Australian Story Season 30 Episode 30

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Australian Story Season 30 Episode 30 #CenimaluxMoviesSeries https://www.dailymotion.com/Shumedia

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00:00Kate Reid has always been a perfectionist and that fuelled her big break into the male-dominated

00:22world of Formula One. But her obsessive nature also led her down a very dangerous path.

00:30This is the story of how Kate Reid pulled herself back from the brink and in the process

00:35mastered, of all things, the croissant.

00:38We're heading towards Parliament House, so I'm going to be a Knight of the Order of the

00:48Agricultural Medal of France. Wild.

00:53I've never had a period in my life where I haven't had something to obsess over.

00:59I'm going to be an engineer, a doctor and a Knight by the end of today.

01:05It's like in order for me to be inspired to get out of bed in the morning, I need something to latch

01:12all of my focus on. Kate Reid's story is the dream story.

01:17From F1 to pastry, it's radical.

01:23This is people who excel in patisserie. This is people with aerospace expertise.

01:31This is Kate Reid.

01:32You did not just replicate the croissant, you redefined the croissant.

01:37The croissant was invented in Vienna, celebrated in France, but it might be fair to say that it was

01:45perfected in Melbourne by Kate Reid.

01:48This is the best achievement for among French people and being better than some French.

01:59One of the greatest things for me is the need to have control.

02:02There are many examples in my life of me reaching for things healthy or unhealthy to gain an aspect of

02:14control. And I think that'll probably be my entire life's biggest challenge.

02:27One of the greatest things for me is the best one you can do.

02:34One of the greatest things for me is the best one you can do.

02:36One of the greatest things for me is the best one you can do.

02:37With baking and croissants in particular, it really does require that obsessive,

02:43precise, technical mindset to create the best one you possibly can over and over and over.

02:50So for me, every single croissant represents an opportunity to be better than the last one,

02:57to roll it more perfectly, more symmetrically.

03:02Kate has a level of intensity that is quite unique.

03:08The goal for me is could I egg wash this one more perfectly than I egg washed the last one?

03:13I have tendencies of obsessive compulsive. I am absolutely a perfectionist. It's probably my

03:21greatest flaw, but I try to treat it as a bit of a superpower.

03:27That's an awfully hard thing to put on yourself, that everything has to be perfect. It's not always

03:33perfect. It was a battle for Kate and I believe we're lucky she's still here.

03:41All righty. Baking to me is more than just bringing ingredients together to create something for us

03:47to eat. Baking for me is a science. It's a way to nourish people and it heals me.

03:59They look good. I think Kate's obsessional traits track back to her asthma and the need to fight for

04:10air. When I was growing up very early on in life, I think 18 months old, I was diagnosed with chronic

04:22asthma. We had 13 admissions where she was kept, kept in the hospital. It was a stressful time for both

04:32poor than I. I was sort of seen as the night carer, if you like. And I guess that would have established

04:44a bond that maybe otherwise wouldn't have been there.

04:51The only way that I could be pulled out of an attack would be mum and dad looking after me.

04:56I think it instilled in me early on a sense of probably not being good enough. And I think it

05:08forced me to try and prove myself and be worthy in other ways.

05:13All through Kate's growing up years, if she got onto something, it often became an obsession.

05:28Well, dad's been obsessed with cars my whole life. So I've always been around automotive and racing.

05:36Kate was influenced greatly by my love of motorsport, my love of cars, and the fact that I'm also an

05:44engineer. I cottoned on pretty quickly that if I liked this thing too, then I'd get to spend more

05:50time with him. Yeah, I'm actually disappointed with Science's performance this year. Certainly

05:54Williams would be. We just both loved watching Formula One. It was really the thing that we would do

05:58every week together. In 1996, the Australian Grand Prix moved from its home in Adelaide to Melbourne.

06:07And there is the contact. So this was my first time experiencing an F1 car, and it wasn't a car,

06:13it was just a blur and a noise and a vibration. I'd loved this sport before, but it was that moment,

06:22witnessing it in person, that I was like, oh no, nothing else matters now. This is my whole life.

06:28That's what I'm going to do. I don't know how I'm going to be involved, but I don't want anything

06:33else in my life now other than that. Oh, look, it was passion. She actually did write on a bit of

06:43paper that by the age of 23, she was actually going to have a job in Formula One. I can't believe I'm

06:50sharing this with you. I was such a drama queen. It is titled, My Formula One Pledge. I vow that in

07:00the eight years between my 17th birthday and my 25th birthday, I will give it my all. Give it my best

07:10and strive to be number one. Wait for it. In the shadows of everyone's doubts. That's enough.

07:21It's a pretty daggy note, let's be honest. But it was written by a passionate, determined

07:30teenager with a steely river, certain that she was going to achieve her dream.

07:35I was fascinated by aerospace engineering in how it applied to Formula One.

07:41I just remember Kate studying, studying, studying, wanting to gain access into the RMIT

07:49aerospace program. My life goals really didn't extend past most weekends.

07:54That course is an extremely hard course. The first year, I was quite a bit of health to Kate. The

08:03second year, I gave a bit of advice. The third year, I made cups of tea because I was lost.

08:13I finished aerospace at the end of 2004. I thought I'm going to start writing off to all the Formula One

08:20teams, maybe never contemplating that I was annoying or that I would be one of a thousand

08:26letters that landed on an F1 desk every week. I just thought if I keep trying, it will happen.

08:33The next thing we knew, Kate had been offered a job at Williams in the UK. It was amazing.

08:38She was absolutely elated by it. I mean, for a girl to get a job in the aerolab at Williams F1 was unheard of.

08:54I was suddenly an engineer, an aerodynamicist working for my dream F1 team. It was wild.

09:01I imagined it would be an incredibly collaborative environment, but the best way I can describe it

09:09is it was incredibly static. I was simply just a monkey put in front of a computer to design parts

09:17that I had no input or influence in. I was the only female working in a technical role in a company of

09:26500 people. They hadn't even considered the need for a female toilet. Those sort of things I think

09:36gradually built into a dissatisfaction or a disillusionment of which she was. I didn't have

09:48my friends and family around me, but I was sticking at life in the UK because not living in the UK

09:55anymore meant failing at my dream. If I wasn't working in Formula One, I didn't know who I was or what I was.

10:06And that was really the start of the slippery slope of my mental health becoming very bad.

10:15With Kate's craving for a purpose, not actually having one, I think was really, really challenging for her.

10:26At some point in time, subconsciously, I started to make choices where I could pull aspects of control

10:35back into my life.

10:36I joined a local gym. I would record exactly what I'd eaten. So I'd weighed it and I'd calculated the

10:45calories and I'd record how much exercise I'd done. And then I'd also weigh myself every morning and I'd

10:51record my weight and I could latch onto it and I could control it. And I was getting really good results.

10:57Giving an engineer numbers and facts to focus on is like, that's what we live for.

11:09When she came back one of the Christmases, it was obvious her wellbeing was not good.

11:14And when I questioned her, she was very quick to say, but I'm eating well, I'm actually exercising,

11:24I'm healthy. But there was an obvious drop in weight.

11:27It was none of their business. And I was kind of relieved to go back to the UK,

11:36even though the job that I was in wasn't really giving me any deep fulfilment or stimulation.

11:42I was just happy to get back to the control and the safety of my routine back there.

11:49We actually could see she was spiralling out of control.

11:52I think we knew, we knew what was coming, but she wasn't prepared to let it go.

12:05If I wasn't this groundbreaking female engineer working in Formula One,

12:10then maybe it didn't matter if I didn't exist anymore.

12:16I wasn't just going to keep losing weight and keep existing.

12:19I was going to keep losing weight and die.

12:24We had a call one night and she was clearly not doing well and totally beside herself.

12:34And that's hard.

12:40Dad said to me,

12:41he just told me to come home.

12:53Dad assumed the role that he had countless times in her life and went over to the UK and did what

13:00needed to be done.

13:01And then I remember landing in Melbourne and it was very early in the morning.

13:08Mum had come to the airport to pick us up.

13:17It was terrible.

13:24She was, she was in shocking condition.

13:28It was like, who's that?

13:38It was clear Kate was anorexic.

13:40There was no doubt.

13:45We're told that had we not gone to get her,

13:47we might not have had a daughter to bring back.

13:59So the day I landed back in Australia, I had two meetings that day.

14:03And one of them was with the family GP, but the other one was here at Philippa's.

14:07I'd started to form this seed of an idea that when I returned to Australia,

14:13maybe I'd pursue a career in baking.

14:17It was a way for me to vicariously be around food and ingredients without eating it.

14:24Like essentially working at Philippa's was a nine hour staring competition with temptation.

14:28If I could get through an entire day and resist the temptation to try even a morsel of food,

14:35that was a success for me.

14:39It's the most logical thing and the most difficult thing to understand all at once.

14:44Like all I could think about all day was food because I was starving.

14:50I do remember one day we had brownies out on the counter as a taster.

14:54And I, in that moment, just couldn't resist it. And I tasted a little bit.

14:58And I got home that night and had almost a full blown panic attack.

15:03Yeah, inconsolable.

15:08It wasn't until I really started to build a medical team around me that the enormity

15:12of the situation we were in really came to light.

15:15What do you want to do? Do you want to do the butter or do you want to sift the flour and sugar?

15:18You just go for it and I'll...

15:19No, we're baking together.

15:20We had to find a new GP. And then there had to be a psychologist, a dietitian.

15:28We ended up with a psychiatrist.

15:31All right.

15:32We only later became aware of the fact that the eating disorder is not the cause, it's a symptom.

15:40People think they only need to eat. That's not the problem. That's actually, you know,

15:47it got nothing to do with it. You seemed to understand that it was more than a problem with

15:52the eating. And you just gave me the space to figure it out for myself. And you were just there

15:58and supporting me. When Kate came back, she took over the kitchen. She actually had my mixer going all

16:06the time baking. And she loved to make sure that I was going to eat it.

16:13Well, I was the head chef in the kitchen for a few years there, but probably not for the best

16:17reasons because I had to be in control of what we were eating, didn't I?

16:21You did. I think you thought baking kept your dad and I happy.

16:26I actually find it hard because I didn't want to keep eating all this cake.

16:32Actually, she wore my mixer right. In the end, we had to buy a new one.

16:38I would come home from work and I would eat the minuscule meal that I would insist on preparing.

16:43Mum wasn't allowed to cook. I just became so insular and selfish. The anorexia was filling that

16:53space of my brain that required purpose and control and obsession and focus. And I got

17:01a lot worse before I got better.

17:07Anorexic Kate was a ticking time bomb. Mum and Dad were terrified of the fallout of upsetting her.

17:15Kate was trapped in this anorexic prison and Mum and Dad were trapped in there with her.

17:29I would take myself out walking for hours after dinner every night. I'd rug up this skeletal frame

17:35of a human and Dad said some nights he would just drive around the streets trying to find me.

17:39When you know your kid is sick and you can't fix it, it's really hard. I think all we could do,

17:51all we could ever do is be here. I've got to be honest, I was a bit of a prick, right? I was not

17:58going to treat Kate like an anorexic. I'm not going to treat Kate like she's sick. I'm going to treat Kate

18:02like she's my sister. And I actually think really that helped us a lot.

18:11I was also trying to figure out a new purpose. And until I found that new purpose,

18:17the eating disorder was going to occupy all of that space.

18:23My name's Kate Reid and I'm here to change my life.

18:27So why food? Why MasterChef? You know, I didn't really like Formula One. Kind of heartbreaking.

18:36It's, you know, 15 years of study and work and you think, actually, this isn't really what makes me tick.

18:43When I watch it, I see someone that was desperately trying to find the thing that was going to pull

18:49her out of the eating disorder. Come on, boys.

18:52I think you've kind of got what it might take. Honestly, if that fish was perfectly cooked,

19:02it would be a yes.

19:06It wasn't the right time for Kate. She wasn't in a good place to do that.

19:12Thank you very much. Thank you. That's talent walking out the door there.

19:16I can take myself back to that moment and remember how desperately I just needed something to define me

19:22again. I was slowly gaining confidence in my baking. And the further I pushed my baking education and

19:34knowledge, the more and more satisfaction I got from it. And then I discovered French pastry.

19:40To do it well, it requires precision, control. All of those things that require engineering are also

19:52applicable to pastry. I was well into my French pastry obsession. And I'd read about this particular

20:01book online about Paris patisseries and boulangeries. While this book is incredibly important to me,

20:08it really changed the course of my life. For some reason, she opened up this book on a page. And she

20:17was so taken with the pastry she was looking at. It was taken at a boulangerie in the 10th

20:25arrondissement in Paris. And it was the most hypnotising thing I'd ever seen.

20:30A stack of pain au chocolat, which represents decadence, but it also to me looked a little

20:39bit like aerofoil sections. Maybe an aerodynamicist's brain sees that. I was so inspired by it that

20:47I closed the book, walked up to Camberwell and I bought myself a ticket to Paris.

20:57I think Bob probably was a little bit more encouraging than I, because she still wasn't a good weight.

21:05They couldn't stop me. I wasn't a 14-year-old. I was a 27, 28-year-old with a stubborn mind and

21:19that steely river of determination.

21:21I waited until the very last day I was in Paris to visit the boulangerie from the book.

21:43Next thing you know, in a classic Kate Reid moment, she's visiting the best boulangerie in Paris and then

21:48wangles her way into a work placement there, just like that.

21:52I think the word's chutzpah, isn't it? Oh, gumption. This guy must have got hundreds of applicants a

21:57week from people who are probably twice as qualified, could speak the language.

22:01What is it that made him say yes to Kate?

22:06So specifically the croissant to me is the formula one of the pastry world. It's incredibly technical,

22:13it's difficult to make well, and I guess it's where I found the intersection of

22:18baking, art, science and engineering.

22:22That four weeks in Paris was an important part in my recovery because I wasn't thinking or

22:30worrying about what I was or wasn't eating or how I was or wasn't going to burn it off.

22:35I was eating because I was hungry again.

22:39When Kate got back from her stage at Dupin, she was croissant focused. It was on.

22:51And it just became apparent that no one was making croissants in Melbourne,

22:56anything like what I'd experienced in Paris. I only wanted to make something that was excellent,

23:02so I decided it was best to just focus on making the one product that I had knowledge in.

23:06Kate then said to me, hey, I really want to create a business around the croissant.

23:12And I have to be honest, I thought it was a bit of a crazy idea.

23:14Almost everyone's reaction was, well, you can't just start a business that makes croissants,

23:20no one will come to that. So I found a site and signed the lease, created a business,

23:26did all the things and then had my first day where I decided I was going to start recipe testing.

23:32Okay, so this is test number three.

23:36What she learnt in Paris, barely got it past making the dough. So the rest was up to her.

23:44And so I embarked on three and a half months every day of recipe testing.

23:50I had spreadsheets, I'd record photos and data, and it really was like I was starting to treat the

23:56croissant like a Formula One car. It was classic me, it was all consuming.

24:05Well, it was a fairly tortuous path. I would eat the bad ones.

24:13When she actually perfected the croissant, that put the biggest smile on her face. She knew she'd got it.

24:20And working it out for herself, she came up with something new.

24:30So I'd been operating Loon for about 18 months in this micro bakery wholesale model.

24:36But it was when Cam came on board and we opened the shop to the public. It really took off then.

24:42I thought I was going to just help Kate for a few months, but pretty quickly we realised that it was

24:51going to require full-time commitment from both of us for a long time.

24:57There was just this commotion going around Melbourne of like, have you tried a Loon croissant?

25:01Have you tried a Loon croissant?

25:03We had people arriving from like two o'clock in the morning and by 6.30 there was 120 people lined up

25:09around the block and it was the dead of winter. Some guys would be there at 4.30 in a chair.

25:18I mean, I wouldn't do that, would you?

25:26It was Kate's baby. I mean, I'd never worked in a business before.

25:32A dictatorship? Sorry.

25:36It was a very slow process for me to start making the product. Kate was very focused on controlling

25:44the product. I basically didn't let anyone touch the raw pastry.

25:48I wasn't allowed to touch it. I'm not afraid to upset Kate. I'm probably the only one who's not.

25:54You can't walk on eggshells around a business partner. You have to be able to communicate openly.

25:59I trusted you. But also we could just both be ourselves. And if one of us was rubbing the other

26:05one the wrong way, we'd just scream about it. Yeah. I believe Kate's journey out of anorexia occurred

26:14primarily because of Loon and the requirements of the anorexic voice inside Kate's head just

26:22just didn't get any airtime. It was like the mental real estate was fully consumed by Loon and

26:30pushing it forward and making sure that we did everything we needed to every day to open the doors.

26:38And then Oliver Strand from the New York Times ate one plain croissant and suddenly the New York Times is

26:44questioning that maybe the best croissant in the world is made in Australia at Loon. And we're getting

26:49wild global attention for our croissants. Things were already busy and then that article happened

26:57and the crazy line became something else. There is no such thing as the best croissant in the world

27:04and honestly it wouldn't have mattered if that article had have come out or not. If I'm going to do

27:10something it has to be the best it can possibly be. The healing process from an eating disorder

27:19is very slow. You have to find things in your life that become more important than eating and exercise.

27:33I'm so proud of Kate for overcoming the anorexia. She navigated her way out.

27:37I can't imagine how challenging that would have been. Having to fight yourself.

27:44I've gotten back to a healthy weight and a relationship with food that allows me to live

27:50a rich and fulfilling life. But it is like an addiction. It's something that you have to monitor.

27:58So it's management of rather than full healing and recovery.

28:07She will always have that shadow. But it's what you do with it.

28:12Cheers mama, happy birthday. It definitely flares in times of stress.

28:17But I'm able to catch the early signs and recognise them and act on them.

28:22Of all the mental health illnesses, anorexia has the highest mortality rate and

28:34I feel very lucky that I dodged that. With all that's happened to her,

28:40she survived.

28:53Growing Loon has been the hardest and the best thing for me personally.

29:01Because we think we can have control of everything but we just can't.

29:06And learning to accept that is probably the hardest lesson I've ever had to learn.

29:13That was a really hard step for Kate to let go of, being such a control freak or a perfectionist,

29:16as most creative geniuses are. It is okay to let go.

29:2225 year old Kate would have been terrified by that and lent into negative habits like the eating disorder.

29:29But 43 year old Kate is actually really excited about a semi-unknown future.

29:37I think success means something different to me than it used to.

29:43Maybe the best thing is I just don't know exactly what the future holds and I'm okay with that.

29:59That's it.

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