Family Food Fight has the royal seal of approval. Judge Tom Parker Bowles says his mother Camilla, Duchess Of Cornwall, watched all of season one on her iPad last year.
“She just laughs at me judging food,” Tom, 43, tells TV WEEK. “She’s always a good, supportive mother. She watched the first season and really enjoyed it.
“I’m hoping she’ll like the second season too. She’s always fascinated to know what I’m eating and doing.”
Tom says his mother, who’ll become queen consort if Prince Charles one day becomes King, likes these sort of shows.
“She loves MasterChef UK,” he says. “She hasn’t watched MasterChef Australia, which I absolutely love. Obviously it’s a very different show from Family Food Fight, but I love Matt Preston.”
The food writer came to Australia during winter to film the second season of Family Food Fight alongside fellow judges Matt Moran and Anna Polyviou.
To do this, Tom had to leave behind his wife Sara and children Lola and Freddy, though he talked to them every day via FaceTime.
“It wasn’t fair to ask the kids to come out in Melbourne winter when I was working all day,” he adds.
“It’s different when it’s Melbourne summer or Sydney spring and they can sit on the beach.”
Tom and Matt Moran film Family Food Fight.
While Freddy, eight, has inherited his father’s love of fine dining, 11-year-old Lola not so much.
“My son loves things like sushi, oysters, clams, prawns and all that sort of seafood,” Tom explains.
“My daughter likes stuff children usually like, like pizza and burgers. So, two very different tastes.”
This is the third time Tom has come to Australia to film a TV show, starting with The Hotplate in 2015. He says he’d be happy to keep coming back every year. But don’t expect him to be applying for permanent residency.
“I love Australia as my second home,” he says. “But I’m English to the core. It’s still England for me.”
Family Food Fight airs Monday to Wednesday, 7:30pm, and Sunday, 7pm, on the Nine Network.
