Fans first met MasterChef Australia’s Audra Morrice in 2012, with her creative cooking captivating MasterChef judges and audience alike. Since then, the talented chef and baker has published cookbooks, runs her own catering business, and has featured as a judge on both MasterChef Singapore and MasterChef Asia, as well as hosting her own shows on SBS, Tasty Conversations and Eat, Roam, Relish.
Somehow, in between juggling numerous projects, Audra found time to return to our screens on MasterChef: Back To Win, making it into the top 10. She was eliminated in the most recent episode after her paella with a yuzu kosho oil failed to impress the judges.
“I’ve always been more about the journey than the end goal,” Audra told Chattr. “I had one little corner of my eye on the prize, but for me it’s about the experience.
“I don’t think I’d have changed anything. Sometimes, you can’t change those panic moments. I think for the most part, I was focused, and I really just loved being in that space of being able to cook and to focus on what I wanted to deliver.”
MasterChef’s Audra debriefs Back To Win experience: ‘You should be better that you were before’
From tourism consulting to authoring cookbooks, Audra’s life has changed dramatically since first appearing on MasterChef in Season 4 in 2012.
Her experiences shaped how she approached MasterChef this time around, with Audra going straight from completing her new SBS series Eat, Roam, Relish back into the MasterChef kitchen.
“For me, that had a huge impact on how I approached MasterChef this time around. Food’s not just about that plate that sits in front of you, it has to connect with the person that’s eating it. And for me, the more meaning there was in it, the better it was, the more delicious it was,” she explained.
“I literally jumped from one show to another without much time!” Audra laughed. “I think it would have been nice to have had maybe a month or two to practice a little more and to give it a bit more thought. But so much of what I did this time around was really just love and instinct for what I do, and that’s just put delicious food on the table. And there was times that it worked, and times due to time pressures that it didn’t.”
Audra on what has changed on MasterChef over the years
Having been on the show in the early seasons, and now coming back over a decade later, Audra said the show doesn’t have many fundamental differences when it comes to the pressure of being back in a competitive kitchen, despite the fancy and technical dishes that often come out of the series now.
“Look, this is Back To Win,” Audra said. “So the expectation is, across the board is you should be better than you were before. However, I guess in saying that not all of us are chocolatiers, some of us are really just focused on the cuisine that we cook. But it is a cooking competition at the end of the day, so people need to be challenged whether you’re comfortable in that space or not. You have to be tested across the board, from A to Z. We all knew that it wasn’t going to be a stroll in the park.”
@masterchefau Sticky, gnarly, Audra's put the flair in (fl)air-fryer! 🤤 #MasterChefAU: Back to Win | Watch + Stream Free on @channel10_au ♬ original sound – MasterChef Australia
MasterChef’s Audra on who deserves to win the Back To Win title
When asked who she thought would take out the winner’s title, Audra remained coy.
“I’m not gonna say because I know if I say it, I’m just gonna jinx it!” she laughed. “All I can say is, there’s a handful in this final top eight that will just blow your mind. And they’re just, they’re so ready to win that prize. They’re just incredible.”
MasterChef Australia airs on Sundays at 7pm and Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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