3 weeks ago
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Lunch with the Prime Minister at the Lodge is one thing, but lunch cooked by the Prime Minister in his Canberra residence, especially and only for you, affords another level of bragging rights. After seven seasons of ABC’s foodie-politico interview program Kitchen Cabinet, Annabel Crabb can now claim those rights.
Stepping over the threshold of the Lodge for the first time in her 30-year career, Crabb wastes no time in getting to know more about Anthony Albanese, the man she has watched morph from a “left-wing bomb thrower” to, as he describes the current Labor Party, “a mainstream force in Australian politics”.
“What I was interested in having him reflect on were the changes you go through in a political career of that length,” she says. “I remember what he was like when I first went to Parliament. He was a backbencher giving lefty, firebrand speeches. He was against the GST. He was against the border protection measures that the then Howard government took. And now he’s administrating those things … At what point do you, as a politician, having espoused one view, say, ‘OK, I’ve lost that argument and I’m moving on’. I find that fascinating.”
Following the winning formula for the show that launched her television hosting career in 2012, with a double interview with Christopher Pyne and Amanda Vanstone, Crabb arrives at the Lodge bearing a dessert she has prepared (one that, in this instance, will come to provide unexpected dramatic tension).
Incidentally, it’s not the first time Albanese has been on the show. He appeared, also alongside Pyne, his friend and political foe, in 2015’s season five, the pair bending the format to learn how to fold dumplings at a Canberra Chinese restaurant. Since then, Crabb has noticed that her subjects tend to be more open, despite an increase in public relations awareness amid the maelstrom of social media.
“Often, they are relieved to have the opportunity to talk more deeply about things that are outside the 24-hour news cycle. You can see the way they respond to that churn. Some have become more formulaic in the way that they speak. They have talking points that they distribute among their party members, so everybody knows what to say. But for me, I find that they are relieved to be able to have a proper conversation.”
She approaches each Kitchen Cabinet exchange with an open mind.
“I’m trying to make them forget that they’re being interviewed, and food is part of that – just doing something with your hands. We’ve got a lot of cameras, so we’re not stopping and starting,” says Crabb. “My job is to use everything that I have to draw them into an interesting conversation. I’m fascinated in even the stuff like how people chop their carrots.
“It all tells me something about the person they are, and the things they’re nervous about, or the things they want to talk about when given the chance … I’m not trying to score points or win an argument. I’m not trying to put someone under pressure to make them crack. I’m just trying to show them, and let viewers make up their own minds.”
Also featured this season is Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, who cooks damper on his Goulburn farm. No preview of that episode was available ahead of this interview, but Crabb says: “Angus Taylor is a person who I think people have a certain view of based on his media appearances. But he talks about stuff in his childhood that I’ve never heard before. And to see how his parents have influenced him is a real insight.”
Also included are Independent MP Allegra Spender, who stirs Italian soup at her Sydney home; Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens Mehreen Faruqi, who makes Pakistani eggplant curry at her house in Sydney; Labor MP Josh Burns, who serves a vegan felafel feast in Melbourne; and a sixth, as yet unannounced, parliamentarian.
Regrettably, Crabb says there will be “no fish and chips with Pauline [Hanson]”, with the One Nation leader having declined to take part, along with the newly elected member for Farrer, David Farley. “I’d be really interested in talking to somebody from One Nation … That’s been a huge shift in politics.”
In the surprisingly compact, industrial Lodge kitchen, which Albanese explains is free of staff during weekends, so he and his wife Jodie Haydon cook for themselves, Crabb closely observes the way in which the Prime Minster prepares orecchiette pasta with broccolini, anchovies, garlic and chilli.
“We joke about his level of control and his plan about how to make that dish – every single step as economically as possible,” says Crabb. “I wasn’t allowed to help because, as he said, ‘I grew up in a two-person household. It was either me cooking or mum cooking.’
“Like everybody in Australia, I know that he was raised in public housing. And he was home alone, from the age of 12, quite a lot, while his mother was in hospital. And I think that kids who are thrust into that position grow up different. I think that that has influenced the way he runs his office. He has come through so many bruising political situations. He’s lost a lot of fights. But he’s won a lot. As a result, I think he’s a highly resilient person.”
At one point during the meal preparation, Crabb, who has been diagnosed with ADHD, half-jests that she can spot Albanese’s “neurodivergence” in his attention to detail. “People who go into politics have all sorts of different brain make-ups. We’re all more conscious of the differences in brain chemistry.”
In episode five, Burns shares his recent ADHD diagnoses. “That has completely changed the way that [Burns] operates,” says Crabb. “I’m in the same situation … I understand why I get things mixed up and why I lose my cup of tea in the mornings. It’s not a huge deal. It just makes you better at being good at the things you’re good at, and not getting your undies in a bunch about the things you’re bad at … So I’m not laughing at this at all. You can tell from the way people behave what sort of brain they have.”
Writing will always be Crabb’s first love, her columns on ABC News Online, where she is chief political writer, offering sage and witty insight into the political events of the day. But she has grown into her on-screen persona, first through Kitchen Cabinet, and then her historical food series, Back in Time for Dinner; documentaries, The House and Ms Represented; and electoral history series Annabel Crabb’s Civic Duty.
“If you watch early episodes of Kitchen Cabinet, you can see I’m much more relaxed on camera now. It’s not unlike driving a car – at first, you’re like, ‘I’m going to hit everything!’ and then it becomes a muscle memory.”
As her lunch at the Lodge winds up, Crabb presents her awkward choice of dessert, which inadvertently acts as a metaphor for the overriding theme of their conversation: change. “The most interesting part, I found, was [Albanese’s] reflection on how much he’s changed since those early days … He’s had an incredible life. And he’s been in politics for longer than nearly anybody else in that Parliament.”
Kitchen Cabinet returns at 8.30pm on Tuesday, July 21, on ABC and ABC iview.
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