Category — Julie Goodwin

Ros Reines in the Sunday Telegraph (no link to original story online) fires a shot at Julie Goodwin about her appearance on the cover of last weeks New Idea and Julie Goodwin quite rightly fires back

Ros Reines who normally does an entertaining if slighty snarky weekly column starts off her article talking about the naked Deborah Hutton picture on the cover of Woman’s Weekly and how it was photoshopped.

However then she goes on to talk about last week’s New Idea cover which featured Julie Goodwin, Jesinta Campbell, Brynne Edelsten and Cornelia Frances in swimsuits, and lambasts Julie about her weight and how it is unhealthy.

Personally I think a picture of a normal woman on the cover in a swimsuit does more for making me feel more comfortable in my skin, then seeing a very hot model in the form of Deborah Hutton. I know I can never be like Deborah Hutton even photoshopped and the cover did not resonate with me, just as the the non-photoshopped Sarah Murdoch cover didn’t as well.  There gorgeous and models doesn’t matter what they are wearing.

However Julie standing there next to Jesinta Campbell made me think good on you and maybe women should be less critical about our own and others body image.

Anyway the Masterchef Australia Season One winner decided to fire back in her blog , which is the beauty of social media anyone can have a voice.

She writes:

“Predictably, gossip columnist Ros Reines has once again taken aim at my appearance because I do not fit her perception of what is healthy.

“However, it fascinates me that my health can be commentated by someone who has absolutely no medical data on me.

“I am grateful to my body, for the three children it has given me, for its strength and ability to work long hard hours, and for its robust good health,” she said

“It is well and truly time that we stopped approaching health with a cookie-cutter mentality  as in, thinner equals healthier, larger equals unhealthier.

“Its also dangerous as young girls opt for radical diet and drug options to be thin and fit the medias portrayal of health and beauty.

“It is shallow to suggest that we are all the same in body type and only people who overeat and are lazy might be bigger than a magazine model.

“Being thin and unfit has been found to be more dangerous to health than being overweight but fit.” she said.

Goodwin said she decided to pose for New Idea to help celebrate the difference between people.

“I did it for all the little teapots out there short and stout. And for anyone else who feels judged critically by other people. We should all be able to be comfortable in our own skin despite what uninformed media commentators write. “I celebrate the differences between people. I try very hard not to judge people by the way they look  because nobody knows anyone elses full story.

“As far as what I owe to myself and my children, I owe them food that is cooked from scratch, using as many fresh ingredients and as few additives as possible.

“I owe them mealtimes around the family table. I owe them the very best of myself, which includes keeping myself healthy via plenty of exercise, fresh air, fresh food and laughter.

“ I owe them a safe home and a community surrounding them that loves them. And I owe it to them to be self-confident and self-loving so that they can feel the same no matter whether or not they end up looking like Brad Pitt.

It appears Julie has a lot of support for her out there on this issue as it is going viral on Twitter and on Facebook. Maybe Ros as penance should pose in her swimsuit….

This goes into the OHMIGOD files. Julie Goodwin who won Season One of Masterchef Australia has now released a Christmas album.

The question is why? The Sunday Telegraph said:

The bubbly Central Coast mum said she had made money from her secret talent before entering the hit TV cooking show.

“I used to sing at Asquith Golf Club,” she revealed.

I was speechless when I read about it and I was even more gobsmacked when I saw a clip of her performing on the Today Show. Click here to see her performance.

Masterchef Australia Julie Goodwin has proven sceptics wrong with over $3.7 million worth of book sale for her cookbook Our Family Table.

News.com.au states:

In the six months since its April release, it has sold 138,603 copies, notching up more than $3.7 million in sales and rocketing to the top of the Nielsen Bookscan list of top 10 cookbooks this year.

This statistic was part of a story which showed Masterchef cooks were blitzing the cookbook sales. Her book and MasterChef Australia The Cookbook: Volume 1 account for 10c in every dollar spent on the booming cookbook market.

I find it interesting the cookbook market is going so well considering the amount of recipes available online.

Gary Mehigan’s cookbook Comfort Food is also selling well.

For the guys who wanted a post on Skye Craig here it is. Former Masterchef Australia contestant Skye will be promoting pineapples. An article on Nine MSN says that:

Ms Craig, who’s working with Tropical Pineapples to promote the Queensland grown product, says she prefers fresh food rich in natural Vitamin C to popping a pill.

“I prefer to look at preventative measures in terms of taking care of your body,” she said.

“One cup of fresh pineapple gives you 100 per cent of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C, so for me that’s certainly a preference – and that’s the way I like to live my life.

“I really believe that with the right amount of fresh healthy food plus rest and exercise your immune system becomes really strong and you don’t need to go to the pharmacy as much.”

The MasterChef contestant said pineapples could be used creatively, such as in puddings with coconut sorbet, or on kebabs.

Also good news for Julie Goodwin’s new cooking show Home Cooked, as it got a good review from influential News Limited TV writer Dianne Butler.

She said the show was good, and thought it would have been a good lead in to the 6.00pm news on a weeknight. She said the banter between Julie and her guest was good, and she came across as knowledgable. On the down side she did think the recipes were a bit tired.

Julie’s show Home Cooked premieres on Channel Nine this Saturday at 5.30pm.

Last year’s winner of Masterchef Australia Julie Goodwin new cooking show will be starting this Saturday at 5.30pm on Channel Nine. Apparently the format will be Julie with one special guest a week. This week it will be Gyton Grantley who will be hosting a new show called The Real Hustle.

She will cook on the first episode slow-cooked lamb shanks, chicken noodle soup and chocolate fondant.

In the Sydney Morning Herald she defends her home style cooking.

“[My] cooking is home cooking, the sort of thing I hope people want to cood for tea, or cook for their friends or their family,” she says.

The articles also says her career continues to thrive. She has been signed up to promote women’s plus-size fashion franchise Autograph, and she has filmed a segment for Getaway.

Speaking of thriving careers, Gary Mehigan continues to be busy with his restaurant Fenix re-opening, and also the filming of Junior Masterchef, but he talk to TV Week about how the pressure to make Masterchef even better in season 3.

The article said:

There’s a bit of pressure to come up with fabulous challenges and ideas for next season,” judge Gary Mehigan says. “There’s nothing like a bit of pressure – and from other shows, too, like My Kitchen Rules  - to put a rocket up and see what we come up with.”

With applications for the third season already open, Gary says he’s been thinking about where he’d like to take the next group of contestants on the now de rigueur overseas trip.

“I thought, ‘How can you top Paris?’” he reveals. “But I was thinking New York, or Santiago, or Buenos Aires, or India!”

Gary is quick to argue against a fourth judge on the panel – a la Anna Gare on upcoming spin-off Junior Masterchef – and notes we’re unlikely to see the judges tone down their theatrics. His personal wish is that the series follow a more altruistic path.

“I’d like to see something that really strikes at the heart chords,” he says. “Something really good that we do as a bunch of contestants and judges.”

Well Gary if you want good ideas for next season, this blog’s readers have come up with some crackers on this blog post.

Last year’s winner of Masterchef Australia will premiere her new cooking show, Home Cooked, on Saturday August 7 at 5.30pm on Channel 9.

The media release provides further information:

“I have been so encouraged by the number of people who have told me they’ve rediscovered a passion for cooking. For me there’s nothing more important and enjoyable than bringing family and friends together for a home-cooked meal,” Julie said.

Her recipes range from ones passed down through generations of her own family to specially designed dishes for working mums and dads pressed for time. All of them are easy to cook, delicious to eat and designed to impress. Julie’s aim is to inspire a new generation of home-cooking champions.

Each Home Cooked! episode will have a mouth-watering theme to complement Julie’s no-fuss focus, along with a celebrity guest who will learn some of Julie’s tips and tricks for creating meals at home. Guests include Steve Waugh, Amanda Keller and Ricki-Lee Coulter.

The program begins with Winter Warmers, a feast of delicious comfort foods that will have you wishing it was winter all year round, such as succulent slow-cooked lamb shanks and crispy pork belly with Julie’s secret to crispy crackling. Underbelly’s Gyton Grantley will drop by for a real winter comforter – thick chicken noodle soup – before Julie turns up the heat in the kitchen with an indulgent chocolate fondant.

“We’re all so busy these days that people don’t feel they have the time to cook. So I really want to show the audience how quick and easy meals can be fun to make and delicious to eat,” Julie said.

Hopefully Injera will review the cooking show on her blog Blah Blog Blah where she reviews quite a few cooking shows.

The latest Women’s Weekly issue has a photoshoot with last year’s Masterchef Australia winner Julie Goodwin with Marion Grasby, and Claire Winton-Burn. I presume the reason Courtney is not in the shoot, was that at the time of the shoot, they did not know who was going to re-enter the show.

Anyway there are some lovely photos of all three of them.

Some of the highlights from the interview are:

• Julie Goodwin will have her own cooking show on Channel Nine, which will screen at 5.30pm on a Saturday night. It will feature  ”simple food cooked well at home with readily available ingredients”.
• Julie’s marriage was never in strife, those stories were just scuttlebutt.
• Owning her own restaurant is on the back burner until 2012. Julie wants to learn how to run a restaurant properly first.
• Julie’s cookbook Our Family Table has sold more then 110,000 copies.

Also it must be tough and tiring to be on the show, as Claire and Marion did the photoshoot after a day of filming.

The TV Week states that Season 1 Masterchef Australia winner Julie Goodwin is already working on her second cookbook.

“The day they handed me the first copy of my new book, they asked me to start writing the second one,” she laughs. “I don’t have a solid plan for it yet, but it’ll come – no writers block here!”

The article states that despite already juggling a regular segment on Today, a magazine column and multiple produce endorsements, Julie’s still fielding offers for projects, hinting a greater TV role may be in the works. But her real goal is to open a restaurant.

Getting the restaurant off the ground is something I’m focused on,” she says. “It’s probably going to be in 2012 – I’ve got it mapped out.”

Also she will appear on Season 2 of the series. Personally I think she should do a slow cooker recipe book this would fit in nicely with her demographic.

The Good Living supplement in the Sydney Morning Herald reviewed her first cook book Our Family Table said:

All the recipes here look tasty but there is not much you haven’t tried before. To be fair, Goodwin says as much in her introduction. It is, she writes, “a wander through the world of the old and familiar.” Things get more interesting in later chapters. The slow-roasted pork belly with cider-braised cabbage, and the barbecued lamb leg with fennel and coriander seeds, caught my attention.

Seriously does it matter what the recipes are like it is going to sell its tits off, and suspect it will also sell well in the UK.

Masterchef Australia’s winner Julie Goowin’s cookbook Our Family Table will be released on 1 April 2010. It has been published by Random House and should make them a motza. The release date is nicely timed to ensure it can slipstream into the Masterchef Australia Season 2 publicity.

The Random House website states:

Julie says: ‘In this book I’m not just presenting recipes but exploring the role of food in families and communities. I want to get people back into their kitchens and promote the joy of food and family. OUR FAMILY TABLE is full of lovely stories and recipes and feasts, with a strong focus on good old-fashioned tucker. ‘

Some recipes are heirlooms passed down in Julie’s family through generations, while others were given to her by friends and neighbours. There are lazy weekend breakfasts to enjoy with the family, weekday and special occasion dinners, barbecue and camp cooking, and cakes, biscuits and puddings galore. Julie also includes recipes she created on MasterChef – such as her now famous lemon diva cupcakes and her passionfruit ‘puddle’ pie.

The final section of the book is Julie’s favourite: a beautifully designed ‘blank’ chapter with pages for the reader’s own photos, clippings and hand-me-down handwritten recipes from family and friends.

With a foreword by Australian culinary icon, Margaret Fulton.

Will you be buying it?

While I am doing my My Kitchen Rules recap check out Masterchef Australia’s Julie Goodwin on the Today Show (http://today.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1012894).

It was her first segment today and she cooked buttermilk pancakes. She did look a tad nervous.