Loveday Writing

Easton then walks into his restaurant, his employees scurrying out of his way a’ la Miranda Priestly from Devil Wears Prada style, to his kitchen where he berates his staff instantly and his manager, Viv, is pressuring him to schmooze investors. After one of the waitresses returns a meal on the request of a critic that he hates, he loses it – walking through the restaurant to the critic’s table, throwing a pig carcass on it.

Interestingly, the show’s opening credits show the viewers the effects of his actions – going viral and his career going down the toilet – as well as a time lapse.

We then cut to Urailda in South Australia where Diana (Natalie Abbott) and her friend, Nayani (Kavitha Anandasivam) are selling desserts at their Hot Buns stall. They have two customers in front of them taking photos of the desserts, only to go Zhao’s food truck. They decide to call it a day due to a lack of sales, we then cut to Diana having dinner with her mother, Denise, and stepfather, Brett, with her mother pressuring her to enrol at uni. They get a knock at the door, Diana answers it to find Easton standing there.

Easton eats dinner with them where it’s revealed that Easton and Denise are siblings, his real name is Jimmy, Brett and Denise met after he installed blinds for her after she split with Diana’s father, and Easton and Denise haven’t spoken in 30 years. After Brett mentions Diana has Easton’s cooking genes, Denise snaps at Easton and tells him to go and stay with their father. Diana drives Easton to his father, Jim’s (Peter Carroll), house, during the car ride Diana tells him about her desserts, asks him whether they can have a cookout at Jim’s, and tells him that his mother, June’s, recipes inspire her. He then finds and takes June’s cookbook out of her car.

When he arrives at Jim’s, he discovers that Jim is a hoarder. While Jim doesn’t give Easton a warm welcome, he lets him stay in his old room. While he settles in, he looks through June’s cookbook and Googles Ben Zhao, Diana’s rival and local celebrity chef. The next morning, while Diana is baking and talking to Nayani about how Easton could help her establish her baking career, Easton texts her asking for a lift to a radio interview. During the radio interview, Easton tries to talk about coming home and re-launching his career, but the radio hosts keep talking about his Shanghai incident and make fun of him.

As they are leaving the city, Diana calls Easton out for not listening to her advice about lying low, and exactly where he started in his career. In turn, Easton insults her about her weight, she then forces her box of desserts in his arms, and leaves him stranded. Later, Diana is enrolling at uni, and Easton, having found himself a ute, goes to see Ben Zhao at his restaurant.

While Easton and Zhao are chatting it is revealed that Easton fired Zhao in his past, and Zhao offers Easton his food to try, while Easton is trying to offer him a partnership in his upcoming restaurant. While Easton is driving home after their chat, he calls Zhao a prick, and break downs when an emu blocks his way by lying on the road.

He walks home to find Jim trying to shoot rabbits. While they are chatting by the fire pit, Jim is eating Diana’s desserts. When Easton points out that Jim doesn’t like desserts, Jim counters that he likes Diana’s. Easton tries one and comments that it tastes like June’s custard. When Easton asks Jim how long it has been since he used the fire pit, Jim tells him it’s been a while and that if he is going to have a cookout that he should invite Diana. He sends a series of texts to Diana inviting her to dinner, apologising for his treatment of her earlier.

Diana comes to the cookout and compliments his cooking of one of the rabbits Jim shot, in return, he compliments her on her desserts, and tells her that June is the reason he started cooking. He returns June’s cookbook to her, and she informs him that her method is to use June’s recipes with her own twist.

Easton asks her if she’s going to stick it out at her stall, she informs him that she probably won’t have the stall for much longer as she’s broke and Denise is pressuring her to go to uni (although why she doesn’t push a baking apprenticeship for her, if she’s going to push anything, is beyond me). Easton offers Diana a partnership in his new restaurant, informing her that they will open in a month.

As mentioned earlier, I felt this pilot did its job perfectly – it established Easton as the celebrity chef fallen from grace, with nowhere else to go but home, and partnering up with his pastry-chef-in-the-making niece, Diana. I appreciated that all of the characters flaws and quirks were on display straight off the bat, and that while Diana doesn’t have as bad a temper as Easton, she clearly has a similar personality to him, and isn’t afraid to call him out or stand up to him. I feel that their dynamic and the show itself wouldn’t work if she was this meek, quiet, wallflower. I’m looking forward to seeing their relationship and dreams progress. I’m also looking forward to seeing what impact they will have on their competitor, Zhao.

I’m looking forward to reviewing the rest of the season.

Stray Observations:

-According to Easton, Nigella Lawson is a hack.

-Diana has Easton listed in her phone as “Uncle Fuck”.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I’m sorry, did I just interrupt a group prostate exam?” (Easton to his staff, this is also the first line of dialogue)
• “Well send them my apologies, along with a photo of my Michelin-starred arse, and tell that critic hack that the only opinion I trust from her is what her editor’s balls taste like.” (Easton to Viv on the investors and then the food critic)
• “Excuse me Chef, the hag on 9 says ‘hello’ and she would like to return her ‘over-salty quenelle back to 1991.’ Please for your response?” (Waitress to Easton on the critic returning her meal to the kitchen).
• “This strumpet wanna humpet that crumpet.” “You might actually have to, I dunno, have a conversation with him first.” “Nah, I’m a zero to 100 kind of girl.” (Diana-Nayani-Diana on Zhao’s sous chef)
• “Cockhead!” “Diana!” “He’s my father I can call him whatever I want.” (Diana-Brett-Denise-Diana on Diana’s father)
• “You don’t think a chef has thrown an animal carcass at someone before? It’s a beat-up!” (Easton on his incident in Shanghai)
• “Your room’s in the same spot, like you now, full of shit.” (Jim to Easton)
• “I’m going to bed.” “Don’t choke on your own vomit.” “Don’t drown in your own bullshit.” (Jim-Diana-Jim)