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Kimchi is Dami’s secret weapon

Dami Im drew upon her heritage to give herself a best shot at 10's cooking show.

When she agreed to join Celebrity MasterChef singer Dami Im approached the benches with a secret weapon: Korean food.

“Anything to do with kimchi and rice is my main thing,” she tells TV Tonight.

“I thought that’s a good strategy because I figured that the judges wouldn’t be as familiar with Korean food as they would be with Italian.

“Everybody has their laneway … that one thing they’re proud of. Because we’re not professional chefs we’re not going to be good at everything, but I think everyone can make one of their favourite dishes pretty well.”

The former X Factor winner was happy to say yes to a request to participate, after her trip across the Dancing with the Stars dancefloor in 2020. Is Reality TV her own laneway?

“I’ve done the singing part which launched my career and I’m making music but when I get offered these other bits and pieces, like dancing and now cooking, it doesn’t really matter. I already know that I’m not the best at them!

Dancing with the Stars was fun, but it was really, really hard. MasterChef was more fun than anything. Just being around these amazing other contestants who are incredible people in real life.

“I was really, really keen to do it”

“I was really keen to do it because I love nothing more than food. Even though I wouldn’t call myself the best cook, my mum’s a really good cook so I really appreciate great cooking,” she continues.

“It is reality television. So if I suck it’s kind of part of the fun.”

Dami joins actors Rebecca Gibney and Matt Le Nevez, fashion designer Collette Dinnigan, Olympian Ian Thorpe, radio host Chrissie Swan, comedian Dilruk Jayasinha, British presenter Tilly Ramsay, and ex footballers Archie Thompson and Nick Riewoldt.

“Some of them I’ve crossed paths with in other opportunities, but to have spent that much time together, with that intensity and that shared experience was really quite nice. We got to become super close,” she explains.

“I fell in love with cooking even more than ever”

“I found that afterwards, I became so much more interested in cooking. I fell in love with cooking even more than ever. After I came home, I just couldn’t stop thinking about everything that I went through and all the things that I learned from the chefs. I started practicing and inviting more friends over and doing these dishes that I hadn’t tried before. So overall, it was a really beneficial experience.”

Whilst she acknowledges the time constraints were the biggest demand of her skills, she was surprised by how real everything was in the making of the show.

“MasterChef was just a very honest look at what happens in real life.”

“When you see things on TV, you usually see a very short version of what actually goes down. But I felt like what we were experiencing was very similar to what you see on television. MasterChef was just a very honest look at what happens in real life.

“I didn’t think that 90 or 60 minutes would be such a short time to make a dish,” she admits.

“Because all the equipment we’re not used to using, everyone was like. ‘Oh, I forgot to top the onions!’ I was just always confused and panicking.

“A bit of drama!”

Celebrity MasterChef returns to 10 7:30pm Sunday on 10.

2 Responses

  1. I hope Dami does well, it’s an interesting perspective from her as it’s not all about building her brand as a ‘singer’ but her brand as Dami Im. She is more than just a singer, and I for one am very pleased that she is venturing into different things as herself – I always enjoy watching her (as a fellow introvert)….

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