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How are you guys feeling?
Tyson: Still in a little bit of shock this morning.
Did you get any sleep?
Tyson: A couple of hours.
You guys didn’t know the final result until the rest of us, right?
Amy: Yes, that’s correct. We watched it at the same time as everyone else did last night.
Who did you watch it with?
Amy: We had a big party with family and friends and some of the other contestants. Karen and Ros flew up from Melbourne to be with us, Bec flew over from Perth and then we had all the other Brisbane teams with us as well. It was great.
Were you nervous leading up to last night’s show?
Amy: We were excited and nervous. We’d kind of put it out of our minds since we finished filming but in the last week or so, once everyone knew we were in the grand final and we’d been doing lots of interviews about it, it started to get a little bit more nervous going into last night.
How much has your life changed?
Tyson: I definitely think my life has changed significantly in the last 12 months. This time last year I was an Uber driver and now I’m an MKR champion, I’ve started a chef’s apprenticeship, I’m already living the dream. It’s insane to think the progress and the journey we’ve gone on
Amy: I’ve gone back to my job, I work in HR for a law firm, but I guess, we didn’t go into this to be famous or anything but all of the interviews and the parties and the photo shoots have been really cool. Also Tyson and I are very close now and we’ve discovered we’re a great team when it comes to cooking so we’re brainstorming ideas on how to continue that together and hopefully get a little bit of that Amy and Tyson weirdness in food out into the public.
So by the sounds of it the competition only positively affected your relationship?
Amy: Yeah, we’ve always been really close – close in age and we’re similar but we’re also very different. I’m a lunatic and I’m very bossy whereas Tyson is the most patient person you’ll ever meet.
You’ve had a few months in between filming wrapping up and the show airing. Did you miss MKR when filming wrapped?
Amy: Yeah, it was a bit like Stockholm syndrome where it was really intense and sometimes not pleasant but then once we were back to our lives we did miss it. We missed hanging out with the other contestants probably more so than anything. We became a little family.
How much has the fame aspect affected your day-to-day lives?
Tyson: It’s really weird. We’ve gotten fairly used to it over the last couple of months but I don’t think it’ll ever be normal.
Amy: It’s cool that you can walk down the street and people will want to take a photo with you and you have younger teenagers coming up and saying that we’ve inspired them to start cooking and things like that so that’s really cool.
Nothing too strange has happened yet. You never realise when people are taking your photos. There have been quite a few photos that got published and we had no idea someone was taking them so when you look at them you think, ‘Oh that’s really weird! I should probably not act like a lunatic in public anymore.’
Tyson you were pictured with Courtney and now it looks like you’re an item – is this true?
Tyson: Courtney is very happy with her boyfriend, not me!
Are you actually dating anyone at the moment Tyson?
Tyson: No, it’s [my dating life] a bit quiet at the moment. I’ve got a lot going on at work at the moment, and this MKR stuff is going crazy, I don’t have a lot of time.
Amy: Well I am very single and willing to date though! I want to find love – I’m quite open to the idea of finding someone. Tall, dark and handsome. They have to want to go out to restaurants – I want someone to wine and dine me!
What are your plans to do with the $250,000 prize money?
Amy: We didn’t want to count out chickens so we haven’t really thought too much about what we’re going to do but just talking this morning we think we will eventually do something – I know a lot of people want to try our food because it is a little bit different, particularly our desserts. People are just fascinated with our desserts that we do so we’re just trying to think of a way to make that accessible. A cookbook or a food truck or pop-up restaurants and things; we’re open to all ideas. Valerie and Courtney’s sauces did really well in the supermarket and I think they’re planning on doing a whole range of sauces, which they should because they are amazing.
Any plans to do TV again?
Amy: I’m not sure! I think Australia’s probably seen enough of our mugs. I think if it was the right opportunity then we would definitely we be willing to explore it.
