Celeb chef Curtis Stone

The Aussie cook reveals how the pandemic has affected his famous family

Curtis Stone has always been a familiar face in the MasterChef Australia kitchen, but with COVID limiting international travel, this season, the Los Angeles-based celebrity chef had to take a different approach in order to make a guest appearance.

While the 45-year-old was relieved that he was able to Zoom into the show, just like fellow star cooks Nigella Lawson and Yotam Ottolenghi, the experience wasn’t as personal as he would have liked.

“It’s a bit harder being over here because I don’t get to meet the contestants in the flesh,” Curtis tells Woman’s Day. “While you usually spend lots of time with everyone on camera, you also spend lots of time chatting off camera and hearing their stories.

“It was a bummer that I missed out on all that.”