An overwhelmed Rue Mupedzi burst into tears when she arrived in the MasterChef Australia kitchen and learnt she had to cook for celebrity super-chef Jamie Oliver.
“Everyone was talking about the cooking techniques they knew and I didn’t know what they were talking about,” says the 29-year-old dessert expert from Perth. “I thought, ‘I want to go home – I shouldn’t be here!'”
Rue went on to make the top three for that challenge with her tart and credits journalling for getting her through the rest of the testing experience.
“I’d write down what happened that day, close the book on it and not look back,” she explains. “I couldn’t do that before I came on the show.”
Rue quit a steady job to pursue her culinary dreams.
Having moved to Western Australia from Zimbabwe with her parents and two siblings when she was 15, Rue says her family was shocked to learn she was giving up her job as an oral health therapist to pursue a career in food.
Inspired by her first-ever fine-dining experience in Sydney, she taught herself to cook via YouTube, social media and dozens of cookbooks, before launching her own macaron business – something that took 10 months of trial and error before she cracked the perfect recipe.
Naming Yottam Ottolenghi and late MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo as her culinary idols, Rue says, “In Zimbabwean culture, education is so important and my family kept asking, ‘Why would you leave your steady job?'”
Now, however, after watching her win hearts on MasterChef, her family is proud of the choice she made and the fact she’s bringing her culture to her culinary creations.
Rue laughs, “After the first episode, Mum said, ‘Wow! You’re really good.’ I said, ‘What do you mean? I’ve been cooking for you for years!'”
MasterChef Australia screens 7.30pm Monday to Thursday & 7pm Sundays on TVNZ 2.
