Copyright smh
“This has been simmering below the surface for such a long time. Enough is enough … I have huge admiration for the women who spoke up for that story because that was not easy,” she says, referring to a major investigation into the issue by Nine, owner of this masthead. Leong has also learnt, sometimes the hard way, the price of speaking up, especially during her three years on MasterChef, the role that made her a household name. She says she has been portrayed as “difficult” or a “bitch” – “all the fun tropes that women are saddled with” – both of which she rejects. “I’ve thought to myself, ‘You don’t get it,’ ” she says, fighting back tears. “I would never do anything … that would make it harder for other people [of colour] to come in after me. And if you don’t understand that, then, what can I say? … I’m not sad, I’m angry.” Still, working on MasterChef was a mostly happy time for Leong, notwithstanding the shock 2023 death of her colleague, Jock Zonfrillo, and intense speculation around why she left the show soon afterwards. While conceding that “people want to know about how the sausage is made”, she wrote about MasterChef much like the rest of the book: on her terms. “I didn’t necessarily feel like I wanted to write about some of that [MasterChef] chapter, only because it’s too fresh; it’s not even in the rear-vision mirror yet,” she says. The experience reinforced to her how far the industry has to go in terms of accurate representation. “I’m not saying the needle’s not moving,” she says. “I’m just saying it’s not moving fast enough.” She also learnt to be more comfortable taking up space. “Now, if you want to put me in the centre of the room, under a spotlight, I will stand there because I know that I deserve to be there.”
