Pots and pranks in Fab Food Academy

Jenny Morris and Reza Mahammad

Jenny Morris and Reza Mahammad

Published Oct 29, 2015

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Debashine Thangevelo

PUT Jenny Morris and Reza Mahammad in a room together and, if you don’t know culinary their backgrounds, you would probably brace yourself for a comedy show.

The Giggling Gourmet celebrity chef and the Spice Prince have a 10-year friendship that feeds into their madcap personalities. That’s what makes them the perfect combination for a TV series like Food Network’s Jenny and Reza’s Fabulous Food Academy.

Mahammad, in his fabulous flamboyant manner, shares: “I met Jenny in Cape Town 10 years ago. I came here for the Good Food and Wine Show and we just hit it off. I think we are very similar in our viewpoints, philosophy.”

She adds: “We love food and art. And we both have cooking schools and love to teach.”

“We have cooked together, but not for a series,” he points out. “I remember saying it would be so wonderful to one day do a show together. We put it out there, and it happened.”

On the inspiration for this series, Morris reveals: “We were doing a show in Dubai and people loved us together on stage. And Nick Thorogood (the previous senior vice-president of content and marketing at Scripps Networks UK and EMEA) was saying: ‘I could really see you two doing a show together’.”

The 25-episode series features different couples, from friends to partners, looking to brush up on their culinary skills (or lack thereof, in some cases). Aside from the two livewire chefs, the students bring their own eccentricities to the table.

And amid the crazy shooting schedule, Morris also found time to prank her unsuspecting co-host.

He laughs: “I have always known her to be a prankster, but not to the extent that she pranked me. There were about five pranks.”

Morris chuckles: “He was so innocent and all ready to shoot. The pranks I did were live on camera. We were going to make a banana cake and I made one of the bananas look like a willy, so when he opened it, he was surprised.”

Of course, that meant quite a few impulsive squeals and giggles from him.

Along with the fun on set, Morris also cracked the whip, so to speak, as Mahammad easily leads himself astray.

In the interview, the two also banter about him being messy. He responds: “Food just loves to be attracted to me.”

Each episode has two different but very easy to follow recipes.

Morris notes: “If you tell a first-time cook, well, if you just mention the word ‘poach’, they are immediately gripped by fear. So we teach them the technique.”

He adds: “The streamlining of the recipes came down to the time factor. I had to compromise a helluva lot on my dishes. I was so worried that one ingredient was going to take more time filming.”

She then teased him about his inability to pronounce the name of one of her dishes – papoutsakia (little shoes), which he sheepishly attempted again during the interview.

Naturally, there were personalities that stood out during the shoot.

Morris adds: “I’m a little biased here. But I was so proud to have my son on the show, however, we don’t refer to him as such. And there was this teacher couple. The husband was wearing a hearing aid and she was very pushy. She really wanted to be a film star. She would go: ‘Now John, do it like that’.”

Talk about making a meal out of the pervading madness in the kitchen.

Jenny and Reza’s Fab Food Academy, Food Network (DStv channel 175), from November 16 at 5pm.

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