It’s always sad to say goodbye to your favourite contestant on a reality competition, and even sadder for them when they feel they still have so much more to give.
It’s for these reasons that we were thrilled to know that MasterChef Australia was bringing back all of the eliminated contestants for another shot at glory, thanks to second chance week.
Everyone from Minoli to Maja, Therese to Tom (who was most recently eliminated) are back in the kitchen and are vying for the chance to win back their aprons and, potentially, the $250,000 grand prize.
First up, the 11 contestants had to whip up some tasty treats with a hero ingredient one of the remaining cooks had purchased for them. From that challenge, Conor, Minoli, Eric and Katrina’s dishes were deemed the best and they went head to head in a pressure test to win their spot back in the game.
The winner of that competition was Minoli, which means she is now officially back in the game.
Then, “second chancers” competed in a new challenge with the winner of that also returning to the fold.
The winner of the second pressure test was Maja Veit who was one of the earliest contestants to be eliminated.
“I just thought, this is my one chance to show Australia that I can cook with natives,” Veit told POPSUGAR Australia of her winning dish.
The aspiring chef used her time in between being eliminated from the competition and returning to it wisely — taking up work experience at Wildflower in Perth. The upscale eatery is dedicated to a seasonal menu using foraged ingredients.
“Now I’ve got those skills, and I learned all those things from Wildflower,” Veit said. “And I definitely think that I feel more confident when I came back into the kitchen.”
Veit also revealed that learning to back herself and trust in her abilities was the number one takeaway she gleaned from her time in the competition.
“I wasn’t confident enough when I was in the competition the first time around,” she said. “So I think when you believe in yourself you can do incredible things. And if you don’t, if you’re not 100%, certain of your own capabilities, I think you might as well forget it — you’re not going to go very far.
“I think this time around, I was just very, very confident.”
So now, two beloved contestants are back in it to win it and we cannot wait to see how they go!
