Meet MasterChef Australia 2023’s Rue Mupedzi — The Macaron Master Who Can Handle Pressure

The challenges on MasterChef Australia can be different on any given day. While a mystery box challenge asks contestants to get creative with specific set ingredients, an immunity challenge can often be an 'open-cook', where the cast can create anything from a fine dining dish to a delectable dessert.

Rue Mupedzi, who's starring on MasterChef Australia: Secrets & Surprises this year, could no doubt excel in both of the last two categories.

It was Mupedzi's first-ever fine dining experience in 2014 that set her on the path towards the MasterChef kitchen. Her Sydney experience came five years after she moved to Australia from Zimbabwe when she was 15.

Since then, she's always had a passion for delicious food, learning the cooking basics from her mother, and then absorbing knowledge from her library of cookbooks.

While the 29-year-old is a qualified oral health therapist, she took a break from her day job in 2021 to launch a macaron business. Persistence and precision have always been key to her baking success, and she says it took her 10 months of trial and error to perfect her recipe.

Well-versed in being patient throughout the baking process, Mupedzi is confident that her calm nature will help her handle the pressure that the MasterChef kitchen can often evoke.

While last year's season MasterChef Australia: Fans & Favourites featured 12 returning contestants from previous seasons and 12 amateur home cooks, the 2023 season returns to the original format featuring 18 faces that are new to Aussie TV .The contestants are Adi Nevgi, Alice Han, Amy Tanner, Andrea Puglisi, Antonio Cruz Vaamonde, Brent Draper, Cath Collins, Declan Cleary, Grace Jupp, Jessica Perri, Larissa Sewell, Malissa Fedele, Phil Conway, Ralph Kahango, Rhiannon Anderson, Robbie Cooper, Rue Mupedzi and Theo Loizou.

In addition to MasterChef judges Melissa Leong, Andy Allen and Jock Zonfrillo (who recently passed away), this year there's a star-studded lineup of guest judges including Jamie Oliver, Curtis Stone, Maggie Beer, Rick Stein and Peter Gilmore.

MasterChef Australia: Secrets & Surprises will premiere on Sunday, May 7 at 7:30pm on Channel 10, following a special edition of The Sunday Project which will pay tribute to Jock Zonfrillo from 6:30pm.