MasterChef Australia: Fans & Favourites is gearing up to be one of the best seasons yet. Pairing 12 returning competitors with 12 fresh faced, hopeful chefs, our Top 24 will battle it out in the kitchen in what’s sure to be a spicy adventure.
The returning competitors span across the show’s 13 year history, with season one winner Julie Goodwin set to return, alongside season 13 favourite Minoli De Silva. In the middle, we have season four’s fourth place favourite, Mindy Woods.
A proud Bundjalung woman of the Widjabul Wia bul clan, Woods is proudly passionate about her food, her country, and her culture, and now, she’s back to impress the judges —and audience! — with the world class ingredients and dishes that we often overlook.
Originally from Melbourne, Woods and her family moved around a lot throughout her childhood, as her father worked as a cook in the Australian air force. His career took them across the country and beyond, and Woods was inspired to follow in her dad’s footsteps when she decided to pursue cooking professionally.
Woods’ ultimate desire — aside from taking the win, of course — is to use food to connect people, indigenous or not, with Aboriginal culture, art and stories. She wants to educate people about how to use and highlight some of the world’s oldest living ingredients in their own cooking.
Before joining the MasterChef Australia kitchen back in season four, Woods was a physiotherapist, but is now a sought-after chef.
In the years since she competed on the reality TV competition, Woods has been honing and developing her culinary knowledge and ability, which is sure to come in handy when she returns to the MasterChef kitchen for Fans & Favourites.
For a time, Woods worked as the Head Of Culinary Development for the Lotus Group, eventually taking on the role of CEO. In 2020, she opened her own venue, Karkalla in Byron Bay.
2021 saw Woods’ career reach a new high, when she was asked by the Australian government to represent the nation as a guest chef at the World Expo in Dubai. It’s an achievement she’s especially proud of.
While Woods is competing on the show, her wife Rachelle will be at home cheering her on, alongside the couple’s two cats, Leopold and Lucy.
MasterChef Australia premieres at 7.30pm on April 18, 2022, only on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.
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