Johanna Griggs, TV presenter Better Homes and Gardens

"We have celiacs, sugar-free, vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, and absolute carnivores in the family. When I'm cooking for say 34 on Christmas day, I'm making a range of different dishes. It's amazing how if you put a bit of planning into it, how easy it is to be able to feed all those people" - Johanna Griggs AM 

On the menu: Nanna's lemon sponge, cooking en masse, and all the Better Homes and Gardens goodness. 

Sides include: random hitchhikers, being a world class swimmer, roadtrips with Karen Martini and hubby Todd (who she wooed for 6 months with dinner parties just for him). 

Joh's social cause is Beyond Blue - Joh has been the longest serving Director on their current board. Beyond Blue's vision is that all people in Australia achieve their best possible mental health. They work with the community to improve mental health and make it easier for people to feel better earlier, get well and stay well. To speak to a counsellor call 1300 22 46 36, for more information online: beyondblue.org.au.

To find out more about the project and Savva - head to threefoodmemories.com
Insta - @savvasavas @threefoodmemories

Email us at threefoodmemories@plated.com.au, we'd love to hear from you! 

TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the ground we stand on and thank them for allowing Papa to tell stories on these glorious lands we share.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Our guest on this episode of Three Food Memories can feed a crowd, host a nation, and still make it feel like you're the only one on her table. Whether she's cooking for many, growing her own, or bringing stories from kitchens across the country into our homes, she does it with a warmth that is unmistakably Aussie. She's so quintessentially Australian that if our national carrier were to replace Skippy on its aircraft tail, it would be her face. Joanna Griggs AM, the Spirit of Australia. Welcome to Three Food Memories.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

That is the nicest introduction I've ever had. I mean, quite a stretch, but I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

I mean, I mean, like I could see the outline on the back of your face, the little hair flick helping the jet. Tell us we've got a fuel crisis, so any little bit of power.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

To be perfectly honest, there'd be a lot of people who I think would have a lot of trepidation hopping on a plane that had that on the tail of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

I disagree. Now, I'm so thrilled that you've chosen to do this with us today and that you've chosen because initially you were hesitating to do it on camera. I hate doing things on camera.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

How stupid is that?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

But but but but when you accepted our invitation, I can't tell you how relieved you were about that you said yes for the camera because we've only ever known you on camera for the last 32 years.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Do you know what? Is that probably that weird hang-up where you actually feel like when you do a podcast, I'm old school, it's like when podcasts started 15, 20 years ago. Radio and podcast, you never need to do your hair and makeup. And that was half the appeal for me. And now everyone records it and you're like, oh, I've got to get put my face on again.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

But we're happy to have your face on here. Now we'll talk about um Better Homes and Gardens a l a lot later. But do you remember filming your very first episode of the show?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Oh, Better Homes? Yeah. Oh gosh, yeah. Um, absolutely. I remember I'd had lots of discussions with the network because um 99 Hazelhurst had decided that she was going to go back to action.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

And again, we grew up with Noni on 8 um play school.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah, absolutely. And then she and John obviously started Better Homes and Gardens, and then they divorced, and then Noni kept going as host, and uh then I got invited in at the SEB Network. I'd already been there for a huge amount of time already. Um, and they basically just said, Look, we've got this show, and we think we we actually think that if we give it a bit of new life and a new look at a new feel, that it could go for say another 10 or 15 years, and we think you're the person to do it. Um this year I'm hosting my 22nd year of it, which is extraordinary. And I say to people, it's the the most beautiful show to work on because you only ever celebrate people and you're only ever positive, and there's so much craziness in the world and so much negativity in the world that that's one of the things I that we are all really proud of. Everyone who works on the show, we've got a great on-camera team, even better off-camera team. You know, I've reached that point in my career where I don't have to work with people if I think they're knuckleheads. So we only have people who are equally passionate and and share the same you know, desire to make really feel good television. And what was that first episode? Do you remember the first segment? I do. I remember I re I remember they they asked, we had a lot of discussion about it because I'd watched a lot of it and they I'd always just seen the hosts kind of just walking from one place to another doing an intro, and they were never actually involved in it. Whereas everything I'd done from sport to you know house rules, when I came back to seven, I did um uh what was it called, auction squad and then uh House Course to the Rescue, and then they asked me to do Better Homes and Gardens. And so I was like, I'd love to, but all the shows I'm on, I'm actually hands-on, and I'd love to actually get out and do things. So if we're doing a Renault, I don't want to just intro the Renault, I'd really love to get on the tools. And they were like, This is fantastic. I'm like, we're doing a cooking segment, can I get my hands dirty? And they're like, oh my god, this is exactly what we're talking about. So I think the the very first episode, um, we did one which was an introduction to all of the team, and then it was straight into a a segment where we're actually physically doing things.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

So television, being on television for you is actually getting into the weeds.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Well, I think that's all I've ever ever done. So I think away from TV, like part of so what had happened is when I first started at seven, I was only sport. And then I got axed on maternity leave while I was four months pregnant with my second son. And so new management had come in and they just cleared the books, and so all of a sudden I was out of work. So I had to go and take a lot of other work. So I basically just started freelancing for a couple of years, and it really forced me to come out of my comfort zone. So I, you know, I'd only ever spoken about sport, attended sport, done all these things, and next second I'm I'm doing shows like Good News Week and um hosting a political satirical show and and popping up on panel shows and um, you know, doing the comedy show and standing at town hall and having to get up and in front of these enormous crowds of people who had high expectations of what you do. So I constantly got forced to go out of my comfort zone. And then because of that, when I came back to seven, they knew that if I just did sport, outside of the tennis, the month of the tennis where you could be in prime time, you know, and maybe the Olympics and the Paralympics when they would come along, uh, they just kept saying to me, Well, we need to keep you in prime time. What can we get you to do? What things do you like in your life? I'm like, Well, I love renovating, I love home design, I love cooking, you know, I love vegetable growing, so all these different things that I was talking to them about. They were like, okay, well, that's how Auction Squad came about. They were like, we've got this Renault show that we're going to start. Would you like to do that? It's very hands-on. And so I did that, then did House Calls to the Rescue, and then that led to better homes.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

In researching this interview and you, I discovered that you love food and you love a yarn.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

So I think sorry.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Actually, not sorry about either of those things. So I think it's best that be we get straight into the food memories. But before we do, I came across this little tit bit. You did a cameo on a home and away. Yeah. A Swedish tourist cut what?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

And it does need some background because I actually managed to keep this hidden for so many decades.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Well, it's in there in the world. It is now. It is now.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

But you know how I like I I literally, when I went back to Channel 7 after the the three years that I was away from them, I I got asked to come back to host the Sydney Olympics, which was allowed to be announced 12 months out. Then I, after the Sydney Olympics, I did the three weeks of the breakfast show. A bidding war ensued, and and I knew that I was going to be leaving Fauxville and coming back to Channel 7. And when I came back, they were like, What do you want in your contract? I said, Oh, there's actually been this thing I really, really wanted for a long time. And they're like, What's that? I said, Well, we're not 17. I did an episode of Home and Away where I played Inga from Sweden. And it's when it worked out I couldn't be an actress because it was so appallingly bad. And it was purely because I was on a break from swimming and I signed with Vivian's modelling agency, and it was just a casting call that came out. But I shot the scene with Nicole Dixon, who's gorgeous but tiny. She's like, I don't know, she's like, she's just over five foot, it's extraordinary. And they had me in these heels and doing a very bad Swedish accent. And you know, they did this very slow pan up my body, and I'd honestly look like something out of a terrible 70s porno um introduction. And so I said to Seven, I don't want anyone to see this, and they're like, Well, we can we can wipe everything apart from the the main tape. And um they said it the you know, the the originals are gonna have to be played over and over. So for years it became this folklore. I'd always for our goof tapes, people would say, We found that tape, and I'd be like, No, you haven't. Like it literally, people searched for it and they couldn't find it. And then one day I woke up and it was actually April Fool's Day, it was about, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago, and and I woke up on on Instagram, somebody said, Oh my god, did joke week seven playing goof from Stuart? And I literally started to hyperventilate because I was thinking, oh, far out. I can't. I knew this day would come, but I didn't realise it would be like this. So I got to work and everyone at work, they were all laughing about it. And I got a phone call from the seven publicists, and she's like, I'm so sorry, I just have to ask this question. And here's the head of publicity and also the home and away publicist. We know was it Susan? It was Susan Wood. We know that this is um it's obviously an April Fool's joke, but we have to just ask, did you play younger from Sweden? And of course, everyone behind me all just roared with laughter, and I roared and I said, Yeah, I did. And they said, We've got no records of it. And I said, No, I said, they said, Joe, we're gonna go to town with you on this. And I'm like, do your best. I said, like, I deserve it for hiding it for that long. So the next day, the headline in the paper was Joe's Lost Soapy tapes. And I tweeted at the time, could have been worse, could have been a sex tape. And then I got in so much trouble for my tweet that I should have just not done that and it all would have been fine. But I think every radio that any interview I did for about the next 10 years, and they still sometimes play it, it still gets brought up. They just I hear the music and I know what they're gonna say. And it's so bad.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

But it's such a funny story. When I discovered it, it was everything that you do is so fun, it's just but and then England from Sweden.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

We'll put it this way. I got I over the years I got asked to do a couple of different roles, acting um in television and on stage.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

And my beautiful manager, Sue Muggleton, would say to them, You actually don't want she's like she's a terrible actress.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

She's actually only good when she's just being herself. And they'd be like, No, we really think she'd be fantastic for this role. And Muggs is like, Let me send you something, and I guarantee you'll change your mind.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

And needless to say, that one that one that one bit of recording was enough for me to have any offers for acting off the table.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

But isn't it a wonderful compliment? She's at her best when she's herself, and I think that is why I do.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

I think that's nice.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

That is why you are so appealing, and then why I kind of want to put you on the you know, on the corner's plain tail on the jumbo.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Show to Greg. Well, thank you. I I think that's I think I'd prefer to be that one. Brixy hairlines.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Well, but tell you what it does do, it makes you appreciate to be a good actor. Like, man, that's it is such a skill. And when you see those people who are able to do several major roles and completely transform people, like that's not my skill.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Well, let's start with this first food memory because we could go on forever with this. The first food memory is Nana's lemon sponge cake. Now, before we talk about the cake, let's talk about Nana.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yeah. Nana was gorgeous. So she lived just before her 101st birthday. Uh, she's this little stoic Irish woman. Her name was Maureen, and she married Arthur Moore. So her name was Maureen Moore, but the two Moors in Maureen and Moore spelt differently. Uh, and we used to, as kids, ironically, we used to all measure ourselves and hide against her. Uh, like by the time she ended up passing me, she was just this tiny, tiny little human being. But um, Nana was an amazing sales part. Like, we were so fortunate to have that relationship with grandparents, and and she actually lived just till just before we just found out that our son um was pregnant with his little uh son Jax, our little gr grandson who's now eight. And I always remember Jo being so disappointed that Nana passed away before she got to meet Jax. Whereas we all felt like it was this beautiful circle of life that she was leaving this world to make space for Jax. Um but she she was amazing, and they used to have a beautiful house up at uh Voker Beach.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Uh and that's where the theatre at Avoka. Yeah, I was still still gorgeous. I guess it's a beautiful part of the world. And those rocks, like climbing around the rocks, there's so many memories with that, and the way that they used to open up the lagoon and you know, like I'm sure that these days people that have a heart attack with soil sand erosion when you'd go up and down the hills with the sand. But for us it was just great memories with time with grandparents. And you know, I realise how lucky we are to have that relationship. There's a lot of people who don't know their grandparents. You know, you know, Nan and Pop had a million great-grandchildren, and and then you know, she just missed out on seeing her great-great-grandchild, which I think's pretty extraordinary.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

So she made a lemon sponge cake. Yeah, so our beautiful mum, she was a school teacher. She was always uh um How many of you in the family? Only only four kids. Uh oh, only three. Oh no, well I think when you look at Nan's family, Pa's family, uh, and and the Greg's side of the family, like they all come from massive, massive families. So Catholic Catholic. Yeah, actually, uh scandalously, Nana was a Catholic-Protestant relationship, which would have been pretty extra extraordinary back in the day. And she was a lot younger than Pa was as well. Um he when he came to Australia, he was uh a postal officer manager, so they moved around a lot. So each of her four daughters was born in a in a different suburb around New South Wales. But um tiny, Nana was tiny, but not tiny in stature. Like she was just a true matriarch in in every sense of the word. But because our mum, who for us is like this superhero for all four kids, was this extraordinary teacher who was always studying and always improving herself. And um, you know, I don't think any of the four kids, uh that any of us, my siblings and I can go anywhere without people still stopping us to say something where she impacted them on in her life. Like she was a school teacher. Yeah, and so when I hear people say, Oh, school teachers have it so easy to have 12 weeks off, that's not our memory of our mum. Our mum, she worked, she she studied on weekends, she did work until all hours of the night. Like she was incredibly dedicated to her students. But obviously, with four kids and a million activities, we would often get sick, or you know, sometimes timings would be just something would be out of whack. And so what they do is they'd send you up to Nana and Pa's for a week where you, you know, it's I had extreme asthma as a kid, so I would often be sent there, or if you've got chicken pox or you had gastro, because mum just couldn't do everything. And uh so literally, like it was the greatest thing if it ever happened because Nana and Pa would spoil your rotten, they had their dogs, you had loads of beach walks, and Nana would make this beautiful lemon sponge cake. And they didn't care if you ate half of it, which I just would smash it every time. Often they'd make two a day because they just knew you'd eat it. But came this thing of comfort, and I s I still love citrus on in any form and in any food. I love putting citrus on everything as well, and I'm certain that it's like a little trigger memory that goes back to just feeling very secure and very loved and um and just that that happy memory that you associate with it. Describe the cake if you remember it. Just a tip like it was like a literally a typical sponge where she'd pour the lemon syrup over the top, and then sometimes a little bit of icing sugar on the top of that. So no cream, no fruit. And I still I still don't love having cream or fruit on my sponges. I still love it if I can have it with it, just that little citrus flavour, I love it. Citrus tarts, citrus anything to do with citrus, I I absolutely adore. Do you have um citrus trees on your property? I sure do. What have you got? Lemons, limes, mandarins, um, finger limes, and oranges.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Tell me about finger limes because they're a bit tricky to grow.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

They're really tricky to grow. So I'd have to say that's probably my least successful. But I've I have just finished uh the actually this morning, I've probably got two more uh batches to go, but I've just finished dehydrating about 600 limes because I love putting them into sparkled sparkled water or into cold water, and again, having I guess that citrus the whole time, um, great for garnishes for cocktails. I s I sell lots of my produce, I give lots of it away, and so that's that's the latest one. So we've just had the scent of limes just endlessly through the house of late.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

And so would you and your siblings kind of get sick on purpose just to have a little trip? Did you do career?

SPEAKER_00 15:43

We could certainly, we could certainly um extend those trips and and manage to to to convince Santa Par that he needed more time rather than less. Like it was just I think for all of us, we all talk about it. It was a really great memory, and it's funny how the like food, one of the things I love about food is that just those instant things can trigger. You can walk past a the waft of a scent of something and it will take you back to a great meal or a great connection that you had with someone over a meal. That's what I love about food, and for me, citrus, it it brings back those beautiful thoughts of Nan.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

I've always said that grandpar grandparenting, I kept saying it again and again. Grandparenting is the second chance of parenting. Does your mother have similar memories of her?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah, I my beautiful mum's now in dementia care, so she doesn't have many memories, but she's very childlike. I mean, we're actually really lucky she's um she's one of those people who is quite happy with her dementia. So she's she's just got a million visitors, and she's very triggered by art and by music. Um, one of our nephews did the most beautiful present last year for Christmas. He just he asked us all what mum's favourite songs were that we knew from growing up, and just put together a little playlist. And so whenever we're we're visiting mum, you just take that playlist and you're out in the garden, you're in art. She bops away to music. Like it's even even things like I've taken her to Elvis concerts and country music concerts, she sings every single word. I didn't even know that she knew that. But it's amazing how art and um and music have that that incredible place in some part of that that confused little brain. So um she was very close to Nan when she was alive, um, and she certainly went up when Nana had uh Nana had Alzheimer's and uh Pa had dementia, so we've got lots of it in the family history. Um so I I think yeah, mum was very integral, as were her sisters, um, to to caring for Nana, and I think that's what's been instilled in all of us is that you look after that older generation. But yeah, she's there's no way that mum would remember that. But having said that, I'm a grandmother. I was just about to say, what are your relationships like your love of the colour? How many got one? Just one. We're desperate for more, but both boys just uh back dating and the dating scene, which is always a bit perilous. But um, yeah, like to be honest, that's been the the the gift of our life because um Todd and I we couldn't have any more children. We did IVF for a number of years, and uh eventually reached the point where we were like, How lucky are we? We've got these two gorgeous boys for my first marriage. They think of Todd as as this incredibly important person in their life. Um, you know, we have a a great relationship with them as young adults, and now we've got little Jax here who's eight, and everything that they say, every cliche they say is true. Like, I know my husband loves me to death, but there are things he'd do for Jax that he wouldn't do for me. Like I I look at him and I just think, God, he's just it's amazing the capacity for love. And it's a different love because you've got time.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

It's quite amazing because you know, for a man to come to the table and feed another man's child that doesn't come from him. That speaks a lot about him in the husband, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 18:44

You know, he I I say it to everyone, he is the most extraordinary human being. He had a pretty tough upbringing, he wasn't really around a lot of kids, and you know, they've I think the first like it took me a long time to convince Todd to see me when we were dating. Like I threw a dinner party every night for six months, every Friday night, sorry, for six months, um, just hoping that he would notice me. And Todd just being such a hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

You're telling him you were Ingrid from Sweden.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

I think I may have kept that one a secret for good reason.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

But yeah, like he um when we finally we had a very long story where we finally got together and it was quite beautiful. But in the end, when we did get together, um not long afterwards I was I was uh overseas for the Salt Lake Olympics. Uh and you know, when I was our family c can't keep a secret, they tell everyone everything. It's like there's a network that goes around everything. It's actually gorgeous, but but you learn early on not to get precious about things. Um and they can't keep a secret. And yet when I was away at Salt Lake, I was away for four weeks. Uh, and until I came back, it was the first time that mum told me that Todd had turned up every single day and he'd just kicked a footy or he'd watched TV or he'd done homework with the boys, and no one had told me. And so when I got back, I was like, Mum, this is amazing. And she's like, He is he's amazing, Joe. He's a keeper. And I'm like, What you know, I said, Todd, why did you do that? And he said, Oh, it was really important for the boys to know that that I'm there for them as well, it's not just about their mum. Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

He probably had to find his own space within it too, and find his like, who am I in this and where am I in this?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Do you know what he had to do? He had to, he's he's like, he is one of the most patient human beings. He had to retrain me because I had been a single mother for so long. I'd done absolutely everything. And you know, I was working full-time, and and so my life was pretty much like that the whole way along. It's totally organized, everything's compartmentalized. And so sometimes I would just go back into that mode, and and Todd would just sit back and he'd smile, he'd be like, Oh, that's interesting. That that that could be one way that we could approach that control fruit. Or there could be another one where you might consider another person who's in the picture. And I and I'd have to stop and go, Oh god, you're right. I'm so sorry to do that.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

You know, the hairs in my arms are standing on now because this is a direct message to me.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Like But it but it says something about that person who lets you do all that, but then just goes, Okay, but there might there might be another way where we could maybe both be considered in this scenario. So it it took a while, and you know, there was a period where you know the boys, the boys wanted to let him know how important he was. And and uh and I you know they'd say these incredibly moving things to him, and I'd be like, Oh my god, has he is is he deaf? Can could he not hear this? And then in the afternoon I'd pick up the boys, I'd be like, Oh, what you said this morning was so good. And you know, when you hopped out, Todd said to me, How amazing and they'd be like, No, he didn't, Mum. We didn't say it. He's not like you, he doesn't need to talk, you know, to the end of the year. We said it so Todd could hear us today, and he knows. And and he's the same with them. So they've got this extraordinary, you know. I remember him saying, I will be the person who's there for you, I'll be the person who turns up for you, I'll be the consistency in your life. I'll sometimes be tough on you, but you will never not know me to be there. And I'm not trying to replace anything. Anyone, but I am going to be the person that you'll turn to when you need to. And that has proven time and time again.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

In the same way that nano was there every time you got sick. Yeah. Do you make lemon sponge cake for your grandchild?

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Uh sometimes he joy he kills me. This kid at the moment reminds me of my brother. My kids ate everything. And I used to make them go to restaurants and try th. Jax is like, he's living on white starch at the moment. He's getting better. He's trying a lot more food now. Like we had this challenge that, you know, each time he's gonna try something new. Yeah, he's gonna try something too. So he's just sometimes he tries it in record speed, it touches his lips and he's like, nope, don't like it. And but he's definitely expanding his repertoire. But but I I can't wait till he gets more adventurous with food. And I've just I know for my brother, I swear to God, my brother lived on bread, pasta, and nothing else till he was, I swear to god, a teenager. So I know the time will come where he'll eat everything, but it's not there yet.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Um let's um just let me just start that again one second. Um you speaking of illnesses, you live with a chronic disease, don't you? Tell us about this disease.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

So when I was swimming, um I had had this extraordinary, um, very fast trajectory in swimming, and my life just changed overnight. And you know, I was in the I say the i the era of swimming, which wasn't its best era, it wasn't its finest era, it was at the end of you know, the if you would describe the old era of swimming where things were very set in their ways and it was everything was done one way, and I was a sprinter, I did as much training as the marathon swimmers did. Um, and very old school coaches, and these I I was very blessed with my personal coach, but I would be away on trips with other coaches and just thinking, these these people are insane. Yeah, like it was quite a brutal time, and it was a time when Australian swimming had a bit of a um chip on its shoulder that we had to be overseas constantly. But it I it was gradual in those probably we had a couple of changes of head coaches that were really significant after being in there for a long time, and a couple of really old school coaches who'd been there uh at the top of their game for a long time kind of either faded out because they either passed away or they retired. And I think that's when the sports science came into it a lot more, um, people's attitudes changed a lot more, the public's expectation about what would be acceptable and not acceptable definitely uh came to the fore. And so it was all through that. So um, and certainly the Sydney Olympics, I think that's where everyone realised we had this elite swimming legacy. You know, we are the bomb. Um, and and so that changed quite dramatically. But in my era, um, we were overseas the whole time. So, you know, I look at my education, I only had a couple of months of secondary education in total. Uh, you were never doing any you know schooling while you were away. Like it's just something that that kind of went by the wayside. Uh, but I had many, well, when I say many, I've talked about four or four years of just this insane going from you know, three sessions a week to, you know, six to ten sessions a week, six to ten hours a day, um, constant traveling, and my system just shut down. So after the World Champs, I got a silver medal at the World Champs in '91 and actually took a break. And it was on that break that that my internal system just started to shut down, not not didn't didn't get better with more rest, it got worse. Uh, and so it started a a long, a long journey to find out what was wrong with my system, what was wrong with me, why I was so fatigued. Um, I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome back then, which was pretty much like being a prior because no one knew really what it was, or there's a lot of disbelief around it, a lot of conjecture around it. Um, and it started a different kind of uh thing. I say to people, almost the hours that you used to put into training, you put into trying every treatment and you'd go two steps forward and one step back. Um and part of that was a a massive diet change. So for two and a half years I was on a wheat-free, yeast-free, egg, free, corn-free, malt-free, sugar-free, beef, free, dairy-free, herb-free, spice-free, caffeine-free diet. And even then. So how did you live? Well, actually, you'd be amazed what you can still have. But even then you had to be careful about how many like if food was too acidic, what could you put the food with? And so you just learnt what you could cook with. And I since then over the years, my husband has actually had a couple of health challenges where we've had to change his diet quite dramatically. And I find that so easy.

SPEAKER_05 26:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

It doesn't like I because of what I went through. But I went through it at 17. So it was a really it was quite a challenging time in the sense that one at 17, like I was I was earning really good money. Um, I was one, you know, one of the few swimmers that was earning back then. I I think at that age you feel pretty much bulletproof. Um, I'd had this extraordinary life, had a profile starting, and then I lost everything. And as soon as there wasn't a quick fix, I I lost all my sponsors within a couple of months. Um, I didn't have an answer to Australian swimming when I was going to get back. Uh so my my whole life changed significantly.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

People would fall people would fall over. I mean, let's look at you spoken about two experiences, you know, this experience of you know, f falling it being ill and then being axed, you know, at that from that. So but what as a result of that look at where you are now.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Yeah, I think there's I mean, there's a lot to be said about resilience. We know that.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

What about intervention? Do you think there was a bit of divine intervention in the UK?

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Oh look, I I definitely I don't know if it's divine invention intervention, but I definitely feel like it's the period I'm still most grateful for in my life because I I also learned a lot about human nature, and I think that that's actually held me in great stead for everything that I've gone on to do um in my life, both in the way that I try to contribute to my working life and my peers and and making sure it's a great environment, but also all the work that I do away from it. I I learnt I learnt that people as a whole, if they don't n if they don't know what to say, they'll often say nothing rather than just asking the obvious because they don't they're so afraid to say the wrong thing. So they don't actually know what's wrong with the person and they don't know if there's going to be a quick fix. They just choose to avoid it or stay away from you, which is exactly the opposite of what you need in those moments. You you need people to ask you and to talk to you and to keep something normal. But then I look at the work that I've done uh with the Paralympics over the years, and every Paralympian will tell you that if they have any kind of disability or any kind of you know physical ailment, that people just look at them differently. Yeah, they'll treat them differently uh without even bothering to find out if that person is completely able to have a conversation with them. So it's it was actually like there was a lot through that that I reflect on that I'm grateful for because I definitely learnt more about myself because you you I had a lot of time with myself. So you had to learn to like yourself and you had to learn to be very comfortable um in your own skin. And and that's with some days feeling like you're progressing and other days feeling like you're failing and not being afraid to fail. It's amazing how centering that can be and how your sense of self-worth and the core and the things that are important to you get shaped um through periods like that.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

There's a bigness and a generosity in this, isn't there? It's big scale.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

It's a it's yeah, I think you I think he it it it it it bodes well over time for you because as I say, like I I still think about that period so often in my life, even though it feels like it's a long way away. I I don't think really there's probably a week in my life where I don't think about a learning from that period or or the ability to um reflect and assess yourself. Do you go back and use it as a reference point? I got to do that, but the next bit. Not even a reference point. It's more like do you remember what that was like and how how that might that be able to be used by you when you're approaching someone else or thinking about somebody else, or being more generous to someone or more kind to someone. Like you remember what it's like when you didn't have that. So you you try to use it as a I guess like a guiding principle of what how you approach everything that you do going forward.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Which leads us straight into your second food memory. Cooking for m the masses.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

My favorite thing in the world. Why? Uh so yeah, I think one, because it was what my parents did growing up, like it's all we were ever exposed to. Um we had quite an unusual upbringing in the sense that uh like our family was I don't know, it was the base for a lot of people. It was where our friends, when they were struggling, would come and stay. It's where when the local sports club couldn't find somebody to billet people, they would turn to mum and dad knowing they'd always say that.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Am I sure when we're age? No, no, I love because we used to billet a lot. And I used to get billeted and things like that for it's, you know, again, swimming, athletics, or musicals. We'd get billeted or run around the countryside. So what is billeting?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

So back then it would be a a way for I guess all those little tiny clubs who are usually amateur clubs, um, anyone who's traveling, anyone who's in a different state, what they would do is they'd contact everyone and be like, hey, who's got room to basically look after these people while they're here for this duration? And it used to happen all the time. It'd be netball, it'd be swimming, it'd be football for my brother, it would be, you know, the local scouts and brownies, it would be like community-based things. Um and they would, if they needed somebody to be looked after, that's what you do. But yeah, I can remember being away for you know, all Australian schools things and being billeted out in Darwin and having great family.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

It's a bit like a a bit airbig and be, but not, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 31:27

But more personal because you're actually becoming part of those families.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

And we were young. Like I I remember the first time I was I must have been 12. No, I was 10. I was in year four the first time I was billeted with three other people. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is young. I sometimes I think our parents were actually a lot more relaxed back then when you think about in your terms of your own kids and those moments where you think, I when I was travelling overseas and I looked at the ages my boys were, I would never have had that I don't know that will to just go, go for it, knock yourself out. Because I th I've I don't know, I think my parents were amazing that they let you do it. But some of the billets we had were random. Saver, like we we had we had the Alaskan swim team, which I didn't even know there was an Alaskan swim team. They came and stayed with us for a while. We had like six members of a junior um English football touring team came and stayed with us for a while. My dad picked up a hitchhiker in far north Queensland. He lived with us for four years, Bill Gunning from Seattle. My sister still goes over and sees his family. Um, just random, just always had people. So years later, when my parents actually divorced, the four of us feel like we spent more time consoling our friends who couldn't quite believe that their marriage had broken down. Because that was there was always food. There was always food en masse. You know, they cooked for the masses. And you know, I loved, I loved cooking even back then. So you you would work out how to expand food, how to add, you know, breads and grains and pastas and you know, rice and things so you can make easy meals feel like they could feed a lot more. So now, um, when mum, when she after the divorce and eventually she moved into an apartment, she ended up getting all the furniture cut down to size because she still wanted to be the heart of a home, and she moved to Manley and then decided that she loved Manly so much she was never going to cook again. So she handed the baton over to me and she's like, I've done my time, now it's up to you. So we have loads of food intolerances in our family. So like we literally have everything from celiacs to um uh sugar-free, vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, and just absolute carnivals. And so when I'm making uh cooking for say 34 on Christmas Day, I'm making a range of different dishes. And what I try to do is make it so that everything is is gluten-free, but people who you know might have an aversion to the thought of that don't even realise. They just love how it tastes, and then I have it so you can always add on the extra bits that you want, the dairy and the meats and all the rest. And it's amazing how if you put a bit of planning into it, how easy it is to be able to feed all those people.

SPEAKER_02 33:57

When does the planning start, the processing and the thinking?

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Well, if you're talking about the table decorations, that's different to the food. That comes first. Table decorations happen in the Christmas sales the year before. Um and I go all out with things like that.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

So you're very resourceful. You're really taking you're not missing an opportunity, you're not missing a beat.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

It's everything I've learned from Better Homes and Gardens. I'm not joking. Like, I I say to people, like, literally, the people who work on the TV. You start learning. I used to.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

You never stop learning. Never stop learning with anything. I mean, my husband, when I was doing the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, I was down in Melbourne for six months. My husband actually built me this hobby hut. And I was like, oh my god, how awesome is that? Didn't realise it was because he actually just wanted me to get all my stuff out of all of his sheds. But he actually, he's like, literally, you are the woman of a thousand different hobbies. Like you've got a miss, because we everything in our farm we call um Huggins after my husband Todd. So it's Huggins Hill, it's Huggins Um Hotel, Huggins Motel, it's uh Todd Labour Arena, it's called. And now it's Mrs. Huggins Hobby Hut. And it's where I put everything that I've learnt, LaShaw, that I take up. So beekeeping and veggie growing and whittling and knitting and crochets. Do you fit it all in? I I'm very hyperactive as you may have done. Very hyperactive.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Um, I think like a lot of people in television probably undiagnosed ADHD.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Uh and uh and I I am I find time, I find time to do it. So back to the Christmas, so back to the Christmas sales, the table. Okay, so table comes in with a theme. So it used to be all my nieces and nephews would pick the colour scheme, and then we would I'd make up like a whole lot of craft projects that they could do. They're now, they just want to come and have a great time. They're past that stage. So each year I do a big reveal of the table, and and we go all out, and I absolutely love it. And the menu, I reckon I started about three months before. I I I love going through cookbooks, and I have hundreds and hundreds of questions. Where'd you go to? To be honest, Karen Martinez. Oh, it's I love Karen's cookie.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

No, she's my second. We'll talk more about her in a minute. She's my we've had her on the show. She's my second favourite guest. I won't tell you who is my first, but she is my second favourite guest. And Karen and I, you know how she loves a good drink. She can drink you under the table. Yeah. We made a pact that we would interview Stanley Tucci together. And I hope she remembers because I'm holding her to it. Oh, she will. And I'm threading it too. So Karen Martini is your go-to.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

She's my go-to that I go to most often. Um, and and because you can scale her stuff up from small numbers to mass numbers. Apart from the fact I just, like you, I adore Karen. I adore her her generosity spirit.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

I think my Maybe talk about her now because we're in Karen.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

I love her. What is it? What is it that we it just you can't put words on it? Yeah, but it's you know what? It's it's Karen who liked, first of all, the things that she did in the industry. She was so far ahead of her time. And she was like the first female in what was a really male-dominated industry that that pathed this pathway. And you see photos of her when she was at um uh Bondi, and she's like 18. Oh, she's a tiny little thing. And but uh but my favourite memories of Karen, every time we we did lots of road trips together and lots of trips around the world, and and literally you'd just be driving somewhere and she just screams, Stop! And you just like slam on the brakes thinking that you must be about to hit something. And it would be some random food that she's seen on the side of the road, and she wants to go and collect it and pick it. And so she's forever just looking at things, or you go out to do a story that we have to do, but she spots a I don't know, um uh a tree, some random tree that she's got something on that she she wants to grab and it's full of figs, and next second she's peeling figs and she changes the recipe on the go. She loves food so much that we can just lose ourselves for hours. You know, generally it's over a nice meal and and with a glass of wine these days. But but I love hearing her talk about food, I love hearing her talk about family. Um, I love the stories of my mum. Her mum is hilarious, uh, who, you know, during COVID went and locked herself up the front of a police station and then she needed to go to the toilet, she politely asked them to unlock her and she'd go and use the toilet, come back out. Like she just people have this perception of her, but the fact is she's just good stick and she's just she's so herself and so full of life and so generous to her friends. I love her. Like if you ever got yourself in trouble, I'd want Karen Martinez. She'd just be there with the body bag and the shovels. She she she would have you back. And and that's what I think that's what I think you you feel like when you're lucky enough to be in her orbit. You just she's very loyal and she's very kind and you know, definitely her her love language is food. But it she never gets sick of showing how much the joy she gets out of it. I think there's something really there's something lovely about it.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

But you're even lucky to have her on your Christmas table.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

So there's she I often say that to her, I'll tag whoever's recipes if I can, um, of where I get them from. But she's she's definitely the most consistent and most frequent. So what did Christmas, what did Christmas and Mass look like last year? Uh it was pretty incredible. I we had we uh the theme the last two years because uh funny enough, Mum doesn't have any sort of short-term memory, but she remembered Christmas the year before. Uh and the year before I had done um uh what what got what I was gonna say? Fran not frangia panties, what were they? Franja panties, no, no, no, I've got a total mind blank. No, it's look talking about the colours. Hydrangeas. Sorry, I had done hydrangeas, so we had done a blue theme for my mum. And we had hydrangeas all the way down the middle and these beautiful mirrored vases, and we had blue balloons uh all up the top and blue lights. So mum, for some reason, it went into a very rare part of the brain these days. She remembered the blue, the lights everywhere, and th there was yummy food, and people were happy. So as soon as we realised she remembered Christmas, I said to the guys, Oh my gosh, we need to do something again this year because Todd and I are building and moving to the hunter. So we we were thinking that maybe this would be the year that we'd have one off just to try and keep up with everything that's happening in our personal life. Um, anyhow, after that we've said no. So we had a hot pink, feathered table theme. It sounds bizarre, but it was absolutely epic with beautiful white and pink flowers down the middle, um, pink lights all above it, which mum just loved. She just sat there looking at the lights all night. And then 24 courses.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

So it was it was big. So, okay, so dessert, there's no gluten in these menus. So what does dessert look like?

SPEAKER_00 40:24

I had three desserts this year, and do you think I can remember any of them off the top here?

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Well, I think once you've done I think once you've done them, I'm getting the feeling that once everything's done, you're probably thinking, okay, what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Oh, I just control alt-delete.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

But also I have to because I've got to then keep whatever's the next thing that's coming up or the next.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

What to buy for the next year's table.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

You know what? It's also it's like when you finish an Olympics. I'll go into an Olympics or a Com Games or anything, and I know every athlete's bios, whether it's 482 on the team or 330, you know, every uh every bio within an inch of your life. And during the course where you are just totally absorbed in what you're doing, you know, every detail, every metal tally, every every bit of information you can possibly need to pull up. The day after the games, if I'm hosting a function with somebody three weeks later, I've got to look up that bio again because it's like literally I've gone, okay, done with that. Need to think about next week's work. Because you'll usually when you finish something with that, you have a massive catch-up for the time that you've taken off to do that, to be allowed to do that. So I just have this ability just to go, right, wipe that, start again.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

So once mum, let's go back to mum saying, you know what, I'm not doing the cooking anymore, and the baton was passed on to you, that's kind of a very sports reference, isn't it? For you, it's very here it's like a it's here it is. Um but it's but not it's not only passing on the baton and it's act it's actually maintaining the tradition.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yeah, it is, yep. And it's so important. Like I think I hear my nieces and nephews talk about the importance of it's the role it's played in their life. Um, and they just wouldn't have had that. I think we had one year when we went over to New York and we were away for a Christmas, and literally everyone just begged us when we came back, they're like, please never ever go away for a Christmas again. It just didn't feel like that. And I was like, Well, you guys could get together, and they're like, Yeah, we could, but we don't have that. We don't have the spectacle that you guys put on. And I know I'm lucky because Todd lets me and I spend a fortune on it, and he lets me just do whatever I need to do because he knows I I get so much out of that time of year. It is that thing of connection, it's getting people together, it's talking, it's seeing your family all giggling and laughing and outrageous moments because now it's now we're the quiet ones. It's like that next gen they are so wild, all our kids. And we just sit back and laugh at them all night, and you end up, you know, singing and dancing till the early hours of the morning. I feel sorry for our neighbours.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

And this is all stuff that you learnt from your parents, having all those people over. What do you think it's gonna look like when you and Todd stop doing it?

SPEAKER_00 42:46

I don't think we'll ever stop doing it. It might might change a little bit because I'm sure there's not gonna be everyone who wants to travel up, you know, two hours up the highway to come and visit us. Um but that as I said to them the other day, that because we were just talking about this, I said, well, maybe it'll be that you all get to do Christmases with your other sides of your family on Christmas Day and we do Boxing Day. We just make our own day. Like we'll just make a different tradition. I think that Todd would probably be quietly going to the moon to be honest. He loves it and he's Mr. Entertainment, and he he absolutely has a bore, but it's a it is a lot of work and it's a lot of planning. And I I have like I start off with about 50 lists and then even on the last day, you're still madly scrambling and doing things to get it all done. So it's not the most relaxing time, but I actually love it. I I get from that. I know. I I've always loved I actually even love cleaning up. I love I love seeing people that you love happy. Yeah. And just walking around and catching snippets of conversations.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

Is that how you are with TV?

SPEAKER_00 43:38

Yeah, I think so. I think exactly the same.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Yeah. I I like seeing I like seeing people happy and fulfilled, and you know, I know that that plays a really special role in their lives, like it does in ours, but I get as much satisfaction out of it as they do.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

It's so I'm just thinking because in the very the beginning of the interview, I said that you know, you can host a nation, you can, you know, feed, you know, m mass. But you make it feel so personal. And that's what you do on the screen. What is it when you're looking down the barrel of the camera? What are you thinking? Who are you talking to?

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Uh one of my mentors, Andy Kayway, said talk to one person because you you might be talking to a room full of people, but there's also going to be someone sitting in their room and they might actually be quite lonely, and the television is their connection. So this think you're telling that person, and and they're just like the person that you most want to share that little bit of information. But I think it's a really lovely way to think because there are lots of people who will sit there and TV is their connection to the world. Because I I do think as as a whole, we've lost a lot of that sense of community that we grew up with when you used to billet and do all that sort of thing. So I do think television does play a really important role in those moments. And I don't ever think about the people who are watching as such because it becomes such an intimate relationship you have with your camera crew and you know, the the people that you work with so closely that it just doesn't even you always say to somebody who's sitting there for the first time, you say, So that camera over there, that's just the the third person in this conversation. And just think of it like that. And then you won't be overawed by the thought that there's a camera and who might be watching this. To be honest, I think I think it's what you learn really, really early on is you have a very short window to get that person to trust you.

SPEAKER_05 45:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

And I I think through everything I've done in sport, and certainly everything with better homes, it's not just me, it's it's the experience they have with your entire organization and crew. Because everyone plays a role in that, right? So my my thing is to let somebody know straight away I'm never gonna try and make them look silly. I I I don't want them to look silly. I don't want them to feel uncomfortable. I want them to to forget that there's a camera rolling and that they're just having a good old guest pad with someone who's really happy to be there and wants to be in their company. It's the same as when we're away on a better home shoot. The makeup artist plays a role, the soundie plays a role, the cameram plays a role because that's what everyone talks to me about is that the sense of engagement from the very first call that was made from our office, the very first person who spoke to them, who reassured them. You know, like I know when I started out in my career that, you know, it's been told to me my by my bosses at that time that they actually would put me into situations to to try and trip me up or to try and make me look silly. Did you know they were doing that? You had a sense of it, but you definitely, as a 19-year-old, you know, just turned 19, you're not really gonna go and beat a drum about that. But a hundred percent, like I I can remember when I was doing Bathurst, they'd send me up to the top of the mountain, which is a very special place um in any circumstances, in a ball gown to do a piece to camera.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

And yeah, you think about the situations are we thinking chauvinism here? Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

But then I had a great I had a great moment, um, which I talk about as one of the most significant moments of the power of a conversation. And it was one of my original bosses. So when I was the first female solo host of Olympics coverage in 2002 in this country, which I've gone on to do at like seven of my nine Olympics, one of my original bosses called me up and said, mate, come down and have a drink. And I knew exactly who it was. And I got down, he said, mate, post-9-11, you didn't even ask who I was. You didn't know it could have been a random stranger. I said, No, no, I knew I knew exactly who it was. Because like you've literally been burnt into my brain as this voice that I can actually connect to some of the greatest moments of my career and some of the worst moments of my career. But I knew exactly who it was. And I said, anyhow, it's lovely to see you. And he said, I'm here to apologize. I said, What for? He said, But I'm here to apologize. He said, because we used to literally look at each other in the truck and we thought it was hilariously funny, and we'd be like, Let's put Jo on this, let's see what she does with this, let's throw her into this situation. And he said, somehow you always manage to pick yourself off, you'd laugh at yourself, you'd make the guests laugh, you just plow on. And he goes, and I'm here to say congratulations. Here you are solo hosting in Olympic games. You know who I'm thinking about now? Bridget Jones. Uh-huh. Really?

SPEAKER_01 48:01

I love that. Probably wearing the same underpants.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

But he said, he said, um, he said, I've just been sacked. And he goes, and that's how this industry worked, Joe. It it's how it works. And I'd like to.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

So what were you thinking? I quite like.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

No, in my head, I was like, we always knew it happened, but you could never say that. Um, but I thought it there was no need for him to have that conversation with me. But it but I always used it as an example of the power of the gift of a conversation. Just by him saying that, it it allowed me to validate all those things that I had felt as a young woman starting out in the industry. Would I change it? Probably not. I say to people, I learnt through public humiliation, which is actually not a bad way to learn, would be a bad way with social media. We didn't have social media back then. Yeah. Right. So you're actually we're allowed to make mistakes. I mean, you still got hammered for making those mistakes. But I I don't know anyone who doesn't make mistakes, right? So I learned more through every mistake I've ever made in my life than anyone learns through the easy times.

SPEAKER_02 48:56

What are you like with the young people that are coming through now?

SPEAKER_00 48:59

Help them. I mentor so many. Because I, one, I think there's enough work for everyone. And I'm not one of these people who subscribes to I have to have all the work and there's not room. But also, like, because I learnt through public humiliation, you know, I'd go to my I'd go into my boss's offices so frustrated because I had enough of an ego from swimming to know I wanted to do things well. And here I was just making mistake after mistake after mistake. Now I came from a sport where you had a coach whose job was to walk up and down a pool and tell you what you were doing well, what you weren't doing well, leave the bad stuff behind and go forward with the good stuff and find a way to improve. So I was like, why can't you do that with television? And I still watch them let people go on air. And everyone has idiosyncrasies and everyone has things that they might not be aware they do when they get uncomfortable or nervous or unsure. Uh, they might get stuck on a word. And you know, you can just have a quick word with someone and say, look, when you're hosting for the first time, you might want to say everything's incredible, and you might want to keep saying how incredible it is. The fifth time you've said that, there's a whole tribe on Twitter or X who are now paining you for it, right? Yeah. So just write out a list of 30 superlatives that say the same thing. And even if it has to be this obvious for you, every time you say it in a sentence, mark it off. Look at the next word, change the word the next time around. Like simple little tricks that you can do to get people to not get caught in a trap. Happy to share that info, happy to share all of my research, any of the gigs that I work on, because I want our coverage to be good. Right? So you I think I think I've been around people who are good enough to do that for me, and it's something I actively try to do, and and I I never turn back anyone that that asks for help.

SPEAKER_02 50:40

So let's talk about your third food memory as something that's very big in your life, and we've touched on several times. I tried to save it to the end, but you can't not you can't not talk about Griggsy and not talk about better homes and gardens.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

Yeah. Look, it's it's a gift of a show, and it's the food experiences like I I I was trying to think about them when I was asked to come on it, and and I I didn't just have three memories, I had a million memories. It's like, you know, the first time that you walk around with Troy Rhodes Brown and then go to Muse and taste his amazing dedicatational thing, or Dan Hunter at Bray, or you know, Ali Wolf Tasker at the Lake House. You mean all these people that you actually work out are icons within their own industry, or Josh Nyland, or you know, and they spend time with you and they show you and they share their passion. And next second, I I don't think by the time I've shot something and three weeks later it's on air, I've probably cooked it three times at home. You know, like you just pick their brains, you you you ask a million questions, there's no such thing as a silly question.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

They're so keen to see. They're really but they're giving to you.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

They're not But they're giving because they love they love food and they love And they love you. That means they're really annoying, actually. No, they they love that you're so excited and so passionate. And then, you know, like like every aspect, like I grow 85% of my veggies. I I have been Do you buy anything from a supermarket? I do because you can't, you can't. I mean, I can I now pickle and preserve and dehydrate and uh freeze so much. Um, but there's also there's just times where you you you just have to top up depending on what your numbers are, or there's times where you have to give a lot of produce away that you just can't possibly find room to keep anymore. But I've learned all of that. You know, I went, I I I pitched a story in WA to go and work with a lady called Amy Sloan, who is the most extraordinary pickler and preserver you've ever met in this country. Um, you know, I I basically pitch all the stories for things that I love about that my veggies are grown in these amazing wicking beds that I first discovered when we were doing Australia's most um you know eco-friendly uh development that was down near um Phillip Island. You know, so you you just you learn, that was called the Cape. You learn and you see and you're exposed to amazing things, amazing architecture, all the latest technology you can do. You might go to the Lost Trades Fair, hence I took up Whitling after that. I mean, you you just get exposed to so much and you get exposed to people who are so willing to share.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

Do you find that these obscure stories that really shouldn't be obscure find their way to you?

SPEAKER_00 53:11

Oh, I think most of them. And then I've got this awesome researcher, Heidi Arens, who just she knows what I'm like, and and often, you know, they'll just send me a message in the office, they're like, your day is about to be made, and then they'll come through with the you know little suggestions here and there, or I'll go to them with things. And like that's one thing where social media is great, because things pop up all the time with things you're passionate about. So, you know, in a couple of weeks' time, I'll I'll I'll be in Queensland, but I'll also be doing about three stories that we've wanted to do for ages that we've just been waiting until we can group them together. Because these days, TV budgets you've got to make each trip worthwhile. You can't don't have the luxury of just travelling up and back in a day. You've got to pull things together. But they're all things that I've seen on social media, or I'm trying to get across the line with things that are people that have then introduced me to other people or talked about someone else.

SPEAKER_02 53:56

And what's that wonderful story about dumplings during COVID and and and and the the show?

SPEAKER_00 54:02

Uh so there's an amazing dumpling place. It's I think it's called 91999, which is the the wedding date of this extraordinary um Japanese woman who came out to Australia. And it's Ralston's like, you know, Central West. This woman makes the most unbelievable dumplings. And people travel, it's now part of the food trail of the Central West. People travel for like up to six hours just to go and taste a dumpling. So I got to cook dumplings with her. I love dumplings. I I eat my body weight in dumplings regularly. And like during that the lockdown for the Olympics and the Paralympics, I was there a long time before and a long time after, because between New South Wales and Victoria, we were in and out of lockdown. I ate dumplings every single meal.

SPEAKER_05 54:40

Literally.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

That was all I ate. Um, so I make lots of dumplings, and that was that, you know, that was just a dream day for me to be able to go to this restaurant, learn her techniques, learn the proper way to make, you know, dumplings, to make your own dumpling wrappers. And again, it's just stuff that you do, you experience, you learn, it becomes part of what you're what I guess your your knowledge bank. And yeah, that that's the same for the the veggies, the bees. My husband and I have done an artificial insemination course for our cattle. We've done a basic butchery course.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

Do you have to put your bottom your hand up the all the way? Like like with a glove, right?

SPEAKER_00 55:15

Yes, definitely with a glove.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Definitely recommend it with a glove and a whole little lube.

SPEAKER_00 55:20

But like we do that.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

The first time you did it, tell it. Just walk us through the first time you did it.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

To be honest, I I found no, I found the course. I loved it.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

Uh Were you laughing the f like the first time you put the glove on?

SPEAKER_00 55:30

Oh no, because you have to do a lot of you have to do a lot of prank first and then you go out and you start to draw it. Look, we went away. No, no, you you we actually actually that's true. They actually did they pulled out some old inserts uh of of live cows to show you what you were looking for, to show you um what you're going to be diving down to actually lift up, to be able to get it to a certain angle. Alright, but I made that was one of the ones I made my husband come along for, and he kicked and screamed the whole way. And then he got there and he had the best time, and he was like the greatest student they've ever had, so he totally showed up, my best mate Gail and I. Um but it's great because we can increase our gene pool of our cows. We did a butchery course because one day we would like to be able to butcher our own bees, and I want to have meat chickens as well as egg-laying chickens, and so you don't get queamish about that sort of stuff when you're um when you're on a farm. And you know, uh the bees came because of the veggie patch. So I started my veggie patch. You want to bring Barthy into it? She came over, she's like, I love those beds. I'm like, why don't we order more for you too? So then we both got our beds ready, we both started our mad wicking bed growing vegetable phase. Then one day I rang her and said, I booked you into a um into a beekeeping course. And she's like, What?

SPEAKER_02 56:40

She's got the whole setup there.

SPEAKER_00 56:42

We have we have an amazing setup, both of us. But I I made her come down the freeway for I think and she pretty much rang me, and she was a bit hungover, and she rang me and used me the whole way down the freeway. And I said, just get here and I'll have hot coffee for you. And and I promise you, you're gonna love me for this. And so we sat in this beekeeping course, and we we just took copious amount of notes and we just looked at each other all day. We were so excited. And they got to the end of the Saturday and they said, Okay, we'll see you back here next week. And Barthy and I were like, What do you mean a week? Well, why can't we come back tomorrow? Tomorrow. But then the guy started laughing, he's like, Well, the course is clearly two Saturdays. And we just it's just opened up this great part of our lives. Like one, I mean, we I did it for us to be able to pollinate our gardens um more effectively, and then you fall in love with beekeeping. And I mean, I'm laughing. I've got like all these bee stings on my chest um from the other day. I got smashed by them, but you know, it is it is such a great part of your life, and it makes you look differently at the world. You look at trees and that are in flower and every single season, and you're forever pulling over and taking pictures of things to go to a uh a plant store and ask them about those and and learn more, and you've got a million books. So it's just another it just opens your eyes up to nature and it's a really good thing.

SPEAKER_02 57:52

Now Barthy Chris Barth, we've had on the show, and we've had a lot of fun with her, and I encourage every she's mad, and I encourage everyone to go back and revisit the episode that we filmed on her farm. But that is a very strong bond between you both, isn't it? And it's sort of it's not just in media, it's on your farms as well.

SPEAKER_00 58:08

And you're moving to the hunter, which Well she actually they Jimmy and Barthy, we've had our place for 19 years. Jimmy and Barthy came to our house every weekend for six months. Right.

SPEAKER_01 58:17

And we said, We love you.

SPEAKER_00 58:20

Maybe we should look for somewhere for So now one of my longest-serving cameramen from Better Homes and Gardens and his wife have moved as well up there. So they they breed golden retrievers and labs. And then we're building our dream home finally after you know 19 years, and um we had an old beautiful house on it, and so we had three friends who needed a home, and we said we're gonna cut this house up into sections. Whoever can find a house removal is first gets a house for free. So now another couple are moving up. So we keep joking that we're just creating our cult of like-minded people that are. What is it? What is it that is bringing you all together? I think um we've all had really hectic lives, and I think um there is something about when you're surrounded by green. I mean, we we know this, you know, it makes you mentally healthier, it makes you slow down. Uh everything you're going back to is is about nature and for nature. You lead a much simpler life. We're still able to commute. You're close enough that you can um commute, but but you actually, I don't know, you you get so much joy out of the really simple things and the the really basic things. And the world can actually seem like a pretty crazy place at the moment. Um anyone who comes up there they're surrounded by beautiful nature, the the the you know, bird songs, we're both mad twitches, um, you're growing your own veggies, you're eating seasonally and healthily because of it. Uh you if you you you know if you want wine, you've got the amazing vineyards only half an hour away. You just have a great quality of life. And I think um I think that's what's drawn us there and certainly kept us all there.

SPEAKER_02 59:52

So do you think you know the journeys that Better Homes has taken you on has really wanted you to create your own better home and garden?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:00

I think I've always wanted that. Right. Um and I'm very lucky that I married a man who who also had that dream, which is really fortunate because it could be could, you know, I think for some people that that's hard when one person has that dream and the other doesn't. But ironically, in this home um that we've designed with Brad Schwartz, who's normally known for tiny little homes, and so we just said to him, What would you do if you had space? It's a courtyard home, so we actually have a garden inside our home. And our um our bedroom is going to look over towards my veggie garden, which is the place that brings me the most joy in the world, and that I can lose myself in for hours. So we are literally living that idea and that dream. It really is.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

So, I mean, you don't really need land to have a vegetable garden. We just have to look at Indira and I do. Yeah. Who grows it all on her balcony and it's kind of and she feeds people from it as well. What would you recommend for so from everything that you've discovered on the show that you've learned on the show that you've showcased on Better Homes, what is something that you from that experience as host, and it doesn't look like it's gonna stop your hosting very soon, does it? I think still a reason.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:10

But what is something from that experience that you want to share with the world? Well, I would say just try. Everyone's everyone's afraid of of failing. One of the great things about um say say if it's cooking or say if it's you know in a garden or if it's taking up any random little thing, it's okay to make a mistake. There's plenty of information out there, and there's plenty of people who are willing to help you get better. No one's judging you. The only person who's generally judging you in life is yourself, right? So you've got to get rid of this hang-up of being afraid to fail. There's there's nothing wrong with failing.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:41

Now you're very active in the social causes space. Yep. One cause in particular, the Humpty Dumpty Foundation, you've taken over the as patron from Ray Martin, and you've spent a lot of time in there. But the one I'd like to focus on is Beyond Blue.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:55

Tell me about your experience with Beyond Blue.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

So I am about to finish up in September of this year, and um after 12 years, so I'm currently the longest-serving director on the board of Beyond Blue. Uh, you're only meant to have three, three-year terms, and I was very fortunate to have been extended twice, so for two years and then another um year after that, which is why I finished in September. It has been one of the most eye-opening um things. I say to people, mental health is one of those things that people they think it's a buzz, you know, buzzwords, or it's a buzz phrase, or there's a focus on it, and that's it. Until someone that they know it gets affected, it might be their kids, or it might be a peer at work, or it might be someone in their lives, and then all of a sudden their blinkers come off. And all of a sudden they realize how real it is and how debilitating it can be. Uh, and so to be part of an organization who, when it was founded, um, was to raise awareness uh and how far it's come now for all of the services that it provides, um, and being part for those last 12 years in actually governing, making those decisions, deciding what we're gonna focus on, what we're not gonna focus on, um, you know, applying for funding, responding to natural disasters, responding to horrific events that that happen in society where it's needed, uh, and realizing the frailty and the fact that mental health doesn't discriminate and it's absolutely everywhere. And the way that you approach it in the Kimberley or the way that you might be approaching it in, you know, the the um regional and rural areas might have to look different to how it's approached in the cities. There's commonalities, but there's there's also differences. So you understanding that has been an absolute privilege. And and one of the things I do is I I chair BU, which is the government's national mental health um program in early learning services and high schools and schools, so it goes from naught to 18. So that's the first time really in this country that we've had a program that follows from naught all the way through to adulthood, um, and particularly those early years and and and picking up signs of things that we now know, and you know, the the that the way that you can have early intervention and the support we're able to give the teachers who, you know, it I kind of think it's a full circle thing with my mum, you know. It's um it's making sure that educators and and teachers and um early learning service uh carers are actually supported to because they're being asked to do everything on top of everything they're already being asked to do, and they're now also being asked to be able to to know what to look out for in terms of the mental health realm. So I'm really proud of chairing the National Advisory Council for that since its inception in 2018. Um so there's been a lot of things along the way that I'm really proud of what we've been able to do and and how much it's changed and the people I've got to work with. Like you look at the chairs, we had Jeff Kennett, then Julia Gillard, then Sam Moston, and now we've got Linda Dassault. So you look at those people and what they've achieved in their careers. Linda you know is the female governor of Victoria for eight years, you know, Sam Moston, now the Governor General, Julia, I've probably the first female Prime Minister and just the most extraordinary lady, and Jeff Kennett, and and what he's been able to turn this mental health organization into, you know, and the legacy that he's left as a result of it is just an absolute joy to be part of.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:09

Here at Three Food Memories, in the spirit of Martha Stewart and her kitchen meets life wisdom, we have a tradition where our previous guest passes a life kitchen guidance to you. Our previous guest was Sophia Lesbxter. Now she's passed on to you, family, community, big scale. I mean, this is something that you embody. Right. So um you do it already. So this is just gonna add, so you're getting a blessing from Sophia Lesbx.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:37

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:37

When it's murder on the dance floor.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

This foghorn voice nothing.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:43

Now, in the spirit of your sporting life and the reference to the art of the baton passing forward, what would you like to take forward to our next guest from your kitchen life experience?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:56

I would say be kind. Be kind to yourself. Be kind when you fail. Don't be afraid to fail. Sometimes I understand that that is the the best thing that'll ever happen to you, even in a kitchen. Uh, and learn from it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:13

Now, thinking back to your food memories, they're all grounded in care, generosity, scale, and an evolution that moves outwards from you into the world. So when I think about the way that you give, you communicate, you broadcast, it's literally here and you're out that way. You're all these things in the world, but it's fact. We see it. So you can't fight me on it. What have you discovered about your place in the world?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:42

Uh I'm discovered the more that you allow the world in, the more that you're able to get out of the world. Like if you if you stop and chat to someone and take the time to hear their story, you'll actually walk walk away a better person for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:59

Which gave space for you to hear what Todd was saying. We could do it that way.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:04

100%. But maybe there's another way we could look at it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

Rigsy, thank you so much for being part of Three Food Memories. And I hope to come to one of your cooking and masses experience. I will come in peace without any dietary requirements. Thank you so much. I don't know what to do, but that'll be awesome. That's it for this episode of Three Food Memories. Be sure to spread the plated love and check out our hundred-plus back episodes. You can catch them on YouTube as well. Just search for Three Food Memories. For all things TFM, head to the socials at Three Food Memories and at SavaSavas. For more info, send us a message, head to threefoodmemories.com. Three Food Memories is produced and edited by Lauren McQuerta with original music by Russell Torrance. Nastika La Philly and bye for now.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:55

Thank you for listening to Papa's podcast. Don't forget to like and subscribe and tell your friends. Bye. Bye.