Speaker 1: Well, we like to say this is not a kid show.

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Speaker 1: This is a food show with extraordinary kids in it.

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Speaker 1: So you know, we knew that the caliber was going

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Speaker 1: to be good because obviously, who's applying for a show

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Speaker 1: like this if you can't cook? But my goodness, they

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Speaker 1: have absolutely blown us away, not only with how well

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Speaker 1: they can cook, it also how amazing they are as

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Speaker 1: little humans.

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Speaker 2: Oh they're lovely to watch, aren't they? And how have

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Speaker 2: they all you think learned to cook? Do they have

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Speaker 2: parents who are good cooks? Or have they been inspired

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Speaker 2: by TV shows? How has the love of food come

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Speaker 2: to them?

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Speaker 1: Look? I think it's a little bit of everything. I

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Speaker 1: think the thing to remember is that Master Chef has

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Speaker 1: been on for eleven years now, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: these kids, you know, they're tends be tween ten and

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Speaker 1: fourteen years old, so it's been on since they've been

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Speaker 1: a little they've been really really little, or since they

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Speaker 1: were born in some cases. And I think that that

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Speaker 1: change in food culture in Australia has really, you know,

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Speaker 1: given us all, you know, extra IQ in terms of

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Speaker 1: knowing a bit more about food from other cultures and

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Speaker 1: being a little bit more curious about food, and then

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Speaker 1: obviously having parents that are smart enough to figure out

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Speaker 1: that if you let your kids learn how to cook,

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Speaker 1: you might get out of a few meals in the week.

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Speaker 2: Yes, not a bad deal, I think absolutely. Can I

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Speaker 2: ask you this, Melissa, how come you're not enormous? How

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Speaker 2: much do you actually eat on a filming day?

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Speaker 1: It depends on the day. There are definitely challenges that

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Speaker 1: are you know, are pretty hasty. I'm not like jocks

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Speaker 1: Haven just eat all day every day and he eats

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe two buckets of fried thing between wondering breaks.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I just try to keep balance and

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Speaker 1: you know, the days that I'm not filming, you know,

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Speaker 1: heavy heavy shooting days, then I'll probably be keeping it

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Speaker 1: reasonably healthy and trying to exercise and all of the

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Speaker 1: rest of it. So yeah, a little bit of a

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Speaker 1: little bit of genetics, a little bit of you know,

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Speaker 1: common sense.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, is there any precocious kids on the show? You said,

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Speaker 3: then there's one little kid you think put him in

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Speaker 3: a sandwich?

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Speaker 1: Not one. I think we when we met the top

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Speaker 1: sort of fire less just before we picked our fourteen,

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Speaker 1: we we were just really surprised by how wonderful each

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Speaker 1: and every single kid was. You know, they're they're a

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Speaker 1: really wonderfully articulate bunch of kids. And we also wanted

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Speaker 1: to make sure that Australia, you know, sees these these

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Speaker 1: inspirational kids, these ones that are truly good and making.

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Speaker 1: Of course they can make him cook so so well.

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Speaker 1: But also I think it's really important to you know,

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Speaker 1: set set a good example what good attitude can do.

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Speaker 2: Hard though, to say goodbye to them, isn't it, Those

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Speaker 2: poor little things.

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Speaker 1: Oh so tough, so so tough. But you know, we

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Speaker 1: make sure they go they go away in pairs of

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Speaker 1: the trios so that you know, they they're reminded that

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Speaker 1: it's not about the food. So it's not about the

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Speaker 1: you know them, it's about the food on the day

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Speaker 1: and and they know that. So but you know, they

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Speaker 1: treat the competition like it's the game, which is a

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Speaker 1: really wonderful thing. And I think we we forget how

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Speaker 1: resilient that our young generations can be.

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Speaker 2: That's interesting. So, right, we tend to we tend to

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Speaker 2: wrap them in bubble wrap.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, weak wrap.

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Speaker 2: But maybe maybe they're stronger than we give them credit.

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Speaker 3: Maybe you should be like, I'm the weakest, the weakest link, Melissa,

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Speaker 3: so you lose your little loser, see you. I'll take that, Melissa.

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Speaker 3: Is a treat to talk to you. Junior Mastership is

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Speaker 3: back to night seven thirty. Melissa Leong, thank you for

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Speaker 3: joining us.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much. That a great day.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Melissa and uh