Category — Chris Badenoch

With the news that Season Three of Masterchef Australia may have produced  a love match (See previous blog post – Alex and Chelsea Create A Masterchef Fireball) I was wondering how Season One lovebirds, Julia Jenkins, and Chris Badenoch was going.

If you were a body language expert which I am not – it would look like things are a bit frosty. Chris has a dour look on his face and his arms are crossed, whilst Julia walks beside him.

What is she carrying? The tube could be filled with plans to expand their successful business Josie Bones?

Josie Bones the beer bar is filled most nights, with Chris at front of house with the beer (of course), and Julia is slugging it out in the kitchen.

Let us hope the hard work is not causing fractures in their relationship.

The much awaited Josie Bones the beer restaurant owned has now opened in Melbourne. It is operated by Masterchef alumni Julia Jenkins and Chris Badenoch.

As you would guess it has a lot of focus on beer and the whole of the beast eating. In fact if you are vegetarian don’t bother going, as there is a headless pig photo above the bar.

However a few tweets are very positive tweets about the restaurant and on other online review sites. Though it does make me wary when the people that love it only have written one review.

However Melbourne food blog Eat, Drink, Stagger rated the food, but had a few issues with attitude from the bar staff. There are no reviews from the mainstream media yet.

The couple have bought in a head chef to lead the kitchen, but I am sure the loved up Masterchef couple were the masterminds behind the menu.

Josie Bones in on 98 Smith St, Collingwood if you have eaten there come and tell us what it was like.

Chris Badenoch is currently doing the rounds promoting his cookbook The Entire Beast.

In this interview in City Weekly Chris reveals that his views on meat appears to be similar to his approach to women.

He states:

“I don’t discriminate between animals,” says Chris Badenoch. ‘‘There are too many tasty ones.”

Chris received notoriety for romancing fellow Masterchef Australia contestant Julia Jenkins as well has having a few women on the outside as well.  For the record he is still with Julia.

He also is pretty hands on with his meat:

Channel Seven will be expecting an influx of  Masterchef fans to start watching Iron Chef Australia when Chris Badenoch takes on Guillame Brahimi on the show next week.

TV Week reveals Chris and his sous chef and real life partner Julia Jenkins will be on the episode airing November 2.

Chris Badenoch said it was harder than Masterchef.

The article states:

“I think it’s harder than anything that’s ever been on Masterchef,” he says.

“An hour for four dishes is crazy in anybody’s language. The pressure is a whole different ball game.”

He also says about cooking with Julia:

“We cook together all the time, so being familiar with someone in the kitchen makes your life a whole lot easier,” He explains. “We don’t clash at all [when we're cooking]“.

And on those pesky engagement rumours:

“Who knows? We’re happy as we are at the moment,” Chris says cryptically. “There’s no marriage on the cards – yet.”

And on their new restaurant Josie Bones:

“It’s coming along really well – we’re madly painting at the moment and it’s all happening,” Chris reveals. It’s very exciting, but terrifying at the same time! It’s our baby at the moment. We’ll hopefully be open just before Christmas, so it will be a very busy festive season!”

In programming gold Chris Badenoch, from Masterchef Australia Series One will appear as a competitor on Channel Seven’s Iron Chef.

I am sure the production company and SEVEN will be canny enough to put him up against Neil Perry, Iron Chef Australia/Asia after the snaffu that Neil got himself earlier this year about the Masterchef contestants. The uber-chef  said (see previous blog post here) that the Masterchef contestants would struggle to survive in a real kitchen, and that it was a “game show”.  Neil later said he had been misquoted.

It will be interesting to see if Chris will be able to produce four dishes in an hour as his food philosophy is very meaty, slow cooking. But he will have his partner in life and of his new restaurant, Julie Jenkins, to be his sous chef. I will just be watching the show for that dynamic.

The Herald Sun states:

Badenoch and Jenkins are now business, as well as romantic, partners. Josie Bones will be a beer bar with matching food.

“All the doubters out there have been proven wrong,” Badenoch says.

“We’re doing the restaurant together and it will be a combination of our ideas.”

Badenoch says he relished the chance to return to television.

“It (Iron Chef) was the opportunity to push myself,” Badenoch says.

“It’s one thing cooking against other amateurs (on MasterChef). Going up against guys of this calibre (Perry/Grossi/Brahimi) is a rare opportunity.”

Victoria’s Sacha Meier, Head Chef and manager of Lorne’s Ba Ba Lu Restaurant and Bar, will also be one of the challengers onIron Chef.

Other challengers are Sydney’s Dan Hong (Head Chef, Lotus Bar and Bistro), Adelaide’s Judyta Slupnick (Head Chef and owner of Phore Seasons), as well as Perth’s Matt Stone (Head Chef, Greenhouse Restaurant) and Herb Faust (Head Chef, Scotch College).

Iron Chef will screen on Channel 7 in mid-October.

Season 1 Masterchef Australia contestants and lovers Chris Badenoch and Julia Jenkins are going to be opening a restaurant on Smith St, Collingwood. Yes that would be in Melbourne.

The Age states the pair are currently renovating the premises.

The article states:

[They} are in the renovation stages at the 50-seat Josie Bones, which they describe as a ‘‘beer bar with food matching’’, near Gigibaba on Collingwood’s Smith Street. ‘‘It will be a high-end beer experience,’’  Badenoch says. ‘‘We’ll follow the share plates concept with a good showing of nose-to-tail dishes. I want to show people it’s not scary, although it will be a combination of both my and Julia’s styles of food.’’

They are hoping to open in the next couple of months.

This should dovetail nicely with Chris Badenoch’s launch of his cookbook The Entire Beast. Great concept, and great timing, unless there is a salmonella outbreak it should be successful.

Interesting to know who is bankrolling the restaurant. The article didn’t mention a silent partner, so either Chris is using his money he is receiving from his cookbook, and maybe Julia is getting some money from her parents.

In this week’s New Idea, there was a three page spread on the romance between last year’s Masterchef Australia’s contestant’s Chris Badenoch and Julia Jenkins.

Both must be clearing the decks to address the more salacious issues prior to going on media drives for their new projects.

For Julia it is the premiere of her new show on 7TWO on Friday nights at 7pm commencing the 21 May. And for Chris it is new cookbook which will be out later in the year.

In the article Chris Badenoch confirms that he was cast as the bad boy of the series.

He said “…Every time I smiled or was seen laughing or mucking around the producers cut that out because they needed me to be a villain. I didn’t cry or wobble or become flustered so my confidence got mistaken for arrogance which is not the case.”

The article then goes on to address his private life which imploded while he was on the show.

His image wasn’t helped when news of his relationship with Julia was followed by claims from other girls that they’d enjoyed a romance with him when he was reportedly in a long-term relationship with another woman.

Chris fumes as he recalls that time: ‘People said they were my girlfriend when they never were, never had been and never would be. When Julia and I got together we were both single and even though she trusted me, we both found it frustrating.’

So why did he not come out and dispel the rumours? ‘I was advised not to get involved and my friends knew the truth and were supportive so I left it to people to make up their own opinion,’

Julie says ‘I could understand someone claiming they were Brad Pitt’s love child and, no offence to Chris, but he had just come off a reality TV show and some people obviously wanted their 15 minutes of fame. It wasn’t true and I completely trust him.’

Clearly I must be living in some parallel universe I personally have evidence of two possibly three women. Now who is the women who was never nor going to be his girlfriend. I am confused.

1. Homaxi who was presented as his long term girlfriend in NW I presume must not be the “non-girlfriend”. Also in an email to me she described Chris as her partner. So we can tick her off the list.

2. The other person he could be referring to could be Gemma Pritchard who also had a long term relationship with him. She also spoke to New Idea last year about their relationship. Now Chris had been with her the night of his elimination, given her a masterchef apron, and there were 100′s of text messages from him to her. In fact New Idea in their article indicated they had seen them. Was this the girl that Julia was implying was seeking their 15 minutes of fame?

3. Or is it the not so mysterious third person, who has stated they had an affair with him.

I don’t know but it appears Chris Badenoch is rewriting history.

Penguin Australia who is publishing Masterchef Australia’ third place getter Chris Badenoch’s cookbook must have decided he needed to increase his media profile at the start of the Masterchef Australia season two series by giving an interview to the The Age. And also attempt to address some of the more controversial stories that emerged about him when he was on the show.

This is one of the first interviews Chris has given to the mainstream media, as he or his managers appeared to be refusing media requests last year after his very own sexgate scandal exploded in the final weeks of the Masterchef show.

 The article titled Masterchef Bad Boy Survives Media Grilling had some interesing things in it.

1. The Show Cast Him As The Villain, And Edited Him That Way

‘They (the producers) never showed me smiling, ever. I spent most of the time I can remember joking all the time but they kindly didn’t edit any of that in,” he says.

”In some of the edits they would cut to me not looking very happy and I’d think, ‘That wasn’t even the same challenge.’

”They recycled a few shots of me looking unhappy.

”It was obvious from day one that they’d cast 20 very different characters and I didn’t have any issue with being painted as the villain at all, that’s just the way it goes. I was more concerned about just cooking what I cook.”

It was unfortunate for Chris that he was cast in this light, as this ensured that he was never going to be allowed to win. He was a good cook, and certainly deserved to be top three. He had played it smart the whole way through the series, however I thought his strategy for the top three cookoff was poor. His three courses were all meat, I think if he had gone for something outside the box and nailed it he may have got into the final.

Also the editing has probably stopped him getting some TV media gigs.

2. He Also Spoke About The Media Attention His Sexgate Scandal Received

”I did find it all quite strange that they would waste column centimetres or TV time worrying about what relationship status you’ve got,” he says. ”And it’s also very biased reporting, it’s never a balanced fact-driven thing. And it’s interesting that I was rarely – or never – asked my opinion.”

Well the positive thing is that it is nice to get his perspective on the whole saga, however I seem to remember he had PLENTY of opportunity to comment on this. In fact I remember A Current Affair asked for comment at the Melbourne Show, and Tracey Grimshaw also stated at the end of a segment they had requested an interview. Also every newspaper and weekly magazine were willing to take a statement from him but none was forthcoming.

I think he needs to remember that the reason his sex life started unravelling was mainly his fault. Most of the media knew he had two girlfriends on the outside, however only really started chasing it after the Julia Jenkins relationship started leaking out. This also occurred at the same time there was an article in NW where he acknowledged his long term girlfriend Homaxi.

As it emerged Chris had another long term relationship who would have been clearly peeved that she had been being lied to for five years. It is my understanding that he does not deny this relationship, nor has he taken any legal action or asked for a retraction from New Idea. I think he is probably angry that he could not keep her silent, not about the claims she was making.

It is my understanding even when rumours were emerging from the set that he and Julia were together, he was still denying it to the media and in private. Also rumours of other liaisons with women were emerging. I won’t be naming them as I am polite like that.

3. He advises Masterchef contestants to practice, practice, practice.

He should also tell them to ensure they have anything scandalous in their past to expect it to come out.

The article was titled that it was going to be a grilling. Personally I thought the “grilling” was a bit like being hit with a bit of wet lettuce, I note there was no questions on the claims he cheated on the show, or his past business dealings something, I would like to know his side of the story.

There had been plenty of whispers going around that Masterchef Australia’s resident bad boy Chris Badenoch had left Beermasons, the beer club business he was involved in prior to his reality TV show appearance. The big question was whether he jumped or was he pushed? It was unclear when the negative stories emerged last year about his previous business dealings, including bankruptcies whether his BeerMason partners knew about them.

However now it is confirmed in an article in Brew News. 

The article says:

Since finishing on Masterchef, Chris has left the beer appreciation and delivery service that he helped to found, BeerMasons, to concentrate on the opportunities that Masterchef has afforded, including writing for magazines such as Alpha. He also has a book, combining beer with his nose-to-tail philosophy of cooking, in the works and due out by Fathers Day.

He has also started a blog called Cooking With Beer. I note that he has not put a link to his former company on his blog roll, which would suggest either an oversight, or an acrimonious ending of the partnership.

Did the his publisher’s know he was leaving Beermasons? As apparently they were going to call it the Beermason’s Cookbook. Oh well they will have think of a new title now. However it is anywhere as popular as the other Masterchef cookbooks they will be very happy.

He is still seeing his Masterchef colleague Julia Jenkins, who apparently did some cooking demonstrations in Perth the other week.

The Herald Sun says that the relationship between Masterchef Australia’s bad boy Chris Badenoch and Julia Jenkins has stepped up a notch with them moving in together.

Chris who took out best Reality Sex Scandal in this year’s Raver’s 2009 Reality TV awards has never gone on the record to confirm the relationship.

I suspect that since both their post Masterchef careers have been a tad low profile that an article in a weekly gossip mag will appear soon.