Put Fiona in a market filled with exotic food, and the recently graduated teacher is chomping at the bit to eat as much produce as she can. But her love of food comes after years of refusing to eat nearly everything her mum served up at dinner.

“My poor mum and dad had a real food battle with me when I was a kid,” laughs Fiona, who grew up in Melbourne as the middle child of three sisters. “I hated my vegetables, and used to hide them, give them to my sisters, anything I could do to get rid of them and I made my parents life miserable when it came to the dinner table.

“I didn’t like things mixed in with food like bits of onions and I ate very little red meat. I liked bland foods and potato was about the only thing I really liked! I was terrible and my mum’s worst nightmare!”

Now Fiona is making up for lost time when it comes to indulging her taste buds. She loves wandering through Melbourne food markets, cooks up a storm for her family and friends, and dreams of one day becoming the next Stephanie Alexander.

“I’ve just finished my primary school teaching degree,” explains Fiona, who now bonds with her ‘foodie’ lawyer dad and teacher mum over their latest dinner creations. “My food dream is to be able to combine my passion for working with children with food. I’d love to be involved in something like the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden National Program – which teaches children how to grow, cook and share fresh food - or a similar aspiring program.”

It wasn’t until Fiona moved out of home when she was 19-years-old with her older sister that she started to open her mind to food.

“I took a turn and started tasting all these fresh foods that I’d spent years missing out on,” she says. “I started cooking for my sister and I loved going to the markets. I loved everything about food – shopping for it, smelling it, staring at products, cooking it and reading about it.”

She may be a sizzling home gourmand, but can she cut the mustard against a group of highly skilled competitors?

“There are some amazing cooks here and the level is really high,” she says, adding that appearing in MasterChef and living in Sydney marks the first time she has ever been separated from her parents. “I know that I’m a little bit younger than most of the contestants, and I don’t have as much experience, but you never know. It’s a little bit daunting but I just have to remain positive and learn as much as I can. Just being in the house I’m learning so much – we talk about food 24/7.”