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EIGHT Perth contestants have whipped, chopped, sliced, diced and cooked their way into the final 50 of Channel 10's new reality series, Masterchef.
The WA contestants have come from thousands of applications which flooded in from across the country from students, mums, professional sportsmen, solicitors, nurses and cleaners.
On Friday six budding Perth chefs were revealed in the top 32 and tonight four of them will make it into the top 20 when they will really feel the heat in the kitchen.
Gallery: More pictures from Masterchef
The six Perth contestants are fishmonger Joshua Catalano who runs the production team at the Catalano Seafood factory, 25, from Thornlie; hotel hand Robert Forde, 18, from North Fremantle; navy submariner Trevor Forster, 36, from Medina; law student Kate Rodrigues, 21, from Mt Lawley; mum and project manager Hannah Sforcina, 27, from Karrinyup and marketing executive Julia Jenkins, 23, from Nedlands who recently moved to Melbourne.
Masterchef is hosted by Sarah Wilson, former editor of Australian Cosmopolitan and with three judges, chefs and restaurateurs Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris and food critic Matt Wilson.
Mr Catalano said he was taking a break from the family business in a bid to realise his dream to own a seafood restaurant and to teach people the simplicity of cooking good seafood.
For his first audition in Perth he whipped up a meat dish and steered away from his favourite fish dishes.
“With an Italian family I can’t remember not going to work at the factory and being part of seafood,” Mr Catalano said.
“I wanted to show the judges that I was versatile and I knew everyone was expecting me to cook fish – but I wanted to wow them with my lamb cutlets with a dukkah crust.”
He has been seen on the show for a week and is learning to cook under pressure.
“The challenges are thrown at you and you are thrown in the deep end and you learn not to panic, to stay calm and cook the food you want to from the heart,” he said.
“One challenge was to open a box and there were ingredients such as chocolate, pork and cabbage and you have 30 people there who have the same ingredients and you cook something the judges haven’t seen before – it is pretty daunting.
“I like to let my food do the talking.”
Watch tonight to see which four Perth contestants make it to the final 20.
Masterchef is on tonight at 7.30pm and weeknights at 7pm on Channel 10.
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