“It’s all positive, I haven’t got much negative yet. It’s a nice feeling that people like the food I was cooking and everyone wants to know what I’m going to be doing next.”
23 year old Justine Schofield may have been eliminated from MasterChef Australia, but she is basking in the glory of the show’s popularity. With her strong culinary skills and a dignified performance, she was considered an odds-on favourite to win the inaugural title.
The endorsement of her performance puts to rest her initial fears about signing up for a TV reality show.
“The whole spotlight thing was my major hesitation,” she told TV Tonight. “I was really nervous about how I was going to be perceived. I was really scared of the whole reality television thing. But there was no other way to do it than just be yourself.
“If you be yourself you can’t go wrong, really. In the end it was fine. I got used to all the cameras around. And the intensity of the long, long hours …actually I never really got used to that, it was really hard!” she said.
Schofield says support from the public has been almost universal, including with children taking an interest in cooking. Most are responding to MasterChef Australia breaking ranks from other, malicious reality formats.
“It’s purely about the cooking and the journey that we’re going on rather than the nitty gritty, picking on people and all that rubbish.”
But there are always some looking for a different spin on the show. Schofield says the contestants were amused by some media stories, she claims are blowing things out of proportion.
“Some of the things we just laugh at because they’re so not true. It’s just speculation. It’s funny, so you’ve just got to brush it off because most of it is really out of proportion.”
For her immediate future she is looking to work experience opportunities, including at restaurants that would never have considered her before the TEN series.
“I think I’m just going to ride the MasterChef rollercoaster for a little while and get some more experience. I need to start from the bottom up. Start peeling potatoes, peeling carrots and learn the basics. It’s really important to have the basics behind you before you experiment. Yes, I do have the basics but I think I need more experience for sure,” she said.
“And I want to go to France for a couple of months and do the regions and get some more research on the type of cooking I want to do.”
She will be back as judges’ choice
Justine is such a talented, mature, sensible 23 year old, who deserved to go further than she did in the competition… But thanks for entering the comp, Justine, you were an absolute joy to watch on the show!
…
I Liked this girls and thought she would do well.
I certainly think she is a better cook than some of the remaining contestants but that is the way the cards have fallen for her.
Here’s hoping, like Idol, the top few get picked up by some in the industry.
Mac likes this.
When you get this far into a Reality Show competition, I suppose it doesn’t matter who actually wins. The top eight will all have proven themselves, and have a guaranteed future in their chosen field.
“It’s purely about the cooking and the journey that we’re going on…”
Aaaaaaaaargh! Enough already with the “journey”!
Good positive review David, thanks !
Justine will do well at anything as she is a forward thinker and I wish her well.
Just wondering if she is related to Leo Schofield ?