Matt Preston adds music to his resume

Food critic Matt Preston is on a hit TV show, he has a new book out, he's a newspaper regular - what's next, an album?

Well, yes.

Titled Music From Another Platter, it's a two CD collection of music for cooking and music for eating, compiled by the MasterChef favourite.

The first record features upbeat numbers from Katy Perry, MGMT, Empire of The Sun, Britney Spears and The Lemonheads and The Monkees.

The second, intended to take it down a notch for the dinner party, includes tracks by The Church, Pete Murray, Otis Redding, Mazzy Star and Faithless.

Preston said long before he got into food and cravats, music was his big passion.

"Where I grew up in London, which was the World's End, the very end of Chelsea, was kind of famous for being an artistic area where lots of bands lived - everyone from the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols to X-Ray Spex, INXS, over the years," Preston told AAP.

"The pub we used to drink in as teenagers, the drummer from The Clash used to drink there, and the lead singer from The Monkees used to drink there.

"I played in a band called The Volcanic Rabbits and various other bands all through university. None of them were ever any good."

Preston DJ'd at a local club and worked for a magazine with a lot of club and concert promotion before moving to Australia where his focus shifted from music to food.

He said relished the chance to put together his ultimate mix tape.

"The similarity between music and food is that both have a fantastic ability to thrust you back somewhere and to really fan the embers of memory," he said.

"You can have a flavour and - you're there. You hear a song and it's the same thing - bang, you're at that place."

He said the similarities don't end there - many musos are also foodies.

"I think as they get older they tend to get into food - Alex Lloyd and Kirk Pengilly on Celebrity MasterChef is a good example," he said.

"Most bands when they travel, if they're not taking drugs or shagging groupies, then often food becomes a focus."

With MasterChef and Celebrity MasterChef, his book Cravat-A-Licious, and now the album, 2009 has been a huge year for Preston.

In 2010 he will be involved in Junior MasterChef, and he is already shooting series two of MasterChef - which he says has seen the quality of contestants lift, the challenges crazier and the judging meaner.

But Preston said he isn't concerned about being over-exposed.

"No-one worried about over-exposure when 10 million people were watching the show every week," he said, "it's a very strange scenario."

"Once we get into mid-December I'm disappearing for three or four months. So you won't see much of me then."