If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that stand-up comedian and Have You Been Paying Attention? star Dilruk Jayasinha is set to go up against the likes of Olympian Ian Thorpe and celeb-chef royalty Tilly Ramsay on the upcoming season of Celebrity MasterChef Australia.
The Logie award-winning, Sri Lankan-born Aussie revealed in a recent Instagram Q&A that his passion for cooking is a relatively new development.
“My passion for cooking started last year, in March when the pandemic hit, and I had to learn how to cook on my own as opposed to getting it delivered to me,” he shared.
Asked what his biggest strength in the kitchen is, Jayasinha replied: “I’ve been eating a lot of food in my time, so I think I know what tastes good and what doesn’t!”
When the cast was announced, Jayasinha posted the photo of the star-studded cast, captioning it: “Here’s hoping last year’s self taught “Dil’s Rookie Cooking” in isolation comes in handy”, adding that he was “unbelievably chuffed to be invited on” the show.
In another snap, he posted a photo of himself wearing his official MasterChef apron, the first apron he’s ever owned.
“Those who know me well, know my strong opinions on me having to cook,” he wrote. “Chuck your Tele on… to see if being surrounded by some of the kindest and funniest kitchen crews around changes my view on this ancient art of turning ingredients into memories (both good and bad)”.
When he’s not going head-to-head with celebs on MasterChef, Jayasinha enjoys doing cryptic crosswords and jigsaw puzzles, and is an advocate for mental health.
In fact, he recently celebrated five years of sobriety, and posted to Facebook about his decision to seek the help of a psychologist.
“Not too long after this photo was taken was when I started seeing a psychologist and to say that it has been helpful is pretty big understatement,” he wrote. “I wish I realised earlier that seeking help wasn’t embarrassing or made me weak, but instead was gonna benefit literally EVERY aspect of my life!
“I mean I’m still a ‘Lankan Larrikin’ but I’m just less about that ‘double scotch whiskey and VB’ life and more about that ‘triple scotch finger and green tea’ life,” he joked.
Celebrity MasterChef Australia will premiere this Sunday, October 10th at 7.30pm, on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.
