An open, honest, and culinarily laden memoir from one of Australia’s most recognised (yet, not truly known) food critics turned TV personality.
Feature image credit: Penguin Books Australia
Matt Preston has spent the better part of the last 15 years in the public eye. As one of the original trio of MasterChef Australia judges, and as a restaurant critic and author of cookbooks, he has made his mark in print and he has worked across various television stations and broadcast radio. He is immediately recognisable for his trademark style (particularly his extensive collection of cravats), but what do we really know about Matt Preston? Honestly, not a lot … until now.
In his latest (and most personal) print work, Big Mouth, Preston opens up about his life as never before, in a (almost) nothing-is-off-the-table memoir. From his familial background, including his mother’s fight to keep her child, the differences between his various grandparents, the devastating loss of a sibling, and his decision to enter the armed forces to support his financial need to ensure a university education. I know! Are we talking about the same Matt Preston?! Yes, we are. All of this (and quite a bit more) happened before he fell for a redheaded Aussie lady and made the decision to cross the seas and take on a new job in Australia.
Once in the Land Down Under, opportunities would present in the most fortuitous of ways, leading him to find even greater joy and passion for food, something with which he has always had a joyful relationship. Ultimately, this would see him appointed to the much sought-after position as one of the MasterChef Australia team and entrench him in the redevelopment and realisation of reality television formatting.
Preston’s memoir is two-part affair: his British upbringing and early life, and then his Australian journey. It is liberally seasoned with food references, stories of the culinary greats he has worked with and, of course (legals permitting), tales of the MasterChef kitchen. In keeping with his private nature, he focuses on himself, with allusions to family life and without telling other’s tales, no matter how close he was to these incidents.
Big Mouth reads like a dinner table conversation – which, with Preston’s love and knowledge of food, would be many courses in length – with an intimate friend who you think you know, surprising and delighting you with farm-fresh revelations. While it is filled with his numerous infamous interactions and reads like a combination travel and restaurant guide, it never comes across as anything other than a friendly discourse.
Sink your teeth into it and your autobiographical appetite will be truly satiated.
Reviewed by Glen Christie
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Pan Macmillan Australia
Released: November 2023
RRP: $34.99
