Kitchen Cabinet

Television ABC
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Revived for 2023

Kitchen Cabinet is back! In 2023, Annabel Crabb will be cooking and eating with some of the new Parliament’s most fascinating and powerful figures, hailing from across the political spectrum. The premise of the show is simple. Annabel visits the home of a prominent politician; they cook their favourite meal and Annabel brings dessert. Along the way, they have the kinds of conversations that are never ordinarily possible in the frenetic pace of the daily news cycle. What makes these humans choose politics? What would they give anything to defend? How are they dicing onions? It’s amazing what you can cover in a half hour of Kitchen Cabinet, which in its first six series elicited tears, laughter and confidences out of politicians from the Lodge to the backbench. With a whole new crop of politicians in the parliament since the last series in 2016, it’s time to head back to the kitchen.

Kitchen Cabinet is an ABC Production. Writer/Presenter: Annabel Crabb, Executive Producer: Madeleine Hawcroft, Director: Stamatia Maroupas.

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It’s time to head back to the kitchen! ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabb starts in August

Join host Annabel Crabb – a long-term perpetrator of the culinary political home invasion – for a brand-new season of Kitchen Cabinet from Tuesday 15 August at 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.

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The 2022 election delivered the Australian public a change in government, a new Prime Minister, a bumper crop of Independent MPs, our most diverse parliament yet, and a rich array of new interview subjects.

​This season in Kitchen Cabinet, Annabel will visit the homes of eight significant politicians (in alphabetical order): Former Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews, Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Western Sydney Independent Dai Le, Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John, Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe and Labor Minister Anika Wells.

​“The Parliament is changing,” says Annabel, who joined the Parliamentary Press Gallery in 1999. “More and more, it reflects the Australia you see when you walk down the street. I’ve always been fascinated by what drives human beings to seek public office. And as the Parliament gets more diverse, the stories get better and better.”

​The Kitchen Cabinet premise – devised by Annabel for the ABC in 2011 – is simple. Annabel visits the home of a prominent politician; they cook a meal together and she brings dessert.

​“It’s a different kind of interview from the standard in-studio format,” Annabel says. “Because they’re in their own homes, politicians can’t reach for the same tried-and-true deflective forms of words that they rely upon in short studio interviews. And the interviewer can ask questions that are a lot more personal.

​“Which for a nosy person is massively useful. So I can ask, for instance, how Peter Dutton feels about being likened to a potato, or how his traumatic experience in the Queensland Police changed him as a person. Or how Anika Wells manages three kids and a ministerial job while also needing hospital treatment every eight weeks. Or go the darkest spots in Dai Le’s life, when she was convinced she would die. Every single politician we elect has a back-story that dictates the way they behave in politics. And whether you love or loathe them, it’s always worth knowing that story.”

Kitchen Cabinet originally aired over six seasons from 2012 – 2016 and included more than 40 politicians from around Australia from Prime Ministers to backbenchers. All episodes are available to watch, free, on ABC iview. So, while you are waiting for the new series to start from August 15, go find the senior politician with the Bart Simpson bedspread, the one who nearly set Annabel on fire, the one who hasn’t let a professional cut her hair since the 1970s and more.

Production credit:
Director Stamatia Maroupas (Ms Represented, The House, Kitchen Cabinet, Queerstralia), Executive Producer Madeleine Hawcroft (The House, Kitchen Cabinet, Back In Time for the Corner Shop), Producer Pauline Ernesto*,* Associate Producer Brett Worthington Editors Elizabeth Graetz & Sally Moran

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Update:

Join Annabel Crabb as she breaks bread with eight of the Federal Parliament’s most fascinating and powerful figures from across the political spectrum.

The 2022 election changed the face of the parliament…and the Prime Minister too. So Annabel Crabb
is knocking on doors, and breaking bread with some fascinating figures in the federal parliament.

In this season:
• At his outer Brisbane home Peter Dutton explains how a self-confessed shy kid became the Leader
of the Opposition. Annabel interrogates how his career as a Queensland police officer has left a
lasting impression on his politics.

• Western Sydney Independent Dai Le, while making bánh xèo, tells of her childhood escape as a
refugee from Vietnam, a tale that includes storms, flying fish and pirates. She also outlines why
the major parties should no longer assume any seat is ‘safe’.

• Annabel dines with Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney and delves into her rich
life story.

• Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie was forced to resign from Cabinet in 2020, and over trout
pasta, she explains the loneliness that comes from being in the eye of a political scandal. She
also instructs Annabel in the art of clay target shooting as a Wodonga rifle range.

• Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe is one of the most outspoken people in the current parliament.
Annabel delves into what has shaped her life and views.

• Former Home Affairs Minister and Liberal MP Karen Andrews has announced she will resign at the
next election, and in this candid interview she describes why Parliament House is the most sexist
environment she’s ever worked in (and for a mechanical engineer who cut her teeth in blokey power
stations, this is saying something.)

• Labor Minister for Aged Care and Sport Anika Wells juggles a big job, three young kids and a
chronic illness. While batch cooking a very large lasagne she explains why she in a hurry to make
her political mark.

• Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John has always stood out in the parliament. At age 23 he was the
youngest person to join the Senate and the first Senator to use a wheelchair. Now 28, he discusses
with Annabel how being young and living with a disability has shaped his approach to politics.

EPISODE ORDER TBC

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People wonder why the ABC’s below 40 demographics perform so poorly - this sort of programming slop should give a fair indication.

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This programme has been hugely influential it made our former PM believe that curry was all he needed to present a human image to the public

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I think we know enough about what these people are like. How about some MPs who don’t quite get so much exposure, more like some of the other ones listed.

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I swear this show only exists to rehabilitate the public perception of politicians and to re-humanise them - it’s made for people as you’ve identified. It also does little to dissuade people’s opinions that our political media are too close to politicians

I couldn’t give two hoots what these people like to eat.

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Update

Episode 1: Dai Le.

Tuesday August 15 8:00pm

Annabel goes to Western Sydney to meet with Independent Dai Le. Their first stop: Cabramatta, to source ingredients for a crispy Vietnamese pancake, bánh xèo.

This Independent rose to prominence in 2022 when she snatched the seat of Fowler from the expectant hands of Labor’s Kristina Keneally.

Once in the kitchen, Le tells her refugee escape story and how she survived war, cancer AND pirates on her way to being both a local and federal politician.

Episode 2: Peter Dutton

Tuesday August 22 8:00pm

Annabel visits the outer Brisbane property of the Leader of the Liberal party to find out what makes this political hardman tick. On the menu; seafood chowder.

In this candid interview, Dutton opens up about his family life and how his early career as a Queensland cop helped shape his world view.

Dutton reflects on some of his more controversial public statements, why he likes to meditate and how a self-confessed shy kid became the Leader of the Opposition.

Episode 3: Linda Burney

Tuesday August 29 8:00pm

Linda Burney is probably the best example in the Australian Parliament of how profoundly a nation can change in a lifetime.

Burney was born at a time when her Indigenous father did not automatically have the right to vote. She grew up to become the first Indigenous woman to sit in the NSW Parliament, and then the first Indigenous woman to sit in the federal House of Representatives.

On the way, Burney has encountered profound personal adversity, losing her husband and then her son in tragic circumstances.

Episode 4: Lidia Thorpe

Tuesday September 05 8:00pm

Annabel travels to Melbourne to sit down with Senator Lidia Thorpe – elected as a Green, and now sitting as an Independent.

Over her short career in the Senate, Thorpe has become one of the Parliament’s most recognisable faces. A teenage Mum, Thorpe escaped an abusive relationship and grew up through Indigenous politics to enter first the Victorian Parliament and then the Senate. Noted for her fiery ways, Thorpe also has a ribald sense of humour.

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Independent Australia having its 2 cents worth :slight_smile:

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Episode 5

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Tuesday 12 September 8.00pm

On tonight’s episode, Annabel heads to the Gold Coast, to cook a steamboat with former Home Affairs minister Karen Andrews and she meet Karen’s quirky pets.

The former mechanical engineer has always worked in male dominated industries, but she explains why entering politics was the first time she had to fight for things simply because she was a woman.

This is Andrews’ last term in the Parliament, and she speaks candidly about the Liberal leadership, how cultural elements of the parliament can hold back women and why she loves Australian made hand sanitiser.

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Episode 6

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Tuesday 19 September 8.00pm

Join Annabel Crabb as she breaks bread with eight of the Federal Parliament’s most fascinating and powerful figures from across the political spectrum. Tonight, Green’s Senator for WA, Jordan Steele-John .

What if you got elected as Australia’s youngest ever Senator and made your way to Canberra in one of your first ever plane flights… only to discover you couldn’t get through the office door? That was the experience of Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John, a British migrant and gamer nerd who’s changing the Parliament’s understanding of disability. He’s also a chocolate fiend and an experimental chef, as Annabel discovers when she visits him in Perth.

Production credit: Director Stamatia Maroupas (Ms Represented, The House, Kitchen Cabinet, Queerstralia), Executive Producer Madeleine Hawcroft (The House, Kitchen Cabinet, Back In Time for the Corner Shop), Producer Pauline Ernesto, Associate Producer Brett Worthington Editors Elizabeth Graetz & Sally Moran.

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Episode 7

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Tuesday 26 September 8.00pm

Annabel voyages to Wodonga in Victoria to meet with National’s Senator Bridget McKenzie. After a quick pit stop at a rifle range to blast some clay targets, the pair retire to McKenzie’s regional home to make a smoked trout pasta.

McKenzie reveals what it is like to be in the centre of a political scandal and how a regional kid who dreamed of being spy ended up in politics.

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https://tvtonight.com.au/2023/09/i-do-it-because-it-works-annabel-crabb-responds-to-criticism-of-kitchen-cabinet.html

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Quite a list when you put them all together.

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Whilst I know that Dutton had been a quite vocal opponent of the No for the plebiscite, IIRC I thought he voted yes for the Marriage amendment when parliament voted on it back in 2017?

No doubt to appease the public’s attitude towards him to show that he’s a ‘Big Softie with LOTS of compassion and love’.

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Episode 8 (final)

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Tuesday 3 October 8.00pm

Annabel travels to Brisbane to cook with the youngest minister in the Albanese Government. At age 38, Anika Wells is responsible for the Aged Care and Sport portfolios.

Anika Wells has three children under the age of six, and so enlists Annabel to help batch cook a colossal lasagne that will hide more than 2.5 kilos of vegetables from her unsuspecting children. Whilst blending large amounts of vegetables in a food processor they discuss ambition, ultimate frisbee, gender in politics, plus juggling high pressure ministerial portfolios, a young family and a chronic disease.

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