It’s only been two years since Rue Mupedzi got a taste of reality TV when she appeared on MasterChef in 2023. Having now returned for the 2025 season called MasterChef Australia: Back To Win, she has a fresh outlook on what she’d like to achieve in the kitchen – and it’s quite the sweet treat!
While she’d been a savoury cook for many years, Rue took her culinary focus in another direction after 2019 when she discovered her joy for making desserts. Choux pastry and macarons particularly caught her eye at the time because she was up for a “challenge”. After placing seventh on MasterChef in 2023, Rue worked at a pastry shop as a pastry chef, worked as a private chef, travelled, and also returned to dental work before she got the call for the 2025 season.
“Going back on the show as well [has just] reinforced that I really want to delve myself a little bit more into the pastry world,” she tells Missing Perspectives. “Go to France, work in a patisserie, refine my skills, and maybe come back and open up a dessert shop in Perth.”
The 31-year-old reflects on moving to Australia from Zimbabwe when she was 15, saying one particular dessert has played a role in feeling a sense of home and connection with family. With this season of MasterChef already a few weeks in, Rue recently made a Black Forest cake in a mystery box challenge that was tasted by judges Andy Allen, Poh Ling Yeow, Jean-Christophe Novelli, and Sofia Levin.
“The Black Forest, that was actually inspired by my mum because when we first moved to Australia, Black Forest cake was her favorite cake for any occasion,” she shares.
“Belonging – that’s a really big thing for me. I feel everyone’s always looking for their place in this show, in this world… and I just feel [that] when I cook things that are inspired by my family, it really shows that I can belong at home and also in the kitchen.
“So it gives me a sense of belonging in the things that I’m doing.”
When it comes to how she felt truly at home while filming MasterChef this season, Rue says she forged a particularly strong connection with judge, Poh Ling Yeow.
“She comes from an ethnic background, and I feel like that connection was so easy to establish because, you know, with the things that I would say, she would automatically understand or get,” says Rue.
“Sometimes when I’m a little bit hard on myself, and the judges are sort of like, ‘Oh, we don’t understand why you’re so hard on yourself,’ I’m like, there’s like this unspoken expectation coming from an ethnic household to always be the best of the best,” she explains, adding that Poh “really understood that because she’s grown up in an ethnic household”.
As she circles back to family, Rue adds that her mum is now her biggest fan. The pair regularly speak on the phone and her mother reminds her that the family is “so proud” of her for giving the competition another shot.
“[She says], ‘We’re not expecting anything. We’re already proud of you.’”
Given her big focus on sweet dishes, Rue says she’s particularly inspired by former MasterChef contestants like Reynold Poernomo and Jess Liemantara, who have carved out very successful careers in the dessert world.
“Reynold actually propelled my dessert love,” she says. “When I watched him, my mind was blown, and then I followed his journey from there.” She adds that seeing Jess achieve success at such a young age on the show made her realise that if “this young girl can do all this stuff, surely I can learn and do it as well.”
Unsurprisingly, Rue’s dream is to visit France and immerse herself in the culinary world there, before returning to Australia to open her own dessert bar. It’s safe to say, we’ll be watching this space.
This year’s season of MasterChef has 24 cast members: Alana Lowes (Season 3), Andre Ursini (Season 1), Audra Morrice (Season 4), Beau Cook (Season 4), Ben Macdonald (Season 6), Callum Hann (Season 2, Season 12), Cath Collins (Season 15), Darrsh Clarke (Season 16), Declan Cleary (Season 15), Depinder Chhibber (Season 13), Jamie Fleming (Season 6), Jimmy Wong (Season 8), Laura Sharrad (Season 6, Season 12), Matt Hopcraft (Season 7), Pete Campbell (Season 13), Rhiannon Anderson (Season 15), Rue Mupedzi (Season 15), Samira El Khafir (Season 5), Sarah Todd (Season 6, Season 14), Sav Perera (Season 16), Snezana Calic (Season 16), Steph de Sousa (Season 11), Theo Loizou (Season 15) and Tim Bone (Season 11).
MasterChef Australia: Back To Win continues on Sunday at 7pm on Channel 10 and 10 Play.
Top photo source: Supplied/Channel 10
