16 The heat is on:

MasterChef judge in tune with food.

There are some obvious differences in this year’s MasterChef Australia. Not only is it subtitled Back To Win, it also boasts three new judges.

Its new line-up includes chefs Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen – who was the show’s season four winner – plus food writer Melissa Leong.

Former MasterChef Australia judges George Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan left the programme last year after pay talks stalled.

All of the show’s contestants have competed on MasterChef Australia previously.

“Every single one of them have come so close to winning or they have been incredible fan favourites,” says Leong.

If you are watching MasterChef Australia: Back To Win you will have seen celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in the first week.

Another famous face who will appear on the reality show is pregnant American pop singer Katy Perry, a guest judge.

“She was an absolute ball of laughs,” says Leong. “She is one of those people who walks into a room and truly lights it up. She is just something else entirely.

“It was really wonderful working with her. I think there is somebody who is so accomplished and has hit all of the highs that you could hit in a career like that.

“She is down to earth, very funny, very warm and it was a real pleasure to have her on set.”

While not as famous as Katy Perry, Melissa Leong is an established writer who has previously appeared on other food-related shows in Australia.

She is the first female judge on MasterChef Australia.

“I was very fortunate enough to grow up in a household where good food was really valued,” says Australian-born Leong, whose Singaporean-Chinese parents had a

keen interest in cooking. “It’s really what connects us as a family.”

She says both her parents cooked and the family enjoyed dining out too.

“Food has always been part of the conversation and I feel very privileged to have grown up in a household where the kitchen was never off limits to us kids,” says Leong.

But when it came to thinking about a career, she was steering towards a job in music not food.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a concert pianist,” she says.

“That’s really what I wanted to do. I played the piano since I was about three and a half years old and I played all the way into my 20s.

“Around the time I finished high school, I was training to go to the Conservatorium (the Sydney Conservatorium of Music) and I actually developed repetitive strain injury in my right shoulder and elbow.

“So that was a bit of a decision maker for me because it was time to decide whether or not I could sort of play through the pain, so to speak, or maybe I should think about expanding my thoughts on tertiary education.

“I ended up doing a degree in economics and social sciences instead. It was a very piecemeal sort of journey into food.

“I’ve been very fortunate enough within the food industry to have worn many different hats from cookbook editor, sub-editor, ghost writer, food critic, journalist, you know, all sorts of lots of different things. “So I think it’s given me a really great opportunity to see this vibrant, tremendous industry from lots of different angles. “That gives me a really good position to be able to explain and articulate that perspective to people through food now in what I do.” Leong, 40, is married to trained chef Joe Jones and the couple live in Melbourne. Before Covid-19 restrictions, the pair enjoyed hosting friends for lunch or dinner on Sundays. When asked if she has a favourite dish she likes to cook for the evening meal, Leong says, “It really just depends on the day and the produce at hand. “My husband is a chef and also a bar owner as well so we like to just sort of look at what produce is great and in season and use that as a point of inspiration. “I love to draw a lot from my parents’ Southeast Asian background. I would cook something like Hainanese chicken rice if I really felt like some soul food. “I really think that regardless of where you come from in the world, something like a really great roast chook and veges is something that everybody can relate to. “My husband is half Scottish, half Italian so we draw a lot from his Italian heritage too.”

“Something like a really great roast chook and veges is something that everybody can relate to.”

– Melissa Leong