Money Talks: My Kitchen Rules NZ’s Manu Feidel, Colin Fassnidge on mistakes, tips for inflation-busting dinner parties

TV chefs Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge talk all things money. Photos / Getty Images

Celebrity chefs Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge, who return to our screens this week as hosts of My Kitchen Rules New Zealand, have opened up about the cost of living and money mistakes in the latest episode of the Money Talks podcast.

One thing the pair say they haven’t escaped in their short shift from Australia to New Zealand is the high cost of living.

Feildel and Fassnidge say grocery prices on both sides of the Tasman are making it harder for people to indulge in elaborate dinner parties.

They were taken aback by Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon’s claims of a $60 weekly supermarket shop.

“I don’t know what old mate’s talking about with $60,” Fassnidge said.

“You cooked meatballs from scratch last night, what did that cost you?” he asked his colleague.

“I went to the shop and bought ... to cook dinner. It cost me $60,” Feildel said.

Fassnidge has responded to the cost of living squeeze by producing short online video guides to budget cooking.

“We were calling them interest rate busters. Because the interest rates in Australia are going through the roof,” he said.

“It’s getting really tough, right? So I was cooking stuff like lamb necks and secondary cuts of meat and how to do this with a chicken or whatever. And the feedback’s just [been], can you do more of this?”

Inflation tended to go in cycles and it influenced food trends, he said.

“Ten or 15 years ago restaurants were using second-hand cuts and made amazing dishes. You know, liver, beef cheeks used to be cheap. Lamb shanks used to be cheap. All of those cuts were cheap, now they’ve become expensive. And I’m sure if we start scratching the surface, we’ll find some new ingredients that are cheap that you can make good dishes.”

Feildel and Fassnidge reflected on the poorest they’ve been and the hard road to success in the food industry.

But they also talked about the mistakes they made when they first started making money.

“I’m ashamed of what I’m going to say next, but there was a time when money didn’t mean anything,” said Feildel.

“Covid changed that. My feet went back on the ground because it was a time that I was doing so well ... and I’ve made the stupid mistakes with businesses.

“So I have the money, it was coming this way. I was losing it that way. And it didn’t matter because I knew that the money was still coming in. I lost the worth of it and then Covid happened and I lost all of it. And now when I spend a hundred dollars, I’m very careful. I feel the value of it.”

Fassnidge said he was now glad of the money lessons he learned through Covid.

“At one stage I had three motorbikes in my garage and then Covid happened, my restaurants were closed, TV wasn’t happening and my wife’s like, ‘you’re paying insurance and green slips on three motorbikes and you’ve only got one of you’.

“So I sold two. We didn’t know how lucky we were. And then you’re like, why have I got all this stuff that’s costing me money, when people are struggling?

“I opened a soup kitchen in the carpark of my restaurant that was closed to feed hospitality workers that had no money.”

Listen to the full episode below to hear more from Manu and Colin. My Kitchen Rules NZ airs on TVNZ2 Mondays and Tuesdays at 7:30pm

Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn’t about personal finance and isn’t about economics - it’s just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it’s had on their lives and how it has shaped them.

Money Talks is available on IHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.