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Whatsapp Food critic and television personality Matt Preston says he's no fan of 'superfoods'.

He has become the instantly recognisable chortling face of food in Australia, but Matt Preston is loath to follow a food trend. He laments the loss of joy in home cooking and expresses disdain for the cult of the superfood.

It's curious to hear Matt Preston sound off about food trends, overcomplicating chefs and foodies because of course he's responsible for at least some of it.

My grandmother always used to say, 'When you're listening to advice, see if there's a price tag at the end.'

Every time he and his MasterChef co-hosts theatrically ogle a towering croquembouche, a portion of the population runs off to attempt the same culinary feat at home.

But when Preston divides home cooking into two categories—'fast and fabulous, and stunt cooking'—it's clear he's far more closely aligned with the former.

'There's the giant multi-layer cakes with the dribbles on top, these things like the croquembouche, [like] a culinary Everest,' he says.

'But on the other side, it's about finding quick and easy ways to get lots of flavour on the plate. I'm not a fan and don't do that showy-off stuff.'

In conversation, Preston seems a lot more like his original incarnation as a Fairfax food writer whose droll restaurant reviews nailed the balance between scathing cynicism and beaming enthusiasm.

His MasterChef co-host and close friend George Calombaris might currently be the face of a health supplements brand, but that doesn't stop Preston railing against self-anointed health professionals and diet trends.

'My grandmother always used to say, "When you're listening to advice, see if there's a price-tag at the end,"' says Preston.

'There's so much misinformation around, we start to panic.

'One moment we're being told we can't eat fat, now we can't eat this, and it always starts with this line: "Things were so much better in our grandparent's day." Dodgy statement, because that's not necessarily true, but also then there's this strange leap toward selling supplements or an eight- or 12-step process.'

Preston is particularly damning of so-called 'superfoods', dismissing such trends as 'shonky marketing'.

'I hate the idea of superfoods. I think there's a real danger that we get flummoxed by the fact that now it's not kale anymore, it's cauliflower [or that] chia seeds are now being replaced by boab.'

'You become a member of the cult and you buy into the tribe.

'Kale is just silverbeet with a bubble-perm. The whole point surely should be about taste.'

And therein lies Preston's passion: flavour and the enjoyment that accompanies experiencing it with others.

Related: The death of the dinner party

Preston was recently involved in a large research project that examined Australians' attitudes to food. He seems genuinely saddened to report that health has now overtaken joy as the primary reason Australians cook at home.

He is equally averse to the performative elements and sense of pressure he sees as creeping into people's kitchens.

'Cooking should be inclusive, it should be about positive things.

'I want to be in that gang who say, "This is a quick an easy way to get something very delicious."

'Hopefully we're moving away from that idea of the 'dinner party', where you hunted and gathered from stores for days and stressed about it. It's so anti-Australian. Surely the whole idea of what Australians are great at is relaxed, casual and delicious.

'I'm coming round to talk to you and see you. It's not about showing off, it's about spending time with people.'

So while he might make his living from playing off the rampant enthusiasm of foodie crowds, Preston would sooner sit back and chuckle at them than join the tribe.

'I watch sugar-free people and paleo people bickering about whether or not you can eat dairy. Relax guys, we're all in the same team.

'Be positive and joyous about food because, by and large, food is a pretty great thing.'

Matt Preston goes back to basics Listen to the full interview on Blueprint for Living

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