Profession: singer, dancer, actor, mother

Signature dish: chicken adobo

One of the founding members of Australia's much loved children's group Hi-5, Kathleen was in LA during the MasterChef Australia phenomenon.

"I hadn't seen any of the show because we'd been overseas. I was considering going into the competition blind but I watched a few episodes recently and think I might have freaked myself out."

Describing herself as a typical Virgo, Kathleen's cooking is characterised by perfection, and by a need to ensure everyone is happy.

"I think I would say I'm a giving sort of cook – I really like to cook for other people. If they come into my house I offer them food straight away – I'm not happy until everyone is eating!"

My husband (Daniel Jones from Savage Garden) says I'm a noisy cook. Apparently I like to do lots of banging around with pots and pans."

"I'm absolutely a typical Virgo and I like things to be perfect. I'm disappointed if they're not. I once had a disaster trying to cook pasta and it turned out like mush. I made sure that I cooked it perfectly after that."

Mother to young daughter Mikayla, Kathleen laughs that preparing different meals for her husband and daughter might give her the edge in the competition.

"My day job is looking after my daughter and my husband. They have different needs and wants in terms of their food and hopefully this will be good preparation. I had been cooking different meals for Mikayla but she's just started to experiment and I'm trying to get her to try new foods."

Kathleen grew up watching her parents cook and learnt a lot from them, particularly dishes from their Philippine heritage.

"I've probably been cooking myself for nearly fifteen years. I watched my mum and dad growing up but they didn't let me into the kitchen. I taught myself when I moved out of home, my folks give me lots of ideas and they still give me lots of recipes."

"I've got a few specialty dishes from the Philippines including chicken adobo and an amazing crème caramel recipe."

A self confessed home-body, Kathleen and Daniel love to have friends over for dinner, and have catered some ambitious events in their time.

"We used to have big Boxing Day parties with 80-100 people over for lunch. One of my specialities are my BBQ chicken skewers with a special secret sauce. Everyone always asks for the recipe and it came from my Mum. I always cook too much, and that’s very traditional for the Philippines. I always want to make sure that there is enough food to go around."

Kathleen is an organised cook, and knows that she needs to focus in the kitchen to get everything done in time.

"Head down, bum up, is my phrase. I'm usually quite a happy, laughing person but I can get quite serious when I concentrate, and that's what I need to do in the kitchen."