In a TV world saturated with cooking shows, SBS’s Dishing It Up adds a new spin to the classic cooking show format.
In this new eight-part series, everyday Aussies put celebrity chef recipes to the test to see if they’re as impressive in reality as they seem on screens.
Six cooking-amateur duos attempt to channel their inner Michelin-star chef to dish up popular recipes created by the likes of Donna Hay, Adam Liaw, Poh Ling Yeow, Miguel Maestre, Matty Matheson and many more.
Do they have the expertise, patience and precision to master their skilful recipes?
Mediaweek spoke to the show’s producer and creator, Michelle Galluzzo, from production company The Precinct to find out.
Premiering on SBS, SBS Food and SBS On Demand on Thursday, 29 September at 7.30 pm, Dishing It Up is a new format, best described as ‘Googlebox for food.’
“Developing a new format is fun because you’re working with new territory. Everyone was really excited about it, so everybody working on the project was really into it, which was great,” Galluzzo says. “It was a relatively smooth process because I had a very clear vision in my mind of what the show was going to be and how it was going to work.”
Michelle Galluzzo
Galluzzo says the idea for the series originated over ten years ago after watching a ‘picture perfect’ cooking show and questioning how an amateur would replicate the recipes.
“That’s the thing about cooking shows, you always watch it and are like, ‘”I wonder if I could make that or does it even work”‘?
The idea was placed on the back burner until COVID allowed Galluzzo and the team at The Precinct more time to explore it.
“We’ve never really got time to write anything up, and then COVID hit, so then we were like, ‘oh, we should write it up, we’ve got spare time, we should write up these ideas.’”
Anna and Matt
Galluzzo says she wanted to find a diverse mix of people and a diverse mix of recipes to try.
The home cooks in Dishing It Up span generations, cultures and cooking abilities, with their love of food being the uniting factor. The show’s contestants are an example of the diverse tapestry of Australian families.
“I think we’re very lucky in Australia because we’ve got such amazing diverse cultures, which makes for a really rich food culture as well.
“In terms of the food that we cook, we did try to find recipes from different cultures, as well.”
Unlike some of Australia’s favourite cooking shows, Dishing It Up isn’t a competition. Instead, the show focuses on showcasing the everyday relationships that can be strengthened (or broken) in the kitchen.
We meet high school sweethearts Fiona and Jeremy, who bring a unique dual cultural Asian Australian perspective, and doting husbands Stefan and Yash, who will critique even the most acclaimed of celebrity chefs,
Egyptian Mum and daughter, Magda and Sara, will bicker over just about everything while hipster parents Waz and Jen show how to botch things up with style. Best friends Anna and Matt always have a cocktail in hand, and friends since school, Jonathan and Hari, round things off with the nerdiest of toilet humour.
Magda and Sara
“As well as finding a diverse mix of people, we wanted a diverse mix of relationships as well,” Galluzzo says. “Because when you’re cooking, you cook with all sorts of people; you don’t only cook with your partner, you cook with your Mum as well – and that was a big part of it.”
The show’s realistic representation of cooking with those closest to you demonstrates the different types of relationships and dynamics in the kitchen.
“It’s very real, raw and exactly what it’s like in the kitchen when it gets a bit steamy.”
“You don’t have to you don’t have to be a good cook or even like watching cooking shows to find this funny.”
Dishing It Up will premiere on Thursday, 29 September at 7.30 pm on SBS, SBS Food and SBS On Demand.