Colin Fassnidge is a household name in Australia thanks to his appearances as one of the judges on the hit television show My Kitchen Rules. The Dublin-born restaurateur is a firm favourite with viewers thanks to his outspoken comments and no messing attitude.
A love of motorbikes and a habit of getting into feuds with other chefs on Twitter have also helped make him popular. With the show now airing in Ireland, it’s likely we’ll all be more aware of him soon.
But Fassnidge, who has been executive chef of the Four in Hand in Sydney since October 2005 and who opened his own restaurant 4Fourteen in Surry Hills in the city in 2011, says he’s taking taking fame in his stride.
“The fame thing is a little bizarre but I’m lucky because I am just about to turn 42 and I think that, because I’m married and have my two kids, I’m fairly settled and can cope with it. Chefs age like dogs so by this stage I’m just tired and old and am not about to get carried away by it all. If this would have all happened to me when I was 22, I’d have been the biggest dickhead in the world,” he said.
Fassnidge was named GQ Australia's chef of the year in 2013 and he has a bestselling cookbook. Last year he returned to Ireland to shoot My Ireland with Colin for Channel 7, which was watched by more than one million Australians.
It is far from what he imagined the future might hold for him when he was growing up – though he knew early on that he wanted to be a chef.
“My parents were both great cooks and so everything revolved around the kitchen. Cooking for me was always associated with family and love,” he said.
Fassnidge had relatives who owned a catering company in Dublin and he worked with them during the school holidays before going on to study at Cathal Brugha Street.
"Kevin Thornton was one of my lecturers and he was just setting up his first restaurant in Portobello around that time so I became one of four chefs working for him. He promised me if I stayed with him a while, he'd get me a job with Raymond Blanc and he did."
Moving to England, he did his apprenticeship at Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, before his urge to see the world saw him set off on a trip that ended in Australia in 1999.
"It was funny because, while I had a great CV, no one cared about that in Sydney. I had to prove myself all over again," he said. "I ended up being lucky enough to get a job with the Dublin-born chef Liam Tomlin at his restaurant Banc, which was then one of the best restaurants going. Liam took me under his wing like Irish people tend to do for each other and sponsored me so I could stay in the country," he said.
Fassnidge’s “nose to tail” cooking philosophy became popular after he opened his own restaurants in Sydney but it wasn’t greeted with enthusiasm from all corners – at least initially.
Trendy restaurants
“It was tough starting out especially because Sydney is very faddish food wise. People were paying $45 [€30] for a bowl of foam but then the recession happened and all the trendy restaurants closed because customers wanted proper food again which was cooked by chefs and didn’t come from a machine,” he said.
Consideration is being given to opening another restaurant outside Sydney in the near future but Fassnidge is concerned about ending up overstretched.
“People want to see you in your place of work. We have customers flying in from Perth and driving up from Canberra to eat in our restaurants, so you’ve got to be there for them. We don’t just want to be a crap restaurant that has a well-known name over the door but in which the owner is never there,” he said.
A second series of My Ireland with Colin is on the cards.
“Last time out, we did the top and the middle of Ireland and so there’s huge interest in my doing a show covering the south because we got such high ratings,” he said.
Nation of foodies
Fassnidge is surprised to see Ireland hasbecome a nation of foodies. “I think I ran away from Ireland to an extent when I started out because going into cooking was something that was frowned on and was seen as something that only wasters did.,” he said.
"But in fact, the best meal I had last year in Europe wasn't in London where I ate in some top Michelin-starred restaurants, but in Forest Avenue off Leeson Street," Fassnidge added.
While unhappy with being in Ireland early in his career, he’s become a born again proud Irishman. “As you get older and especially when you have kids, I think you become a bit more patriotic and when I go back home I enjoy it and now I even have dishes on the menu that have an Irish spin to them so I’m flying the flag that way,” he said.
“I think my success has helped people see Ireland in a positive way which is great because we don’t always get a good press here.”
