Entering the competition 16 years ago, Andre went on to work in the industry for a year before opening Andre’s Cucina & Polenta Bar, an award-winning institution in the Adelaide food scene. He went on to launch ORSO and Wilmott’s Gastronomia, Lost Phoenix Farm and Distillery, and finally Viletta Porcini.

Regardless of how much the competition has evolved and changed over the almost two decades since its debut season, Andre is a testament to the power of the MasterChef kitchen, catapulting chefs into the industry and allowing them to chase their culinary dreams.

Returning now for Back to Win, Andre told 10 his first priority was to have fun, take things day-by-day and to reconnect with his love of cooking.

“It was about the journey, not the destination,” he said with one of his signature laughs. “It was not about winning at all. Aren’t we taught that in primary school?”

“Honestly, I didn’t mind leaving first or leaving last, it wasn’t about that, I just wanted to put up a couple of good dishes, give it a crack and see what it’s all about,” Andre continued.

Though he was familiar with faces like Laura, Jamie, Callum and Ben, who have similarly been working in the industry since their respective seasons, Andre admits he was surprised by the calibre of some of the chefs who don’t have as much experience in hospitality or in restaurants.

“That was a real eye-opener for me in the competition… a lot of these home cooks were cooking in chaos, which a lot of industry chefs can’t do, and that’s where their talent lies. I was blown away with the level of skill that people like Depinder and Snez in particular had,” he said.

As the competition has grown over the years, so has the calibre of chefs and home cooks who have walked through the doors.

“I looked at Depinder and thought this is a young lady who was brought up on the show, studied it and cooked at home and was so passionate as far as a home cook goes… she was watching it when she was a child, same as Declan, and they’re clued in on the competition, how to cook in it, they’ve been practicing for a long time.

“I hadn’t touched base with the competition for a few years and I didn’t do much research on the challenges either,” he giggled. “I was just going to go with the flow, but in retrospect, I probably should have practised a little bit.”

For a brief second, Andre almost admitted that if he had his time again he’d brush up on following recipes to better equip himself for Pressure Tests, but before he finished his sentence he cut himself off. “Actually no, I wouldn’t do anything differently if I went on MasterChef again – which I’d be open to, because I did have a good time!

“But Pressure Tests weren’t my thing. I hated them, hated them! I was terrible at them,” he laughed.

During challenges, there was a musicality to Andre’s cooking, not just because he’d often say he could hear Pavarotti singing while he cooked, so being faced with the rigid task of perfectly following a recipe and replicating a dish wasn’t something that naturally appealed to him.

“I realised I’m a creative chef and I really dislike copying recipes,” he admitted, adding, “and I think I’ve got ADHD”.

While other chefs brought cookbooks to study throughout the competition, Andre said he didn’t even bring any cookbooks with him. For him, the competition was an opportunity to create dishes that he wanted to bring forward to Villetta Porcini.

“I realised that I can come up with some pretty cool stuff… I’m going to be serving a bunch of them in my restaurants because I realised, in retrospect, they were really cool.

“I wasn’t cooking just for the competition, I was cooking for myself and beyond it as well, as far as my creativity.”

During the competition, Andre impressed the judges with his dishes, and as a reward, he found himself in pressure tests competing for immunity. “I think I did three or four of them, and I was like… I don’t want that as a reward! I don’t like them,” he laughed.

But on Tuesday night, Andre was cooking for his place in the competition and seeing Philip Khoury walk in, Andre said he felt a familiar dread after battling through John Demetrios’ chocolate meteor challenge a few weeks ago.

“As soon as Philip was announced and walked through the doors, I thought, oh here we go again,” Andre laughed. “And then [the dish] was revealed, and it looked ridiculously bonkers. Straight away, I knew I had my work cut out for me.”

Philip’s dish, Dawn of a Tropical New Day, would not only test the chefs to perfectly recreate the ornate dessert, but also had the added pressure of being entirely plant-based.

“I didn’t really know how I’d perform under the fact that it was plant-based, but as I went through the cook, I really enjoyed it. It’s a very intelligent, smart dish,” Andre said.

For many of the chefs, a crème chantilly or tempered chocolate are familiar enough that they can often rely on their instincts when it comes to times and indicators that an element is cooked right, so when it came to substituting things like eggs, butter and cream for coconut milks and oils, the chefs had to pay even closer attention.

“It actually felt like I was cooking more than baking,” Andre said. “This wasn’t a creation just for the sake of creating something hard; there was nothing superfluous on this beautiful little dish. It was very, very smart and something that I’d probably try to replicate in the future.”

Unlike other Pressure Tests in the past, Andre seemed to be working through the recipe methodically. But as time started to slip away, panic set in, and while he was assembling the dish, certain elements weren’t quite as finessed as Philip’s, throwing out the balance of the dish.

“I knew there was a hot chance I was going home when I was plating and putting it in front of the judges,” he admitted. “I felt pretty good until I got to the last page, and I was struggling to construct it. That last hurdle. And I just knew that Alana and Snez would have done a good job.”

Looking back on his time in the competition, Andre said the circuit breaker of running his restaurants meant he was able to once again reconnect with his love of cooking, thanks to his incredible support network at home that kept things running while he was away.

“I knew that was a long time to be away from all of my responsibilities, which is really significant… I took it week-by-week, day-by-day, just having fun, laughing the whole way.”

MasterChef Australia: Back to Win continues Sundays at 7pm and Monday - Wednesday at 7.30pm on 10