When Diana Chan emigrated to Australia from Malaysia at the age of 19, she instantly became addicted to watching MasterChef Australia.
“I’ve watched it from the start and have always loved the challenges and that they meet cool, celebrity chefs and go to different places,” Diana, 29, says.
“I also liked watching the progress the contestants go through and how far they go which got me interested in applying.”
The Melbourne accountant adds MasterChef was the only cooking show she ever considered applying for in a bid to change her career path.
“I’ve never thought about applying for any other shows, especially not My Kitchen Rules,” Diana says.
“I’d never do that. I like MasterChef because I think it’s professional and I like watching it because I learn so much from the show.”
When she made the top 24 of the cooking show, Diana had to “pinch myself 10 times”.
“I was just really happy that all the hard work had paid off,” she says.
“I was practicing like crazy before the competition.”
Hard work and new challenges is something Diana isn’t afraid of.
She admits when she first moved to Australia to attend university, it was a tough period.
“I didn’t want to move because I grew up in Malaysia and all my friends are there and it was sad to leave home,” Diana says.
“But I met a lot of cool people at uni and I’ve been lucky at getting in to good social circles and that really helped.”
