‘My God it ended up all working out’: Justine Schofield reflects on her rise to fame on MasterChef and the success she’s had since starring on the popular cooking series
Justine Schofield had no idea just how much she would go on to achieve when she first appeared on MasterChef back in 2009.
The 35-year-old cook and author starred in the very first season of the reality series and has now reflected on her rise to fame and success since.
Justine confessed in an interview with The Daily Telegraph this week that, at the time before her appearance, she was only looking for a ‘change in career.’
‘My God it ended up all working out’: Justine Schofield, 35, has reflected on her rise to fame on MasterChef and the success she has had since starring on the popular cooking series
The cook, who has just released her fourth cooking book, was working at a security firm before her first audition for the reality series.
Justine was soon made redundant from the company, but was saved when she found out her audition for MasterChef was successful and she was going to be a contestant.
‘I was like, “thank you, now I can go and enter this show about cooking” which is what I really wanted to do anyway,’ she said.
What a change: The cook, who has just released her fourth cooking book, was working at a security firm before her first audition for the reality series
‘And oh my God it ended up all working out.’
She added that she and the other contestants just wanted to cook and focus on the food.
She added: ‘And back then there was so much less focus on the drama behind the scenes.’
The journey after: Justine has gone on to publish four cooking books – her latest one titled Slow Cook – and has a catering business
Justine’s season of MasterChef would propel the series forward into one of the most-watched programmes on free-to-air television.
The winner of the 2009 series, Julie Goodwin, has since published several cookbooks and recipes, while runner-up Poh Ling Yeow got her very own cooking show and runs a market stall.
Justine has gone on to publish four cooking books – her latest one titled Slow Cook – and has a catering business.
The series recently wrapped its thirteenth season and is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon as more aspiring chefs are brought to the kitchen.
Popular viewing: The series recently wrapped its thirteenth season and is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon as more aspiring chefs are brought to the kitchen. Pictured: Winner of the latest MasterChef season, Justin Narayan