Following their Junior MasterChef performance, 12-year-old “food nerds” Isabella and Sofia have plans for their own food empire. We chart their rising stars.
Here’s a sentence you don’t hear many 12-year-olds uttering: “I really liked making Adriano Zumbo’s Pear Perfection; it was so much fun”. And here’s another couple it’s safe to bet you won’t hear tripping from the lips of too many pre-teens: “Smoked eel is actually really nice”; and “I was going to order the pork belly, but finally decided on the duck confit and the sea pearls”.
Even in the post-MasterChef world in which we currently live – a world in which almost everyone knows their coulis from their confit and their snake beans from their snow egg – the culinary knowledge of your average adolescent doesn’t stretch all that much beyond the basics.
Yet the Junior MasterChef twins, the all-conquering Queensland duo of Isabella and Sofia, are anything but average. A fact you glean the moment you step into their world.
Speak to Isabella and Sofia about their experiences on the top-rating TV program and they are effusive. When Issy was proclaimed the winner she was “speechless! I was like, ‘Oh, my God! Seriously?’” During six weeks in the MasterChef kitchen, she survived multiple eliminations, endured numerous pressure tests and “plated up” a series of dishes mature beyond her years.
It was, she says, bittersweet to have to beat her own twin sister for the title, but “we were always in this together as a team. My success was always going to be Sof’s success and vice versa”. And, besides, the celebrity that has accompanied the twins’ starring role on prime-time telly has not been without its charms. “It’s fun, but it’s also a bit weird,” says Isabella. “Even at school, we’ve been giving out autographs – there are all these girls with my signature on their maths book.
“I was walking to the bus stop the other day and a couple of kids with their mum were like, ‘Oh, there’s Issy from MasterChef’ – which is kind of cool.”
Mum Sylvana calls her daughters “food nerds”, a label they are only too willing to wear. “One night in Sydney, we went with the other finalists to Billy Kwong for dinner,” recalls Sofia. “And, afterwards, we went back home and Jack had the Heston Blumenthal cookbook and we had it out on our laps, and we were just going through it going, ‘Oh, my God! Look at that!’ ”
Having spent so much time in the company of their fellow mini-foodies and shared such a unique experience with them, the girls are still in regular contact with the other contestants. Fellow finalists Jack and Pierre crop up in conversation with notable regularity. “We talk to Pierre and Jack almost every day,” says Issy. “They’re really nice boys. We’re planning a reunion with all our families over the Christmas holidays.”
Yet, for the time being, there’s their shared passion for music (Issy plays the cello and Sofia the violin) plus the serious business of empire building to be considered. Determined to open their own chain of restaurants called “IsSofia” – with outlets in all Australian capital cities and an outpost in Sicily – the twins intend to pursue a passion that is very much a family affair. “Food is like the thing that we do as a family,” says Sofia. “We talk about food, we cook together and we love eating together. It’s a huge part of our life.”
Read more of this story in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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