Adam Liaw is a cook, TV presenter and writer based in Sydney. He’s also a life-long Crows fan and became an Ambassador of the Club in 2012.
The winner of MasterChef Australia’s second (2010) season, Adam’s triumph on the show still remains the No.1 most watched non-sporting event in Australian television history. Ironically, the runner-up of the second season, Callum Hann, is also an Adelaide supporter and Ambassador.
Adam currently hosts the primetime food and travel program Destination Flavour on Australia’s SBS network, and he is the author of the two cookbooks – Asian After Work and Two Asian Kitchens. He writes a regular column for The Wall Street Journal’s Scene Asia and contributes regularly to Australian newspapers and magazines. Adam is a qualified lawyer and is currently UNICEF Australia’s National Ambassador for Nutrition.
How and why did you start supporting the Crows?
I’ve been a Crows supporter since the start. I think state pride had a lot to do with it at the beginning; just seeing how well SA could match it with the interstate teams.
How often do you watch Crows games?
Every week. I travel a lot so I don’t get to the grounds as much as I would like, but I watch the games on TV or my iPad. I used to live in Japan and even before the AFL had international online subscriptions or iPads were invented, I would make the long trek every weekend to the one pub in Tokyo that showed AFL games.
Where is the quirkiest place you’ve watched a Crows game?
Spending most of my time filming a travel series means that pretty much every week I watch the game in a weird place! I’ve watched games on my iPad on a boat in Greece, in a tent three hours’ drive north of Broome, huddled in a car in the rain by a river in New Zealand. All I can say is, thank goodness for 4G and Wi-Fi.
Do you have any Crows memorabilia?
Every time I try to bid on something at the auctions I get outbid! I’ll just have to make do with my two premiership commemorative scarves.
Tell us what you’re up to at the moment …
I have a new food and travel series called Destination Flavour: Down Under that airs on Thursday nights at 8pm on SBS ONE, and my third cookbook “Adam’s Big Pot” has just been released. It’s all about simple family-style cooking with a bit of an Asian twist. On the personal side, my wife and I have a little boy named Christopher who just turned 1, so he’s keeping us very busy!
What’s your favourite Crows story?
I remember going to LA on a work trip back in, probably, 2006 and Andrew McLeod was picking up his rental car with his family at the same time as me. I really wanted to ask for his autograph so I was just hanging around waiting for ages while he was going through the paperwork. The staff kept telling me that I could go to my car, but I didn’t want to leave. After about 20 minutes everyone was just staring at my wondering why I was still hanging around, so I just left feeling pretty embarrassed. I’ve met Bunji a few times in the rooms after games since then but still haven’t told him the story. I did get his autography finally, though!
