MasterChef Australia
South African-born Amy Shields steps out the kitchen and dishes on her time as a MasterChef Australia contestant.
MasterChef Australia
Season 6 Weekdays M-Net 18:30
MasterChef Australia’s (2009- current) season 6 has been an emotional rollercoaster for South Africanborn Amy Shields. “It’s the only way you can describe it because it’s extreme highs and extreme lows,” she says. “I’d just been retrenched and we’d had personal disappointments. It wasn’t looking great. Then I had this huge high of going to Melbourne for the top 50 auditions.” It didn’t stop – from auditions to when Amy was sure that she’d be the first chef kicked out after burning her Invention Challenge dish, until her final day. Nothing could have prepared her for the experience.
STRESS TESTING
“I’d always been a fan. But as a viewer, it used to frustrate me… the tears and the drama and that kind of thing. I’d think, ‘Stop crying, it’s only food!’ But you’re isolated from the outside world, you’re sharing a house with people you don’t know, you’re trying to fit in, you’re working 12 to 14 hour days and being judged on the things you love. It’s stressful. It’s difficult to explain how emotional it is in there. That’s what surprised me most,” 38-year-old Amy reveals when we call her at her home in Perth. And emotional stress aside, contestants found it nailbiting being kept in the dark. “We’d wake up early, get to the studio and never know what was happening,” Amy says. Even the pantry proved stressful. “With the limited ingredients, the Mystery Box challenges are always easier. Being faced with that full pantry, having free reign, was more challenging,” she adds.
AN AGGRESSIVE AFRICAN
Amy credits SA toughness for keeping her from wilting like a failed soufflé. “I’ve been in Australia for 14 years but I’m a born-and-bred South African. It’s still very much part of me,” says Amy. “In that first Invention Test, I burnt my Durban curry. I thought it was all over. But I guess being South African, we’re not easily defeated. It’s not necessarily in a derogatory way, but Australians describe South Africans as aggressive and arrogant. We don’t go quietly. One cook nicknamed me “Miss Flames” as I tended to be fierce and feisty.”
All that stress was concentrated in one moment with the judges. “We’re there because we love cooking. I love cooking for friends and family and that feeling of putting food in front of people and them enjoying it. And then you’re cooking for professional chefs and food critics. Putting that first dish in front of the judges, I felt like a naughty school kid being berated by a teacher. It was devastating to have the judges say that they didn’t like your dish. After the first time, you think, ‘I’ll be prepared for it.’ It still doesn’t feel good, after the second or third time.”
KITCHEN TRICKS
While many reality shows have been accused of faking, Amy says there is no need for the MasterChef team to manufacture drama. “All credit to the producers, because they portray you as you are. And the challenges are as you see them on TV – there’s no re-starting or stopping the clock.” For Amy, it was worth every grey hair. “I’ve learnt so much. Being neat and organised makes cooking less stressful and little tips, like cracking an egg on a flat surface, you’ll learn from professional chefs but you won’t necessarily learn at home.”
THE AWFUL TRUTH
Think that the judges are mean? The public are worse! “I remember being horrified by the awful tweets I read about myself when we had access to social media after MasterChef. My fellow contestants and I had fun reading them out loud together. But after a while you stop laughing.”