Pat McGarry’s quiet confidence and humble approach in the MasterChef Australia kitchen has won over fans, and he’s revealed that leaving behind his pregnant fiancée gave him even more motivation to succeed in the competition.
MasterChef Australia has one of the longest filming schedules in Australian reality TV, lasting about five months, and running from November to April. On June 3 Pat told Chattr that his fiancée Emma was at the very end of her pregnancy, meaning she would have likely been in her first trimester when Pat headed off to film the show.
“She’s very close now. She has got about a couple of weeks to go, and then yeah baby number two is here. It’s all very exciting,” he revealed.
Pat explained that while he struggled with the decision to leave Emma at such an important time, she encouraged him to go and reassured him that she’d be okay.
“It was really hard. I always had her at the back of my mind. I always had them in the back of my thoughts, and hoping that everything was good at home. Obviously, wrangling a two year old, as well as being pregnant [is so hard], and she was working, she’s a teacher, but she’s an absolute trooper.
“She’s a real go-getter. She never slows down, even with a couple of weeks to go. I came home the other day, and she had cleaned the whole garage out. I was like, ‘Wow, Emma, you better be resting’.
“I definitely had them in the back of my mind the whole time I was there, and it was really hard to be away from them, but I knew that Emma would be able to handle everything.”
Pat revealed that he and Emma have chosen not to find out the gender before the birth so they’ll have a surprise when their son or daughter arrives.
He added that while he struggled being apart from Emma during filming, they were lucky enough to be able to talk regularly so he could hear about all the pregnancy milestones she’d hit and get updates on how she was feeling.
“I think back in the day there was, there was a lot less communication [allowed] back home, but I was able to talk to them every day, so I’d actually get up early and have breakfast via video with them every morning, so we’re always chatting and being able to communicate and see each other, so it was, it was really good.”
How Pat’s growing family motivated him to do well on MasterChef Australia
Pat has been a long-time fan of MasterChef, so naturally he wanted to do well in the competition and prove himself. But knowing he was missing out on time with his pregnant fiancée gave him even more motivation to make the experience count.
“I think it gave me motivation in the way of that I had stepped away from such a big part of my life that I didn’t want to take [the competition] for granted. I didn’t want to go down and lose all this time away from home and not make it worth my while.
“So, I definitely was always – as all of us were – doing my best in the kitchen, but I made sure once the camera stopped that I was always practicing and researching and trying to get better and better to get everything out of the experience, so it definitely spurred me on with a lot of motivation.”
Pat told Chattr that he found the motivation to apply for the show after watching down-to-earth Aussie butcher Josh ‘Pezza’ Perry succeed and come runner up on MasterChef Australia 2024.
“Probably one of the biggest reasons I applied was Pezza from season 16. I love to cook all the time, but I always viewed my food as pretty basic, like just really good basic recipes, and having a good understanding of food.
“But once I saw how well Pezza went, I felt as though we had a similar cooking style. So I was like, ‘All right, I’ll give it a crack’, and so I decided to apply, and yeah, off the back of that, I was able to get on, and so everything’s happened so well so far.”
MasterChef Australia airs Sunday – Wednesday on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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