Reality TV star Hayden Quinn has swapped MasterChef’s kitchen for The Floor’s grid in the hopes of winning the $200,000 grand prize with his specialised topic of ‘seafood’.
And in a candid chat with New Idea, the 39-year-old cook confesses that doing Channel Nine’s ratings juggernaut was so much easier than the three times he competed on the cooking show!
“MasterChef is quite stressful,” Hayden spills. “It’s very hands-on, creative, think-on-your-feet and quite physical! There’s a lot of movement … you could be outside, offsite, in a kitchen, or in the studio.”
With a laugh, he adds, “The good thing about The Floor is you’re just standing there. On The Floor, you have your topic and the topics around you.
“You can pace it out and do your research and study slowly. With MasterChef, you need this breadth of knowledge about food and different culinary skills that can be pulled out at any moment. So it can be a little bit more challenging.”
For those watching at home, wondering what it’s really like to appear on The Floor, Hayden insists it’s much the same, especially as you have a practice run watching the other contestants!
“Being on the floor physically while we’re filming is the same as being at home, because you’re watching it live,” he explains.
“You’re having the same reactions and getting in behind the person you want to win.
“And you’re also like in your head, obviously you can’t scream out like you do at home, but in your head, you’re sort of answering the questions as you go.
“So, you sort of get a little bit of a practice run without actually doing it.”
Although that doesn’t mean The Floor was necessarily mentally easy, with Hayden sharing the nerves get to you when you’re finally up there duelling.
“But, the good thing about The Floor for me was that it wasn’t my wheelhouse,” he adds. “So, if I stuffed up royally, it wasn’t going to be like, ‘oh my God, look at this idiot!’”
And when he finally made it up to The Floor, any game plan he might have had went right out the window!
“You have a bit of a game plan, but that game plan can change really quickly because the person prior to you might have just got out or they’ve just taken over another territory,” he explains.
“Things change and shift on the board really quickly, especially as more and more people sort of drop off.”
Thankfully, host Rodger Corser does his job well, guiding the contestants to focus on the game, rather than their TV nerves!
“He’s super chilled, really friendly, brings everyone back down to earth and just like makes it feel like a lot of fun, but also very serious at the same time,” Hayden says.
“He has a lot of fun with it and brings the nerves down, gets everyone focused.”
Needless to say, having always wanted to appear on a game show, The Floor was a dream come true for Hayden, and it certainly lived up to expectations!
The Floor continues on Channel Nine on Wednesday at 9pm.
