Many of us may be familiar with the cooking show MasterChef, but we do not necessarily know the winner of the well-known cooking competition. But one thing for sure, whenever a fellow Malaysian made name in an international competition, we are proud of them for their bravery ad success. Such person is Diana Chan. Diana Chan is a Malaysian-born Australian cook. She is the winner of MasterChef Australia for 2017, having defeated Ben Ungermann by one point in the grand finale.
Chan was raised in Johor Bahru. The youngest of three siblings, she learned cooking by watching her parents prepare Peranakan and Cantonese food. At age 17, Chan moved to Kuala Lumpur to complete her Cambridge A levels. Upon matriculation, she moved to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia where she completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Deakin University in 2010. After qualifying as a chartered accountant, she subsequently worked for Deloitte as a senior analyst.
Chan was selected in the Top 24 to contest MasterChef Australia in 2017. Her use of mystery box ingredients resulted in her being in the top 3 for tasting on three occasions, one of which she won. She was also in the top 3 for invention tests on two occasions, winning once. Chan captained her team to win the first team challenge of the year. Her dishes were the most tasted in the competition. Chan won the 2017 competition on 24 July 2017, by one point over runner-up Ben Ungermann. Since winning Masterchef she has been working to promote tourism in Malaysia, launched her column in Delicious Magazine, and has been seen demonstrating her cooking at many events in Melbourne and Malaysia.
In 2020, her dumplings, Golden Wok Diana Chan was sold for 21 million pieces at Woolies and Coles, amassing a grossing $10 million in gross sales. Hot off her win in MasterChef Australia, Chan was approached by family-owned Aussie business Golden Wok to collaborate on producing something that would have the Aussies begging for more, and it worked.
Recently, Australian Thai street food restaurant, P’Nut Street Noodles has partnered with the renowned chef to create slow food menu “Asian Soul Food Minimum Waste, Maximum Taste” that embraces a root to stem food philosophy that minimises food wastage. The dish was created to inspire Australians to be aware of unnecessary food waste and encourage them to be more creative with food scraps instead of throwing them out.
