It’s Top Four week on MasterChef Australia: Back to Win and, as the contestants race to the finish line, judge Sofia Levin reveals the atmosphere in the kitchen during those intense final cooks.
“It starts to feel really potent,” Sofia, 35, tells TV WEEK. “The further you get into the competition, the harder it is to be the one to leave. So the concentration and the dedication goes up a notch.”
Now in her second season as a judge, the established journalist and restaurant reviewer admits she still feels like the new kid in school.
“I honestly find it daunting still,” the Melburnian reveals. “It has a sort of back-to-school energy. You start off with 24 contestants and you’re trying lots of dishes and you need to make sure that you have enough for everybody. I don’t review 24 restaurants in a night.”
Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed – Sofia is nominated for a TV WEEK Silver Logie for Most Popular New Talent, a career milestone she says she wishes she could share with her late father, Greg.
“It was extremely validating to be nominated because I’m often quite self-critical,” she explains. “And it’s hard not to be able to celebrate that with Dad.
“I think he would be proud, but not surprised, which is often what he said about my various achievements.
“And he would be making multiple fake email accounts to cast multiple votes, telling everybody at work to vote for me as well!”
Returning to the MasterChef kitchen while still mourning her father, who passed away last July, wasn’t easy, but Sofia says it became a therapeutic experience, especially with friend and fellow judge Poh Ling Yeow by her side.
“I find when I’m doing what I love, surrounded by people who I love, who are really supportive, it’s a kind of a healthy distraction,” Sofia says. “It gives me forward momentum. It’s such a weird thing with grief because I’ve found that feeling deeply sad and really joyful can exist side by side.
“That can be very confronting because you feel pulled both ways.”
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