Wait, did Annabel Crabb just reveal to the nation that our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, might be a tad “neuro-spicy”?

The much-loved ABC political journalist is back with her cooking series, Kitchen Cabinet, and in the first episode, which sees her cooking in The Lodge kitchen with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,’ she’s applying her considerable interviewing skills to tease some illuminating anecdotes from the PM.

Crabb has brought Wagon Wheels, a childhood favourite of the PMs (she thinks, though in reality he can’t stand them), for desert, and she’s in the kitchen as Albo whips up the first course, a plate of orecchiette pasta with broccolini, anchovies, garlic and chilli — it’s all very convivial.

It’s not long before Albanese is dropping some fascinating insights into his early years, his home life with new wife Jodie Haydon, and, most hilariously, explaining his aversion to having certain foods touch on his plate.

Does their intermingling make him anxious, Crabb asks?

“Organised,” says Albanese by way of explanation. “I like to taste each individual thing” he insists, before later admitting his penchant for the particular has a tendency to drive his wife up the wall.

“Jodie pointed out to me very early on in our relationship, when in Marrickville I had vine leaves over a trellis, and when the leaves dropped for the fourth time in a day and I would sweep up the leaves, she pointed out that was a bit crazy.

“So I cut it back… to three times a day.”

“I see your neurodiversity,” says Crabb, who has written in the past about her own spicy brain.

It’s the kind of interaction you’d expect to see on Crabb’s long-running series, but in these recent weeks post-budget, when everything has gotten super serious, and super negative, it’s refreshing to see a politician being, well, human.

It’s particularly interesting to hear Albanese open up about the day in politics he’d least like to relive (for the record, it’s 23rd June 2010 — “Kevin and Julia, who are both dear friends of mine, both people I regard as very good Prime Ministers, we destroyed and undermined the Prime Ministership of both of them on that day” — and OUCH).

I also loved learning about his difficult childhood — I genuinely had no idea about his father, and it was fascinating to hear that story told in his own voice.

Albanese is not sticking to party-line talking points, and he looks almost relieved to be dressed in his casual black polo, cooking with Crabb on his day off, riffing on his childhood, his early years as a university firebrand and his time in politics.

It’s refreshing to watch.

Next week’s episode sees Opposition Leader Angus Taylor cooking damper on the farm near Goulburn he and wife Louise (plus corgis Frank and Violet) call home — it will be interesting to see whether he’s as relaxed and as open (sadly, no preview was given ahead of that episode).

Later episodes will feature Teal Independent Allegra Spender, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi and Labour MP Josh Burns.

Before you come at me, yes I am aware this episode is a carefully managed piece of PR for the PM.

Subsequent episodes will be the same for their subjects too — each of their various advisors would have carefully war-gamed what they were going to say ahead of each stint in the kitchen with one of the ABC’s most formidable political minds.

But in this era of constant negative news cycles, of furious, oftentimes pointless debate about whichever triviality is making headlines that week, it’s refreshing to see our politicians looking like an actual human beings for once.

As the ABC itself says in a release about the show: “In an environment of accelerating news cycles and shrinking attention spans, the opportunity to speak calmly and at length with political leaders feels like a rare luxury.”

And I couldn’t agree more.

Oh, and for the record, I wholeheartedly agree with Albanese on one point: steak isn’t meant to touch vegetables. Peas aren’t supposed to touch corn.

I will not be taking questions at this time.

Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabb starts Tuesday July 21 at 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.