Growing up as the youngest of four brothers, Luke Harris was always surrounded by boys. So, when he stepped into the MasterChef Australia kitchen, he found himself experiencing something completely new.
“One of the nice things about the show was, for the first time, I felt like I had sisters,” the 19-year-old tells TV WEEK.
“Growing up with just brothers, I never knew how to have friends who are girls. Now I have all these really good [female] friends. I’m just getting used to it.”
The experience has been life-changing for the Geraldton local, who moved out of home at just 17 to go to university in Perth.
He moved straight into his brother Sam’s house, and it wasn’t long before Sam became one of the biggest supporters of his cooking dream.
“Quite early on, Sam said to me: ‘Mate, I know you’ve got no money and you’re doing uni and you work on the weekends. But, if you cook, I’ll pay for all the groceries and I’ll do the clean-up,’” Luke recalls.
“That’s probably the biggest reason I managed to get on MasterChef – because I spent that year cooking for my brother!”
While Luke has gained a whole new circle of supportive friends through the competition, the experience has also brought him closer to the large family he already has.
“This was one of the biggest times I felt my family being really, really proud of me, especially my brothers,” he says.
“There was no teasing; there was no being cheeky. They were just seriously proud of the fact that their brother was on MasterChef.
“The fact that they’d tasted my food over the years and helped get me to that point… They were stoked. I’ve honestly never seen them so excited.”
MasterChef Australia airs Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 7pm on Network Ten and 10.
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