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MasterChef star Christy spills on her eventful experience: ‘I was petrified!’

The Dessert Masters contestant gets a taste of her own medicine.

Internationally acclaimed pastry and dessert chef Christy Tania admits she suffered an identity crisis on the set of MasterChef: Dessert Masters after a long time away from her craft.

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“All I had made for more than a year was baby food,” tells the 38-year-old from Melbourne.

“I had the most vulnerable moments of thinking I was not good enough. I had the biggest internal bashing and crisis.”

Becoming a first-time mum in March 2023, Christy Tania took more than 12 months away from the hospitality industry. Her cake business, Glacé Dessert Artisanal, is owned by herself and her husband and fellow chef Luke Johnson, 34, to raise her son Ben, now almost two. It was very strange for the workaholic, who never knew how to slow down.

family of three all wearing dark colours with a yellow backdrop
Christy and Luke with son Ben.
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“There’s nothing that would keep me away from working,” reveals Christy Tania.

“Not even our wedding or honeymoon had stopped me. But motherhood is just the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. And I’ve opened my own business and moved country four times.”

Being a part of Dessert Masters proved to be a rude shock for the award-winning chef. As a guest judge on MasterChef Australia, she is normally on the other side of the kitchen bench, setting the show’s toughest challenges.

woman wearing a lack chef's coat is baking in a big kitchen
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“I felt bad for every single one of the contestants I made go through the same thing I had to,” she laughs.

“When I first walked into the kitchen, I was petrified. I did a baptism by fire by throwing myself in competition with some of Australia’s best pastry chefs.”

MasterChef: Dessert Masters screens 7pm Mondays and Tuesdays on TVNZ 2. And streaming on TVNZ+.

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