A beautiful three course dinner surrounded by a circus. That's
how Reece Hignell describes the only regional event on the
Sydney WorldPride calendar.
Goosebumps. That's all I feel. I'm just stoked. I think it's
amazing for Newcastle. I think Newcastle needs stuff like this
and I'm so like so grateful that people at WorldPride see that in
Newcastle.
Pink Salt was billed as the signature food event. It was all
about exciting the senses. Three prominent queer chefs Christine
Manfield, Nornie Bero and Reece Hignell shared the cooking while
drag queens and special guests entertained.
I think, for our industry like it is a very masculine industry.
And it's really great that WorldPride had seen that and
said, Okay, well we're gonna do a cooking event, we're going to
do a dinner, we're going to invite prevalent queer chefs
from around the country to Newcastle and create an event
where they are the stars.
Reece is a well known name, after two seasons on MasterChef.
He's no stranger to rubbing shoulders with the world's top
chefs. But for the Pink Salt dinner. He worked alongside a
chef he could barely pluck up the courage to introduce himself to.
Nornie Bero from Melbourne and she is incredible. I've been a
massive fan of hers for a few years now. And actually, when
I've was at the Australian Open, I saw her there. And I was
petrified to say hello because I was fangirling about her. But
now I get to work with her.
When it comes to cooking his Nan is his biggest inspiration.
You'd go to her house and there'd be fresh scones,
bickies. I kind of didn't yet pick up the whisk, if you will,
until I was about 12. It was fun. And I still remember it to
this day because it was a really cool experience and that kind of
like flicked the ignition on and after that I just was fully invested.
Nan may have lit the fire on Reece's passion for baking. But
it was social media that stoked the flames.
I learned how to bake cakes, I learnt learn how to make
mousses, anything that I made on MasterChef I learned on YouTube
really because yeah, I just didn't have a mentor I suppose anymore.
It was a passion and side gig until he took a leap of faith
that changed his life.
Yeah, getting into MasterChef has like wholeheartedly been the
best thing that I've done, maybe career wise and self development
wise. It was fun.
He loved his experience on both seasons. And so did the queer community.
People were able to fall in love with me for my personality and
then kind of follow my journey for my drive and the like queer
community was amazing towards me, just so supportive. And so loving.
And celebrating the contribution of queer chefs at WorldPride is
a way of paying back that support.
The word pride is special, and it's something that I think
everyone on the queer spectrum should at some point in their
life fully embrace. I see myself as a gay person. That is
incredibly special. I feel like I'm lucky. Like at some point
like in my creation, a little bit of glitter got sprinkled
over me and I got something — a gift — that wasn't given to a lot
of other people. So I think pride is a journey. Pride is
complex. But when you are able to stand back and reflect and
acknowledge yourself as who you are, that's where pride becomes
special and unique and is your power.