A chartered accountant who works in business analytics, the 31-year-old from Bankstown is hoping the show will help open the door to a new career and wants to start a line of pre-packaged dessert boxes and Asian-fusion noodle sauces.
The death of close friend Maggie in 2019 on top of time to think about the future during Covid, gave her the push she needed to apply to Channel 10’s cooking competition.
“That really gave me perspective on life,” she said.
“I just remember having conversations with her, she told me to be brave and to really chase my dreams and what I really wanted to do.”
Already using ingredients in different applications in her cooking including adding herbs and spices to desserts, she said being on the show has exposed her to new techniques, ingredients and flavours.
With her own mix of Burmese, Taiwanese and Chinese heritage, she is no stranger to bold flavours but says the show also exposed her to native ingredients like Strawberry Gum as well as herbs like Lemon Verbena, which she had never used before.
“It was going into the kitchen and being introduced to the Masterchef Garden, I think that’s when my eyes just really, really opened to a lot of different trees, plants and spices,” she said.
“Masterchef is just a wonderful opportunity. It’s really just a pressure cooker of a boot camp for food.”
Masterchef screens on Channel 10 at 7.30pm five days a week from Sunday to Thursday.
