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MasterChef's Amir on the behind-the-scenes moment you never see
MasterChef Australia's Amir Manoly was the 13th person to be eliminated from the show on Tuesday night when he failed to impress with a beetroot kebab with labneh, tabouleh and flatbread - a dish he'd normally make with lamb or chicken.
Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, Amir said he didn't expect to go home and was "a little bit shocked".
"Out of all the eliminations, I reckon this one was the one that surprised me the most I think, I felt like I had a really good cook," he said.
"I enjoyed my time, a lot. So, when they called my name out at the end of the day, I was a little bit shocked. But, that being said, I was also ready to go home and start my journey post-MasterChef."
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Many fans took to Twitter afterwards to poke fun at the fact the judges sent Amir home and he seemingly had to walk from Daylesford where they were cooking for the day as they showed him walking down a long pathway to the road.
"Why did they make Amir walk home?!" one fan Tweeted, with fellow contestant Minoli De Silva jokingly responding it was "punishment".
"I made it home, it took me about four days of walking, but I got there at the end," he joked in response to the fan reaction.
Speaking of the lovely fan reaction he received, he said: "Yeah I love the support, everyone's really genuine with their support and having a lot of fans, like it's overwhelming."
Amir added that his wife Alicia keeps him "grounded" and is making sure he doesn't get "a big head".
Speaking of behind-the-scenes, Amir did reveal there is one thing that you probably never see.
"The thing that surprised me the most after watching MasterChef season after season and seeing contestants consistently finish with seconds to go - watching at home, I'm like, there is no way that that happens day after day, episode after episode. But being in the kitchen, I can tell you that that genuinely happened to me 99 per cent of the time so that one is definitely true."
He added: "Some people finish with like 20 minutes to go. It's like, maybe do another element and finish with the seconds to go like the rest of us!"
"Maybe you can make yourself a little bit of a snack," he joked.
When asked if that would appear on-screen, Amir responded: "Nah, nah I don't think they'd show that."
He quickly added: "I don't think people really finish with 20 minutes to go, but maybe with a few minutes to go, but that's good because you've got time to finesse your plating. I mean I would love to finish earlier, that would have been more time to finesse the dish."
Amir also shared that he has officially launched his next project called Mister Collective which aims to help men with their mental health through cooking and creating companionship - two things they believe are fundamental for men's mental and physical health.
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