First gracing our screens when she was just 18, Laura Sharrad stepped into the MasterChef kitchen in 2014 wide-eyed and ready to prove herself.
Now, after 11 years, two successful restaurants, and the arrival of her daughter – Florence, who was born in April 2024 – the fan favourite is back trying her luck in the cooking competition for a third time after placing runner-up not once, but twice, having competed again in 2020. This time, she’s hungrier than ever for that win.
Juggling life as a new mum with the heat of the reality TV kitchen, Laura, 30, opened up to WHO ahead of tonight’s Grand Finale about juggling motherhood with her MasterChef dreams and why she’s determined not to be the underdog this time around.
WHO: You were only 18 the first time you graced our screens on MasterChef, what was that like for you at that age to grow up in front of Australia?
Laura Sharrad: To be honest, I think in the moment I didn’t really understand it from that point, and I feel like it was not until after the MasterChef finale aired and post-production that I think it really kind of sunk in that people started to know who I was, and they were really invested in my journey and following along. But I feel really lucky.
I feel like most television experiences are incredible and I just feel like I had such an incredible, eye-opening experience during MasterChef at such a young age, I learnt a lot about myself, became very independent, and I think I just got such incredible support.
The people that watch MasterChef are incredible people, and the show has such amazing followers. Being so young, I feel like everyone just adopted me into their family in the weirdest way. So special, I felt very supported and it was really really lovely to be in everyone’s living rooms every night from such a young age.
What would that 18 year old think of who you are today, two successful restaurants later and trying your luck again in the MasterChef kitchen?
I don’t think that 18-year-old would believe me when I say that life is about to get really hectic. And that I will be back for a third time. I just would not believe it at all. I just feel you get given opportunities like that literally once in a lifetime, so to have it for a third time is truly so special and I think it’s exciting for the 18-year-old in me to know what’s coming up.
What was it like reuniting with some of your fellow MasterChef alumni from previous seasons? Was there a familiar face that you were most excited to see?
Definitely lots of familiar faces. Obviously, I walked in with Callum and Sarah on day one and I’ve done a season with both of them. So that was really special to go back for a third time with those two.
Then Ben and Jamie who were also from my original season, in season six, so that was really nice to reconnect. I haven’t seen those boys in about eight years. I reckon maybe a year two after the season, but I have not seen them in that long. Ben moved back to New Zealand and Jamie’s up in Queensland with his family.
So, life gets busy, it’s so hard to catch up with your siblings let alone everyone else that you meet along the way, so it was so nice to reconnect with them and to do this experience again with them.
You’ve recently become a Mum! Congratulations. How do you feel about motherhood so far?
Thank you, I am loving it. I feel like everyone says this, but it’s the most challenging and rewarding time of my life for sure, and Florence just turned one a few months ago so I feel like my hands at this point are the fullest they’ve ever been. She does not stop. She is definitely Max and I’s child.
She is pure chaos and she loves to eat. She’s always got food in her hand, or she’s watching me cook. It’s such a joy to watch her grow up. I feel like every phase is so fun, but I think I’m really enjoying this stage at the moment with her. She’s starting to really take things in.
I put on MasterChef at night time with her and she looks at it and she’s like “Mum?”, and then she looks at me and I’m like “Yeah, I’m in two places at once I know honey it’s very confusing” but it’s so so sweet and special to share it with her.
Filming with a one-year-old can’t have been easy. What kind of support did you have around you?
Florence has actually been with me while we’ve been filming, so she grew up on MasterChef, which is crazy. We have two businesses back in Adelaide, so Max has stayed back in Adelaide while filming has been happening, and then he was visiting on the weekends while we were in production. Then Florence was with me obviously because I was still breastfeeding as well, which was a daily challenge and struggle. We had a nanny with us for filming, so that was really really helpful.
So during the day she had an incredible nanny. This lovely English girl, Charlotte, who has definitely become part of our family, which is so nice. Being so supported back in the workplace with such a young baby was incredible and I honestly couldn’t have done it without MasterChef supporting me in that way, because it is hard to go back into the workforce at any point having a child of any age that is so dependent on you. Whether they’re a newborn or five or seven or whatever, so to have that support from MasterChef was huge.
Has having Florence changed your approach going into this season?
I think so, yeah. Everyone says ‘you change once you have a kid,’ and I didn’t really understand that. Even when Florence was born I still didn’t really understand that, and I think it was as soon as I decided to go back on and I said ‘yes’ and I had to step away from being a full-time mum—I think that’s when it kind of hit me.
I was like ‘okay’. I think it just changes your perspective on certain things in the sense of, I felt like everything I was doing for the family had to be worth it and it had to be the right decision and you’re just weighing the options of ‘is it the right decision for the family as a whole?’ ‘Is it the right decision for Florence?’ ‘Is spending time away from her the right thing?’.
So I had to weigh up all those kinds of decisions and make sure that she was obviously still at the forefront of being looked after. It definitely makes you think about decisions in life a little bit harder.
You met your husband Max while working at Orana in Adelaide, which is the former restaurant of the late Jock Zonfrillo. That place must hold a pretty special place in your heart, can you talk a bit about what it means to you and the lessons you learnt there?
I had pretty much finished season six [of MasterChef], I think it was a week after the finale was filmed, I started working at Orana, and Max was already working there at the time. The building had downstairs, and Orana upstairs, so two different venues of Jocks.
Just being offered the opportunity to go in, and I started almost in a work experience role, and I just said ‘yes’ to doing two weeks. I think it was like after day 4 or 5, I was like ‘I love this place, please let me work here’ and it was a challenging time because I felt like I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just came off MasterChef and it was this big whirlwind and the show was still airing while I was working.
It was really bizarre and weird and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in the hospitality industry but I just learnt so much about a whole new culture, I would say, of food. Jock was using native Australian ingredients which was very new and unheard of 10 to 11 years ago now. To learn something that was just so foreign to what I had grown up with was so incredible but then also learning the basics of French cookery almost felt like I was doing an apprenticeship, but a hands-on apprenticeship in one of the best restaurants in Australia at the time. So that was so cool—to have Jock’s guidance was incredible.
Then obviously I met Max there as well. We worked together for a little bit before we both decided to go separate ways, and Max went in one direction, and I went the other, workwise. And then we met up, workwise, three years later or something, obviously still dating, and opened our own restaurant.
What are your go-to spots to eat and hang out at when you’re off duty in Adelaide, especially with Florence in tow?
I feel like I obviously have to say our own venues because someone will tell me off if I don’t (laughs). Nido and Fugazzi are both [great], for their different reasons. Fugazzi is such a fun, girls night out. But I love going in [to Fugazzi], popping in with Florence when Max is working, have a quick bowl of pasta together, and then head back off and finish our day.
And likewise with Nido, but I’d have to say outside our venues; I love ‘Parwana’ on Henley Beach Road. It’s a small Afghani restaurant, family run, and it’s BYO so you can bring your own bottle of wine which is amazing. You’re drinking it out of literal water glasses, which is just so nostalgic to my childhood anyway, and it’s just incredibly wholesome Afghani food that is like if grandmas were cooking it for you.
It’s pretty special to have that in Adelaide, I love going there. And I love Kiin—It’s a modern Thai restaurant in the city run by two friends of ours. And it is, I think, the best Thai food in Adelaide by far and it’s just so authentic in Thai flavours, but not too modern that they’re reinventing the wheel. It’s just really delicious, wholesome, and beautifully plated, yummy Thai food.
What’s something MasterChef viewers don’t see about your time on the show?
I feel like everyone always talks about the food being cold, so I’ll skip that one. But I feel like they are such a long days, and I think you can only see what you can in a one hour episode on TV. I think it’s just all the hard work that does go into it, from everyone.
Obviously every night not all the dishes are featured, but you know that, which is hard, I always kind of keep up being in the top otherwise you’re in the bottom. I think it’s just the day—how long it does take to make such an incredible show, and the manpower behind it. And I honestly feel like as contestants we are the smallest part of the show, and that it’s just this magical place behind us.
Are you aware that on some popular betting apps, you have the highest odds of winning? How does that make you feel that Australia believes in you?
Oh my god (laughs), I will laugh at this question (laughs). Yes, its very flattering. Love a good odd, for sure. I’ve always been the underdog in this kind of situation so, look, the underdog’s never worked for me before so maybe this is my new good luck charm. (laughs) Oh my god, that’s actually quite funny.
After placing as runner up twice now, what would it mean to you to win this season?
I feel like I say this a lot but it’s very much like closing a chapter for me. So I feel like I’ve spent, I’m 30 now, so almost 12 years of my life chasing this dream of becoming a MasterChef winner.
So, coming back the third time, I feel like I’m the hungriest that I’ve ever been for it, and I’m very adamant that this is my last time going up for it. Three times is greedy enough, so I’ve definitely come into it going ‘I wanna win this one’, and I’m going be trying my absolute hardest to take it out.
The 2025 MasterChef Grand Finale airs August 12, 2025 at 7.30pm on 10.
