One of the most popular hopefuls on this year’s MasterChef, TK’s Elimination will be keenly felt by viewers and fellow contestants alike. Having survived the chop three times prior to her eventual exit was, she explains, a wearying process that certainly didn’t help her focus going into a fourth.

“I found it was a challenge to keep my momentum up; going into so many Eliminations so early in the competition, it really does affect the mind and body as there are long days and you go through a rollercoaster of emotions and adrenaline.”

Facing a sudden death cook-off after failing to correctly identify duck – which, ironically, she says would have been her preferred protein – TK was lumbered with turkey, a bird she was a novice at cooking with. “I was tempted to choose pigeon thinking it was maybe the same as quail, but the smell of mutton bird really threw me off! I wonder if it is really a bird…”

Opting to steam the turkey, raising the eyebrows of Gary in the process, TK was forced into an eleventh hour rethink. “With 15 minutes or so left on the clock, my mind went into complete shutdown. To fry? No, roast? I wouldn’t have had enough time… so I just thought of something I love eating which is Japanese inspired Udon with chicken and created that, with turkey of course.

“Now that it’s all behind me,” TK continues, “I think I would’ve deboned the thigh and stuffed it with a prawn and vegetable filling, lightly pan fry it and roast it in the oven with ingredients such as star anise. A tad too late! You snooze, you lose!”

Emerging from her MasterChef journey with several new “friends for life,” TK hopes to see one of them lifting this year’s title. “I believe Amina will make it really far, but I have my eye on Mindy or Audra as this year’s Masterchef!” is her prediction.

TK’s own plans first involve finishing her law degree, before throwing herself into the culinary world and all the experiences it has to offer. “I like to finish what I start so by the end of this year I will have finished my legal degree. I also like to be responsible with my goals and have decided that I will join a culinary institute such as William Angliss or Le Cordon Bleu to learn all the basic skills and techniques before I get an apprenticeship. A nice little thought is that I wouldn’t mind being a food critic… all I’d have to do is eat until I pop.”