Tell Me What You Really Think follows Marc Fennell as he tackles taboo topics and breaks down complex conversations with those with lived experience.
“Never trust a skinny chef,” the plump Santa-esque figure on TV bellowed as he scrubbed his counter down with a tea towel. I laughed, clutching my sore pork rump belly. I must’ve eaten something whack the night before, but it wasn’t all that bad. Having the runs was a small price to pay for a day home from school. Mum had work, so Channel 10 was my caretaker for the day.
I squirmed through the early morning aerobics; women in fluro-lycra with smiles that looked more painful than they did joyous. I exhaled through Pokemon, itching for the good stuff. Finally, the credits rolled over to a Vegeta-sponsored kitchen. My stomach hurt a little less as Huey talked me through yet another weeknight winner chicken dinner. His salt and pepper double chin soothed my chunky tummy.
Primary school-aged Mark Mariano.
Baby Me could never truly digest what Huey meant by the iconic motto. Even at 30, I can’t help but wonder, why weren’t there more fat chefs? It, at the very least, made more sense than Kate Moss’s 2009 quote: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” False. There were plenty that tasted better. My mum’s tocino pork cutlets, a Chicken ‘n’ Cheese from McDonalds with a steamed bun, a beef kebab with extra tabouli from Oscar’s. The list literally never ends.
Stream free On Demand
Tell Me What You Really Think
series • documentary
M
series • documentary
M
‘Food noise’, my fellow Tell Me What You Really Think co-stars called it. “It’s all consuming, constant thoughts about food. Thinking about when your next meal is, what you’re gonna have, how many calories you had in the morning, how many calories you have left in the day. Should I eat now? Should I eat when I go out? It’s non-stop. Neverending,” the beautiful Jo Fargus described. Sans the caloric count, I had experienced the same. Instead, it wasn’t noise, nor a nuisance or worry. It was music. It was a well constructed album of all the greatest hits. It was the 2003 Australian Idol Grand Finale with a round-faced Guy Sebastian. This off-camera realisation wasn’t something to argue over — it was simply gratitude coming to fruition. That food and fatness weren’t planted as evil things in my brain. That until I was out of Huey’s warm TV embrace, out of a home where rice was bible, that I realised that a love for food, and the plumpness that sometimes came with it, wasn’t universal.
When I agreed to appear on the SBS series’ FAT episode, I was nervous and terrified. But, I channelled Huey himself. I’m not here to fix the world and its rampant tirade against fatness and food joy. I’m also not here to tell you how to feel. Like a certain early 2000s Aussie TV chef, all I can do is be both happy and fat, because they’re not mutually exclusive things. No agenda, no manufactured campaign, just an underrepresented truth. I promise.
Mark Mariano urges you to rethink what fat is and find joy in food.
If you’d like some advice, however, here are some tips for finding joy in food, from a Child of Huey.
- Follow your gut: No, literally. Follow your gut. Recommendations on TikTok are fun, but aren’t always real. Hone in on dishes and ingredients you like, do some research, hit up a local spot or tackle an easy recipe (like the thousands available on SBS Food). Loop a mate or a loved one in, if you’d like. I personally like doing this on my own and treat it as a form of self-care. It also reduces the amount of external judgement too.
- Eat intuitively: Eat when you want! Snack when you want. The 3-meal structure functions for some, but not everyone. Sometimes your body will need sustenance specifically at 2am in the morning and all you have is ramen. Sometimes you’ll be so locked into a task that you only feel hunger once you’re done. Fill your tank often and lovingly.
- F**k being polite: Be the first one to start building your plate at a party, be the one who sops up the end of a dish when everyone else is purposely avoiding it, I know you want to. In case you need it from someone else: I give you permission. Feel free to blame me when Aunty pulls you up on it.
Mark Mariano on the FAT episode of Tell Me What You Really Think.
