Originally competing in Season 3, Alana has spent the last 14 years in the food industry, as a TV presenter on food and travel shows, as a food stylist, recipe developer, and plenty more. In that time, she’s continued to hone her skills, which were on full display this season as she would routinely add a “touch of Alana” to her dishes, elevating them with her unique flavour pairings.

“I’ve come back after 14 years of being out of the [MasterChef] kitchen, eaten at so many amazing restaurants, worked with so many incredible chefs,” Alana told 10. “Being able to take all of those experiences in there, and I think being a mum actually makes you relax a little bit more when you realise that it’s definitely about being able to get in there and multitask,” she laughed.

Coming back to the competition, Alana said this time around she had nothing to lose, and wasn’t afraid to try new flavour combinations, experiment with things the judges had never tasted before, and bring in her savoury flair to desserts.

“I felt like this was a second opportunity to get into this kitchen and just really have fun with it, enjoy every moment,” she added. “The first time around, you’re a bit timid, you don’t want to get into a pressure test or to get up for elimination.

“This time, I felt like I had so much more confidence coming into the kitchen, my food knowledge was so much bigger than what it was, my knowledge of ingredients, flavours, and I really just loved being able to play around and put it together.”

Ahead of Back to Win, Alana said she had been playing around at home with different flavour combinations and introducing surprising on unusual savoury notes into desserts. “I thought that would be a nice little point of difference to the other contestants who might be stepping into the kitchen,” she explained.

“As I became more and more comfortable in the season, it was just like… what’s the craziest thing that I can get in this pantry and put it with some other crazy flavour? Particularly when there were challenges when it wasn’t an elimination, you have the opportunity to play around and see how far you can push it.”

Making it to the Top 8 and spending the last week cooking in Doha, Alana came into the competition with no expectations but, rather, milestones she hoped to reach.

“I would have loved to have gone further, but I just feel so satisfied with what I achieved and the dishes that the judges absolutely raved about,” she added.

“I’ve taken so much away from this season… it was through being able to stand out from the pack with those creative flavours, pushing myself with desserts, and I just wanted to get all the way to the end and hold that trophy up. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t for me. And I take so much away from the competition anyway.”

During Sunday night’s elimination, Alana, Snez, Laura, and Sarah went into a ‘dual duel’, where they were put into pairs and went head-to-head, cooking with the same feature ingredient. The least impressive dish in each pair would then go into a second round where they would once again go head-to-head, fighting for their place in the competition.

And the challenge literally saw them in a face-off as benches were set up opposite each other, but the culinary clash didn’t worry Alana, who knew she just had to focus on her own plate of food.

“I was just kind of heads down, blinkers on. I couldn’t focus on what was happening on the other bench because I didn’t want to get thrown,” she said, adding that the last thing she wanted to do was start second-guessing her instincts.

“As soon as a challenge is thrown at us, I instantly go with what my gut is telling me and try not to second-guess myself too much because that’s when you can stumble, that’s when you might lose a bit of time,” she said.

For Alana, her round one ingredient against Sarah was horseradish. Utilising it as a perfectly curious ingredient for a dessert, Alana plated up a horseradish ice cream with a touch of white chocolate, a soaked almond biscuit, goat’s curd, fresh plums and a celery oil on top.

“I actually thought that was a beautiful dish. I get what [the judges] were saying when they wanted a little bit more balance with the sweetness… but I really wanted that horseradish ice cream to shine through,” she said.

Having to go into a second round against Laura, Alana knew she had a massive challenge ahead of her.

“I did feel the nerves start to creep in, probably for one of the first times since I did the pressure test when Andre went home, but it took a lot to wrangle those nerves and make sure I put up a dish that I was really proud of,” she continued.

For round two, Alana and Laura had to create a dish featuring fennel seeds. Once again showing her technical skill at balancing flavours in desserts, Alana made a burnt fennel seed pavlova with a sour cherry sorbet and candied fennel stalks.

While the judges were deeply impressed with the stunning dish, the fennel seed flavour was competing with so many elements on the plate.

With a reinvigorated love for crafting dishes and bringing ‘a bit of Alana’ to the table, she has big plans for the near future.

“I still want to do all the media, recipe development and food styling, but I am so excited to just get into a kitchen and create some dishes, take them out to customers and be able to do some restaurant collaborations, different dinners, and pop-ups.

“I’m really looking forward to an opportunity I’ve got coming up in six or seven weeks in Mildura, which is where I grew up, working for their amazing Trail of Lights installation and doing a popup within it.”

On top of her work in media, food styling, and recipe development, Alana is also planning a few collaborations with restaurants in Brisbane in the next few months.

“I think it’s really great to be able to show people, so they can taste dishes, particularly if they watched the show and are fans, to be able to actually taste the food they’ve loved watching.”

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