MasterChef winner Justin Narayan reveals for the first time how he spent his $250,000 prize money

He was the MasterChef fan favourite in 2021.

And Justin Narayan has given viewers an update after winning season 13 of the hit cooking show when he was just 27-years-old.

The youth pastor took home $250,000 prize money and Justin has now revealed that he gave away a lot of it, without spending any of the cash on himself.

The Fijian-Indian chef made the intimate revelation in an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle on Friday. 

‘The way I’m wired, I wanted to be generous with it,’ he said, after admitting it was the first time he’s spoken publicly about his huge winnings.

‘The way I’m wired, I wanted to be generous with it,’ he said, after admitting it was the first time he’s spoken publicly about his huge winnings, adding he did not spend any of it on himself Pictured: Justin with the MasterChef trophy after winning  the show in 2021

Justin – pictured on MasterChef – says he gave away a lot of the $250,000 he won on the show

‘So I ended up donating a lot of it and giving some away to some people that I thought needed it more than me,’ Justin continued.

‘And then made some investments with the rest of it. I actually didn’t spend any of it [on myself]. I probably should have, in retrospect. But I was kind of like, I’m not going to buy anything flash, I’m not going to do anything, and I don’t have any regrets with it.’

Justin added that since winning the cash he has regrets that he did not spoil himself, but says he never wanted money to control his life, and rather, preferred to be generous.

Elsewhere in the chat, Justin says he felt pressure to do some thing ‘great’ with his win, like starting a restaurant.

Meanwhile, he says he is working on a project, and teased a return to TV. 

‘There are some exciting things happening this year,’ he said, adding: ‘I don’t know what I’m allowed to say, but there are heaps of fun things coming which I’m super excited about…

‘But things I would love to do is I definitely love the whole TV entertainment side, so I’d love to keep doing something like that, travel, and create experiences for people.’

Justin added that since winning the cash he has regrets that he did not spoil himself, but says he never wanted money to control his life, and rather, preferred to be generous

Justin once announced the winner of MasterChef in July 2021 in a tense face-off with finalists Kishwar Chowdhury and Pete Campbell.

Justin described MasterChef at the time as ‘100 per cent one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life’. 

He took to Instagram shortly after his win was announced to encourage others to pursue their dreams.

‘Find people that believe in you. Back yourself. Go hard and hopefully you’ll surprise yourself! Whoever’s reading this I love you,’ he wrote.