Marion Grasby Event

Marion Grasby was warmly greeted at Shearer’s when she came in to tell us stories about her new book Marion: Recipes and Stories from a Hungry Cook.

Like her book, Marion charmed and humoured us with stories about her background, her travels, and her life experiences and how all that has impacted on her culinary ambitions. From her first food memories of sticky juicy mangoes in her birthplace of Darwin to Papua New Guinea where she learned to appreciate her good fortune and access to opportunity and onto Adelaide where she fell in love and made the leap into a food career.

All this reinforced her love of food, which was then furthered by her foray into the world of television and the zeitgeist that is MasterChef. Marion was indeed one of the shows favourite amateur cooks and she credits it with bringing in the age of the “home cook”. 

During question time, Marion was extremely frank about her background in journalism and her career ambitions. She also took us behind the scenes of MasterChef revealing secrets of the contestants' behaviour – Alvin apparently snored – and just how restricted and tough the whole experience is. Of course, she also credited the show with her current string of success and applauded them for their enormous support of all the contestants.

It was really wonderful and somewhat surprising to get an insider’s perspective not only into MasterChef but also into what it takes to be successful. Many times during the evening Marion reiterated that it was the opportunity and not the winning of MasterChef that led her to achieving her dream of creating her own food brand. Her incredible attitude and commitment to her dream was on show during the evening and so many of those present congratulated Marion for being a great role model for their kids.

After question time, everyone tucked into Mushroom & Taleggio toasties, Sweet Pepper Chicken and insignia “M” gingerbread men – all from Marion’s cookbook.

Yum! 
Written by Megan

Autographed copies of Marion: Recipes and Stories from a Hungry Cook are available here.