What drives Hayden Quinn?

He’s hosted Surfing the Menu: Next Generation, been a Cleo Bachelor of the Year and authored several cookbooks, but while multiple business opportunities doors have opened since MasterChef 2011, it was his love of food that propelled him.

“I had no idea about the world of television. It was because I wanted to do something different and new,” he tells TV Tonight.

“Unlike Matt (Moran) & Anna (Polyviou) I’m not a professionally-trained chef. I’ve not done the culinary school, TAFE or apprenticeship. I learned at home, just like the families we have here.

“I haven’t had that ‘oomph’ to want to do a restaurant or a café.

“I own a gym with 2 mates and have a partnership with a wine label that we sell on Jetstar and Dan Murphys. And a couple of other little businesses.

“But a restaurant is very much a fulltime thing and I really enjoy what I do at the moment with the gym, the wine, writing for Delicious magazine, and lots of stuff in the world of social media, food, travel, lifestyle.

“If there was a restaurant opportunity it would be later down the track, but then I would probably have kids and be too hard. Matt will hear me saying this and say that I’m a sook!”

Joining Matt Moran, Anna Polyviou and food critic Tom Parker Bowles, Quinn is one of 4 judges on Nine’s latest food series. As the show’s resident “home-trained chef” he says the 4 all bring something different to the TV table, without reality TV rivalry.

“Matt is very much the leading light behind the scenes. He’s worked in this industry a long time, so he mentors and guides you along,” he continues.

“I only met Anna when we walked on set but she’s very vivacious, outgoing and warm, so we get along well. And Tom is a legend. I didn’t know what to expect with him. He’s the nicest, most normal bloke you could come across. We share a trailer together.

“I need to take him surfing! He wants to go to Byron or Noosa.

“We’re all very different in our backgrounds but we have connected quite well, which I hope comes across.”

While Nine’s series is in primetime, it is Surfing the Menu: Next Generation with Dan Churchill that has become a quiet achiever, sold to SBS Food Network, Asia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Latin America, Germany Italy and 11 airlines. Not bad.

Quinn says he still yearned for something bigger.

“This project has been a godsend. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s an opportunity I was presented and am incredibly grateful for. Over the past year and a half I’ve done a number of screen tests for different shows with different networks. They haven’t all come off,” he concedes.

“But this is something I’ve always seen myself having the opportunity to do. I’ve always wanted to be a part of something much bigger, especially a show like this that’s so uplifting and family-friendly.”

Family Food Fight is Nine’s latest attempt at owning a food reality series, after previous outings with The Hot Plate and The Great Australian Bake Off. In the competitive genre, it has focussed on cultural cuisines and home cooking.

“It’s very reminiscent of my family and families I have had dinner with. It’s fun, it’s lively, it’s exciting, happy, sad… it’s fighting one minute and crying the next with joy. It’s what people deal with every night of the week when they are having dinner: the moments around the dinner table that create natural drama.

“It’s Christmas dinner on steroids every night of the week in the Family Food Fight kitchen!”

Family Food Fight airs Sunday – Wednesday on Nine.