He was one of the 12 fans to star in this season of MasterChef Australia, but sadly Dulan Hapuarachchi’s time in the kitchen came to an end after a marathon challenge.
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Up against Julie, Alvin and Max, Dulan was faced with a challenge set by none other than Adriano Zumbo, who asked the four cooks to recreate his Polly Wanna Waffle.
Despite running half an hour behind, Dulan managed to pull through and plate up a finished dish after giving himself a mental pep talk.
“I just kept telling myself, ‘you’re here for a reason, don’t give up now because you’re not a bad cook – you just have to keep going and finish the dish’,” he tells New Idea.
“I just kept thinking about my family and how they’re going to see me,” he adds. “They know that I’m not a quitter.”
And quit he didn’t, as Dulan plated up a beautiful dish for the three judges and Adriano, but unfortunately, it wasn’t quite up to standard.
“At that time, I didn’t have any regrets – I didn’t have any feeling saying, ‘why am I going right now?’ but those kind of feelings did come back later,” he says.
With thoughts of how he should have done things differently running through his mind after leaving the show, Dulan reminded himself that he can’t change the past.
“What’s done is done – I gave it my best… for anyone it’s just, you can’t be hard on yourself,” he says.
While his time on the show was cut short, Dulan was able to form a solid connection with the rest of the cooks, including some of his food idols like Sashi Cheliah, Billie McKay, Julie Goodwin, and Sarah Todd.
“All these big names in the food industry all in one place and you get to cook alongside them every single day,” he gushes.
“Outside of the cameras, back in the apartment, you get to cook with them, just liaise with them… and everyone got along like a house on fire.”
Their time together away from the camera is a massive highlight for Dulan, who says he is “so grateful” to have met such a group.
As for how it felt to go up against everyone, some of which he calls good friends today, Dulan says switching into competition mode was completely natural.
“Once you get into that kitchen and you’re in a competition, you will go against whoever it is,” he says. “Everyone was competitive.”
He adds that despite the fierce competition, everyone was still willing to look out for one another and help where they could.
“If someone’s having trouble, people will step in and see whether you’re okay or you need help,” he says.
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