MasterChef Australia alumni Dan Churchill and Hayden Quinn are excited to show off a new side to Australia in new series, Surfing the Menu: Next Generation.
“There’s so much more to the country than what you see in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – it’s vast and incredible and there’s so many stories along the way,” tells Quinn.
“I love saying that I’m Australian but after this show, I could not be more proud to be Australian,” chimes in Churchill. It’s pretty typical of the fresh-faced, easygoing pair, who finish each other’s sentences on more than one occasion. And it’s not surprising when you consider how much the chefs have in common; there’s the whole MasterChef thing, of course, but then there’s a mutual love of catching waves, travelling, the great outdoors, and they also both happen to be Sydney Northern Beaches boys.
But it was their onscreen chemistry, portrayed in a few YouTube clips, that saw them chosen as the newest hosts of Surfing the Menu, the same series that catapulted the career of Curtis Stone.
Source: Alun Bartsch
“With Hayden and I, what you see is what you get – we’re very close mates,” says Churchill. “We’re from very similar worlds – if it wasn’t a Manly Wharf Bar session or a surf or seeing mates – we were close regardless of our industry."
When Churchill was told he’d been accepted to go on MasterChef, he called Quinn, who’d become a household name after competing in the 2011 series.
“Hayden was like, ‘mate, if you’re putting yourself forward for the right reason, you’ll benefit from it’. Ever since then, we’ve been close.
"One of the best things about Hayden is that he's a family guy. He also loves his food, and he's also so selfless, so everything is always so easy."
We’re telling the stories that people will never get told.
Hobbies and mutual admiration aside, it was their families that led the guys into the kitchen for the first time.
“Dad was never much of a baker, but we had a lemon tree in our backyard and every now and again, he would get the lemons off the tree and make a super zesty, super citrusy lemon meringue pie,” Churchill recalls. “And if you know my dad, you’d know it’s nothing like what he’s like in real life.”
“Your dad’s a pretty zesty, citrusy guy, Dan,” chimes in Quinn.
Churchill laughs. “I wouldn’t say so. For me personally, cooking is all about family time; that’s why I fell in love with it. It’s about getting together and getting to know each other’s day.”
It's a similar story for Quinn, whose mum was a home economist.
Source: Alun Bartsch
“I grew up with mum testing recipes and making amazing meals and have the fondest memories of basically being in the kitchen with her and asking questions and trying and testing things.
“The first thing I ever really cooked properly was a toad in the hole: you cut the little circle out of the bread, put the egg in the middle and you cook it. It’s actually very hard to keep the egg runny while the toast is nice and brown.”
The 13-part series combines the lads’ love of surfing and food, highlighting the great Australian landscape and diverse bounty of produce along the way. They fish, they go mudcrabbing and they even scurf with help from the show’s third character, GiGi, their trusty, rusty, 50-year-old VW beetle.
And it’s no coincidence the car shares the name of a leggy, Instagram-savvy Victoria’s Secret model. Churchill deliberately chose ‘GiGi’ in the hopes that he might be able to name-drop it on the radio one day and potentially get word over to the Manhattan-based Hadid. Little did he know that he’d be able to relay his plan to the supermodel in person.
“I was sitting at a place called Ruby’s in New York with a couple of mates, Gigi and her friends – my mates are friends with her mates,” Churchill explains. “My mate who’d seen the show was like, ‘are you going to tell her?’ I was like, ‘ah, probably not’. Anyway, it got brought up, but she had good banter behind her. She was like, ‘what kind of car is it – what do I look like?’ I tried to tell her it’s a beaut VW: vintage. She did ask how old the car was,” Churchill laughs. “She was a good sport about it – it was a fun night.”
Source: Alun Bartsch
For the most part, it was smooth sailing when filming the series, unless there were fish or waves to catch.
“Whenever you go surfing or fishing, as soon as someone pulls a camera out, the surf goes flat and the fish swim away,” Quinn says. “I don’t know how they make those fishing shows.
“We went mud crabbing at Exmouth (Western Australia) and were told we were guaranteed to get one. After eight hours of walking through mud, our guide had to call it a day. We ended up back at his place eating cold sausages and bread.”
“The saying goes for Dan and I, ‘you should’ve been here yesterday’,” says Churchill.
For me personally, cooking is all about family time; that’s why I fell in love with it. It’s about getting together and getting to know each other’s day.
With native Australian ingredients currently squarely in the spotlight, it’s no surprise the guys spend time with some Indigenous chefs along the way, but it’s not our country’s first fruits and herbs that spark their interest.
“The techniques are something I really took away from it rather than ingredients - the ways food was cooked and the reasons behind it,” says Quinn. “Ground cooking and baking is obviously classic across a lot of Indigenous cultures, but the one thing that really stood out was how different leaves and barks and trees are used for different animals. For example for barramundi, you use a coolabah leaf while for kangaroo, you use different woods."
The friends pearl dive in Broome, swim with Manta Rays, search for native bees with Indigenous communities and hunt out bush medicine, all while trying to seek out some decent breaks along the way. They taste catfish, exotic mushrooms, and black sapote fruit, which Quinn describes as "a custard apple but with a gooey chocolate centre", sharing the stories of the passionate producers behind them.
“We’re telling the stories that people will never get told,” says Churchill. “We’re going to places and communities most people won’t get to see.
Source: Alun Bartsch
"Whether it’s a remote Indigenous community in Katherine or speaking with a pearl diver in Broome –you’re eyes will be opened and you’ll think, wow – this is a beautiful country.”
Surfing the Menu: Next Generation premieres Monday 13 March, 7:30pm, on Food Network. View our TV Guide to find out when episodes are on air.
