Well before placing runner-up on Dessert Masters 2024, Emelia Jackson competed on MasterChef Australia twice and took out the win during her second time back.
While Dessert Masters is known as the sister show of MasterChef, Emelia told Chattr during an exclusive interview that she found competing on each to be a completely different experience.
“I was expecting it to be the same, but just making desserts, but it’s absolutely not,” she revealed in a post-elimination interview.
“In MasterChef, the two-and-a-half-hour challenges were almost always the pressure test, which meant that you never had that type of time to create something [extravagant],” she explained.
Emelia said that while the long time limit allowed the contestants to hone in on the finer details of their desserts, the challenges could be quite draining.
“I didn’t really consider how exhausting doing two and a half hour cooks every day was going to be; it was really physically exhausting,” she said.
“But more than that, it pushed me creatively in a way that I didn’t know that I could be pushed.”
Does Emelia Jackson think MasterChef or Dessert Masters was harder?
During the interview, Emelia said that while she found both cooking reality shows very different, if she had to pick one as the hardest, she’d choose Dessert Masters.
“They’ve both got their own challenges. MasterChef is a really long competition, and I think that is the hard element of it—staying focused for such a long period of time is really hard,” she said.
“But, Dessert Masters is really intense, and you’re competing against professional chefs as an untrained chef. So, I think, in my experience, Dessert Masters may have been harder.
Who does Emelia want to see on MasterChef Australia 2025: Back to Win?
Emelia first competed on MasterChef Australia in 2014 and placed third. She returned for MasterChef Australia Back To Win in 2020 and won the competition.
MasterChef Australia 2025 will see the return of Back To Win, which means past contestants will return to the kitchen and battle it out for another chance at the title.
Emelia told Chattr that she’s looking forward to the season, and she hopes Laura Sharrad—who came runner up to her on MasterChef Australia 2020—will be among the cast.
“I would love to see a few people from my original season six days that I was friends with,” Emelia said.
“I’d really love to see Laura back on there. I think she is so skilled. Competing against her in Back to Win, she was equally a deserving winner. So, it’d be great to see her get on there and hopefully take out the win.”
Does Emelia win a prize for coming runner-up on Dessert Masters 2024?
John Demetrios was crowned the winner of Dessert Masters 2024, with a score of 28 out of 30, as compared to Emelia’s 26. Along with the Dessert Masters trophy, he received a $100,000 prize.
So, did Emelia receive a prize for being the runner-up?
“Nothing, damnit!” She laughed.
“No, I’m so happy with John winning that money. I think it’s going to go a long way in achieving his dreams and his career. I don’t feel like I needed a prize. I was just so happy with the entire experience.”
At least she got that $250,000 prize money for her MasterChef Australia 2020 win!
Stream Dessert Masters on 10Play.
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