Having been sent home from MasterChef Australia only to win the chance to return days later has given Tamara Graffen a new drive.
“Getting back in was crazy,” the engineering officer recalls of the moment she was given the exciting news.
“It changed my perspective on the competition.”
Chatting to TV WEEK, the 28-year-old from Broome is adamant she isn’t going to waste the “amazing” opportunity she’s been given.
“Getting another shot at the competition definitely made me realise how important it was to stay and go as far as I could,” Tamara says, adding she was devastated to have been eliminated in the first place and then “shocked” when she got back in.
“I couldn’t believe my luck,” Tamara remembers.
“I didn’t think I was a shoo-in to come back because I knew everyone (all the other eliminated contestants) had been practising since they’d been sent home so I just had to rally everything and give it my best shot no matter what the outcome was.”
And luckily, her determination paid off in spades.
“Having a second chance means the world to me,” Tamara says.
“It really has been an eye-opener.”
Meanwhile, fellow foodie and MasterChef favourite accountant Diana Chan says the rest of the crew were ecstatic that Tamara returned.
“If there was anyone that we wanted back in the house it would have been Tamara,” Diana, 29, says.
“I don’t think we really wanted someone who had gone out early in the competition to come back and have missed out on everything.
“So Tamara was probably the best person to come back.”
So does Tamara have what it takes to win MasterChef Australia 2017? Only time will tell.
