Growing up in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, MasterChef Australia contestant Jackie Yu often felt different. As a Chinese-Australian with a French step father, the 31-year-old tech recruiter says fitting in sometimes meant hiding parts of herself – especially at lunch.
“I’d be bringing in some really random thing my mum or my stepdad had made the night before,” Jackie tells TV WEEK. “I’d bring in a thermos with heated-up food or sometimes blue cheese as a snack.”
Now, those same flavours and family influences are being celeb rated on national television – something Jackie describes as healing.
“It’s been nice and I feel so lucky that I’ve been given the chance to come on MasterChef and share my experience – because it’s obviously a very common experience too.”
This week on MasterChef, the contestants face their first team service challenge, and for Jackie, collaborating with her fellow contestants came naturally, with the cast bonding off set just as much as on.
“I shared a room with Grace,” Jackie says. “But everyone would come together and bounce ideas off each other and learn from one another. Everyone’s such a different cook and has different experiences and instincts, so it was really fun.”
MasterChef Australia airs Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 7pm on Channel Ten and 10Play.
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