As the winner of Masterchef Australia season two, Adam Liaw knows how stressful cooking shows can be – so when the opportunity to start his own arrived, Adam and his co-host Pia Miranda made it their mission to create a heartfelt cooking competition.
Speaking to Woman’s Day before the premiere of the ABC show Recipe Of The Year, Adam says he was excited to create a show that celebrates not only food, but the stories behind each recipe.
“As we all know I love cooking shows,” he says. “We wanted to come up with a really new concept that had that joy that competitive cooking shows can bring.”
Recipes that tell a story
In Recipe Of The Year, Adam, Pia and expert Country Women’s Association (CWA) judge Ellice Schrader are on a mission to find who – out of the 20 home cooks they’ve assembled – has the recipe of the year.
And keeping with the heartfelt focus, Adam says each dish is judged like a meal would be at home.
“We all sit around a table together to share the food and talk about what the contestant did and then everyone gets to vote on which recipe was their favourite.” he says.
“It’s like how everyone experiences food. Nobody at home goes and puts food in front of their mum and dad and gets them to give it a score out of 10!”
Across each episode, home cooks from all around Australia complete three challenges, with the first focusing on creativity, the second on precise cooking skills and the third is a bake off for one of the competitor’s recipes.
And rather than focusing on flashy meals that will dazzle dinner party guests, Adam says this series focuses on meals that bring people comfort, can be made on a budget or can feed an army of visitors.
But most importantly, each contestant’s recipe tells their story – from treasured family recipes to dishes inspired by their cultural heritage.
“A love of cooking comes from a love of eating,” Adam shares.
“My parents never sat me down and said ‘this is how we make this dish or that dish’ and there was no recipe that was ceremoniously handed over. The things my parents and grandparents taught me was finding where food fits into my life.”
Kids in the kitchen
Adam hopes Recipe Of The Year inspires families around Australia to try and make some of the meals featured on the show at home – just like it’s inspired him and his daughter Anna, 10, to get in the kitchen together once a week.
“Every Sunday we bake a cake together as a father daughter ritual that we now have and honestly before Recipe Of The Year we weren’t doing that,” Adam admits.
“If the she can do that to me and my family, I think a lot of people watching at home will be inspired to get back in the kitchen.”
As for whether his other sons, Chrisopher, 13, and Benji, 7, will follow in their dad’s footsteps, Adam says it’s unlikely but they love to help out at dinner time.
“Christopher makes pasta and my youngest Benji hasn’t quite got there but they all love food and they love eating,” Adam laughs.
“We all eat dinner together at the table every single night and it’s my favourite time of the day.”
Recipe Of The Year – Sundays at 7:30pm on ABC and ABC iView.
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