After watching the show since its first season, Cath Collins thought she knew what to expect when entering the MasterChef Australia kitchen.
“Oh, my goodness, was I wrong?!” the Melbourne administration manager, 54, tells Woman’s Day. “I went into it, said goodbye to my family and told them, ‘OK, I’m going to immerse myself in the experience. I probably won’t speak to you very much.’
“And honestly, maybe day three, I rang them! It was so much more intense and stressful than I thought it would be.”
Apart from the exhausting filming schedule and “every day feeling like a month”, Cath said meeting her culinary idol Jamie Oliver on the first day only heightened her anxiety.
“I cannot even tell you… I remember just seeing the images of me, my mouth is open and him coming in… It was like I was a little kid again.”
When asked about late judge Jock Zonfrillo and his recent passing, Cath chokes up. “It’s really hard to fathom,” she says.
“I’m so lucky our paths crossed. He was just honest, cheeky and funny. Every day after each cook, he would say to us, ‘Go home, put your feet up, have a cup of tea and look after each other,’ and that’s exactly what we did.”
Cath says Jock had even given her a cookbook that he told her best suited her personality at the start of the competition. She’s now bought an extra copy to keep in her kitchen as a memento to the late chef. “I’ll cherish it forever,” she adds.
