"I retired last year and decided to open a café in Randwick. Now it's all about coffee!"
Age: 39
State: New South Wales
Occupation: Ex pro-golfer, coffee shop owner
Favourite cuisine: French
Favourite place to travel: London
Favourite dish to cook: Singapore chilli mud crab
Favourite dessert to eat: Sticky date pudding
Sweet or Savoury: Savoury
Chilli or garlic: Garlic
Ex professional golfer Lucas retired from the sport last year after a career that took him around the world as a competitor, saw him compete against Tiger Woods, and win the Greg Norman International in 2000.
Known for his trademark pork pie hat, and dubbed 'Cool Hand Lucas', this sportsman is keen to gain merit for his cooking, not his background, and actually didn't mention his golfing past on his MasterChef application form. "I retired last year and decided to open a café in Randwick. Now it's all about coffee. At the moment it's an espresso bar but it's going well and I'm happy about that. It’s a new career for me."
"I'm a really big fan of MasterChef as I lived in the UK for over ten years and always enjoyed watching it. Plus, I've had the opportunity to eat really good food in a lot of different places. So I try and duplicate that and find my own little niche. My family are real foodies as well. They're always bringing each other food – and for me, food is all about families coming together. Because I have a passion for food, it started as a really natural thing. It's an art form as well, you can be creative with textures and flavours and presentation. And I think it's the balance of that which makes someone a great cook."
Used to high pressured situations, Lucas has also taken the judges' criticism on board. "I've received some very good compliments and also some very blunt comments because of mistakes I've made. But what I'm happy about is that I know where I've stuffed up, and they've seen that – but I understand what they're saying and I'm not disappointed. Rather, I know I'm on the right track."
A man of patience, well practiced from his golfing days, Lucas realises that it takes work and dedication to become a chef but is prepared to put in the work to expand his business. "I'm a person who takes things one week at a time. I don't like to set too many goals. Winning MasterChef would be cool but to me it's about how much I can do and how much I can learn from George, Matt and Gary. It will probably get me closer to opening my own place quicker, so that's my ideal. For me, this experience is like a five year apprenticeship in three months."
A dedicated family man, Lucas finds the separation from his wife Simone and 20-month-old daughter Lucia the hardest thing to handle. "I've been married to my beautiful wife Simone for three years and she is my rock. She is actually the one who entered me into the show and I really miss her."
