Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Ganesh Raj Teaches Us How To Cook The Perfect Steak!

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

NZ chef Ganesh Raj teaches us how to cook the perfect steak as he previews the new TV show, Cooks On Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, with a bonus podcast from Jono and Ben. There's a brand new show on tonight, 7.30pm TVNZ1. It's called Cooks on Fire, searching for New Zealand's best barbecue team. And one of the judges is Chef Ganesh Raj, who joins us in the studio. It's great to see you in the flesh, mate. It's been a while.

Absolutely, man. It's good to be back in the studio. You guys look good. You do too. You've got blemish-free flesh as well. It's good flesh to see you in the flesh. Thank you very much. I look after you.

And if I may say, you're looking fantastic. And I was like, what is your secret to getting younger? No, Ganesh said to me, you're looking good. You've put on good weight. He's like, you've put on good weight. And I said, mate, I have been for two weeks just eating burgers, chips, pizzas. We've been on the road a couple of weeks. And you keep saying, oh, you know, I need to eat better.

There's a nice way to fan-shame me to go, you put on good weight. Listen, you look healthy is what I was trying to say. Maybe that's because in the past you haven't looked that healthy. I feel like that's where we were coming from. At least people care, right? At least people care, my friend. Ganesh Raj with us. Now, you've got a brand new show starting on TV

NZ1 tonight and it sounds bloody exciting Bro, let me tell you Cooks on Fire, 7.30pm TV1 It is a BBQ show like you've never seen before Beautiful outdoor setting But my favourite thing about this show is BBQ from all around the world

Flavours from all around the world. Flavors from all around the world. Plus vegetables. I know, John is looking at me like, what is that? Yeah. What is that? It's a green. What are they doing? It's magic.

It gives you blemish-free skin. Check it out. Right here. Right here, bro. Right? So it's a competition for looking for New Zealand's best barbecue cooks. It is. And it combines all the different types of humans, you know,

brothers, sister, husband, wife, friends. And it takes away this kind of male barbecueness. Yeah. It's like an everybody barbecue show. Oh, awesome. I can't hold my own in a barbecue situation. But people want to see. Like if I came to your house,

I'd be standing behind you the whole time watching you going, can he barbecue? It's such a judgy situation. Or is this just all just a front? Yeah. You want to turn that, turn that. You're like, all right, all whole time watching you going, can he barbecue? It's such a judgy situation. Or is this just all just a front? Yeah. You're like, turn that, turn that. You're like, alright, alright. Are you gonna turn that? The people cook some incredible things on barbecues, you know, the things they do.

Was there one thing in particular, without giving too much away, that you're like, oh my goodness, they cooked that and it was incredible? Wow, okay. The only way I can say this without giving it away is, it is a vegetable that is also a famous emoji. Oh, barbecue. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. And that vegetable, all the teams nailed it. So you decide. Everyone's sitting around. You decide what that is. Were there raindrops after you ate the...

I'm not giving it. You're asking too much of me now. What's a good tip heading into summer? Because everyone loves to asking too much of me now. What's a good tip heading into summer? Because everyone loves to barbecue around the place. Yeah, what's a good tip? What's the one thing that everyone needs to remember? Here's what I like about a barbecue, right? You can have something for everyone on it, right?

You can have vegetables. You can have different types of meat. You can put a pan on it and fry something if you wanted to, right? So I like the idea of everybody getting to choose what they want and then putting it all on the barbecue together and let them come and hang out and turn it a little bit. Oh, so everyone comes. Do you know what I'm saying?

Don't, like, own this barbecue and put a barbed wire fence around it and then you've got to have a password with a fingerprint ID to get past the first, you know what I mean? Yeah, that's nice. Relinquish some power. Because it is, I mean, it holds a special place in New Zealand's heart, the barbecue. 100%. But it's a great social cooking environment.

100%. Because you can't linger around a kitchen. No. You know, but you can outdoors. Yeah, and the whole standing with the beer next to the barbecue. You know, that's like at least two calendars worth of poses you two could do for a charity calendar. We'll do a charity calendar. Lingering with Jono and Ben.

There you go. That's my gift to you. Barbecue lingering. Because I've had a bit of a shaky track record on the barbecue. I gave my whole family camp a backup. Uncooked chicken that I didn't quite deliver enough on. What I do appreciate about the chicken though is those

that insert a beer can inside of it. Yes. And I'm like, hasn't the chicken been through enough already? It has. We need to have it sort of purged on a beer can. I know. Does that work? Does the beer can work? Well, firstly, I'm glad that you, you know, can shame those birds. Yeah, I think it's in their will

though. I think that's where they ask to go out. That's the only time you would do that, right? It was in the will. In fact, I'm going to put it in my will today. Both of you, when I go, can me. What's your favourite? A Heineken? A Heineken's in space?

Heineken in a can. Sitting on top of a barbie. But, bro, have you tried the chicken cooked that way? The reason why it works, two things. One is it hauls the chicken up. But if you leave half a can of beer in it, the beer evaporates and steams through the inside of the chicken too. It is a beautiful flavor thing.

You know, season the top, season the inside, put it over the top, and then let the beer do a little kind of... Like a marinade sort of thing, yeah. Yeah, and that's how you get skin like this. I'm just going to keep going back to that. Cooks on fire tonight at 7.30, TVNZ1. We've got Ganesh Raj. Press, and that's how you get skin like this. I'm just going to keep going back to that. It's good skin. Cooks on fire tonight at 7.30 TVNZ1.

We've got Ganesh Raj. Press, press, press. What a legend. Blemish-free skin. All day, baby. All day. 7.30 tonight. Cooks on fire.

Thanks for coming in, mate. And if you watch the show, you can look out for the hits. Pop out word code, then tune in to the hits breakfast the next day. We hear the cue to call 0800 THE HITS

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