“An Anzac biscuit has to crack – it’s not meant to be soft.”

Pia Miranda is recounting one the baking tips she picked up from members of the Country Women’s Association while hosting ABC TV’s new cooking show, Recipe of the Year.

The actor admits she had thought a CWA “gold ribbon” challenge involving Australia’s most iconic biscuit would be easy.

“But there are lots of rules with biscuits … I called it a cookie, and you could have cut the tension with a knife – I’ll never make that mistake again,” she laughs.

“It was really intense.”

The involvement of CWA members is a unique ingredient that helps Recipe of the Year stand out among the smorgasbord of TV cooking competitions. Having Looking for Alibrandi star Miranda and affable TV chef Adam Liaw as hosts dials up the feel-good factor.

While its picturesque setting – a country barn on Cobbitty Farm in NSW – has echoes of the Great British Bake Off­ and the range of recipes might rival those seen on MasterChef, the ABC promises it won’t be serving “restaurant-style dishes or manufactured drama”.

The first episode has the CWA-inspired theme “bring a plate” and sees 20 home cooks of all ages and backgrounds converge on the farm with dishes to share that range from cupcakes and cannoli to savoury fare shaped by diverse cultures and family traditions.

It is clear, as she unabashedly tucks into a plate piled with food alongside Liaw and CWA convenor Ellice Shrader, that Miranda is relishing the experience.

“It’s so up my alley because I love eating so much… I love eating, love cooking,” she tells The New Daily.

“Cooking’s such a big part of Italian culture as well. So when people are sharing their recipes from their heritage, I really understand what they’re talking about because that’s how we pass on traditions and stories and love.”

A communal tasting sees the number of contestants whittled down to 10. In the coming seven weeks, they will take part in various challenges, some judged by CWA members and some by Miranda and Liaw, who also hosts SBS’s The Cook Up.

The main event is a feature recipe challenge based around themes such as comfort food, budget recipes, and celebration, with all the participants sitting down together for a “family meal” to taste and rank dishes. A contestant is eliminated each week until the Recipe of the Year is ultimately crowned.

 

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“It’s like a celebration of Australia through food,” Miranda says.

“And yes, I am having fun. Honestly, Adam and I laughed so much making that show. I had a blast.”

The hosts both have previous experience of reality-TV competitions: Liaw won season two of MasterChef Australia in 2010 and Miranda won Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders in 2019. She says that helped them to relate to what the contestants go through.

“We weren’t watching it as observers as much as we were really feeling it with them because it was bringing back a lot of memories.”

Good memories or bad?

“Well, good, I guess, because we both won our reality-TV  shows. But also bad, in the sense that it was just nerve-racking … I didn’t feel like we were separated from them in that experience.”

Pia Miranda and Adam Liaw are both former reality-TV show winners. Photo: ABC

Miranda, who recently retraced her family’s Italian roots in Sicily with Shaun Micallef’s Origin Odyssey on SBS, says her personal cooking repertoire reflects both sides of her family. She learned to make traditional Italian dishes such as lasagne and stuffed artichokes from her nonna, and also grew up baking things like hedgehog slice with her Australian grandmother.

Baking CWA-style, however, is a whole different story. In the first episode, the judgment in the air is palpable when the contestants tackle the association’s recipe for a jam roll.

“The CWA challenges are so fun to watch and they’re so interesting because they’re less about taste [although that does matter, too] and so much more about following the rules and doing things correctly,” Miranda says.

“That was our best part of the day. Adam and I would run off and go into the control room and snuggle up and watch it and laugh … I could watch Elice judge cakes all day.”

Although contestants obviously wanted to win the weekly feature recipe challenge, it was the CWA gold-ribbon challenge that held the most prestige.

“Everyone wants to make Elice happy. She’s got gravitas.”

Miranda, who is mum to a 13-year-old and 16-year-old, has tried out some of the CWA recipes at home and is especially keen to master scones and sponge cake – maybe with a view to one day even entering the Melbourne Royal Show.

So what’s the best baking hack she picked up while filming Recipe of the Year?

“Not fussing too much with your baking ingredients.

“When you’ve got the batter together… if you mess with it too much, it’s going to affect how it cooks. Do everything quickly and precisely and don’t muck around with your mixture.”

Recipe of the Year premieres on Sunday, October 11, at 7.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview