Dec 9 0 comments

Some thoughts for Thursday.

by Matt Preston on 9 December 2009

31. According to the make-up artist who does us both, Kyle Sandilands is more professional than me. Should this concern me?

32. It is impossible to go to Hong Kong for a week without putting on three kilos.

33. There is a small group of people who watch TV with a magnifying glass. For the record, at no time during the show was I a) a freemason; b) sacked; c) dead; d) having marriage difficulties; e) wearing a hearing aid; f ) a walrus or g) snide. If I put my hand in my jacket it was because I was pretending to be Napoleon during the French challenge. If I wasn’t on the show it was because I was working at the Melbourne or Noosa Food & Wine Festivals. If I wasn’t wearing my wedding ring it’s because I’d taken it off to do the gardening and then forgotten to put it back on. Okay, maybe I was occasionally walrussy or snide. And that wire coming out of my ear was for an earpiece so that a very clever woman called Caroline Spencer could tell me what was for lunch and that yes, there was a dynasty of French kings called the Merovingians.

34. Melbourne people are cool – and a bit aloof.

35. Always try to dress like you are either a serve of several colourful scoops of gelati (perhaps vanilla, watermelon and chocolate), or the most lurid eighties cocktail at Studio 54. This will entertain you in quieter moments.

36. If you are a good cook you don’t have to follow a recipe word for word. Be brave, stop and think about what you’ve got and how confident you are you can improve it.

37. If an FM breakfast radio presenter asks you to taste something – don’t. It is unlikely to be nice.

38. Always be nice to the director, but it is the first assistant director who you really need to suck up to.

39. Never ego-search the web. Some people can be quite hurtful and cruel. And that’s just George Calombaris.

40. Never touch a pan taken from the oven with your lip to see if it’s hot.
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About the Author

View All Posts by Matt Preston

Matt Preston

Matt Preston

Matt Preston is a food journalist and restaurant critic. Best known for his weekly restaurant column in The Age newspaper's food section, 'Epicure', and as a judge on MasterChef Australia, Preston is also an editor of Vogue Entertaining + Travel and delicious magazines, and a former Creative Director of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.[1].Preston was educated in Sussex and graduated from the University of Kent with a BA Hons in Politics and Government. He began his career in the sales and marketing departments of British magazines, including City Limits where he wrote the 'Backhanders' column for five years. He then spent four years with UK magazines, TVTimes and What's on TV, becoming head of their promotions and marketing department.In 1993 Preston moved to Australia where he worked as an Australian soap opera correspondent for British magazines What's On TV, TVTimes and Women's Own.In 2009 Preston joined Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris on the judging panel of the first season of MasterChef Australia, a reality television competition to find Australia's best home cook.Preston is a contributor to The Age Good Food Guide and Food and Wine (US). He has appeared on Network 10's 9am with David and Kim as well as SBS's Blue List, Channel 9's Postcards and Channel 7's Absolutely Melbourne.Preston has appeared on radio as a guest on Denis Walter's show on 3AW, and on 774 ABC Melbourne, where he has also co-hosted a number of times. Previous positions include five years as the National Chief Judge for Restaurant and Catering's National Awards for Excellence, contributing drink editor to Good Taste magazine and as the 'secret reviewer' on series one of Channel 7's My Restaurant Rules.In 2003, 2004 and 2006 Preston won Food Media Club of Australia awards for articles which appeared in the 'Epicure' section of The Age, and in 2008 he won the Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards, Food Journalist of the Year Award for articles published in delicious and 'Epicure'.