After appearing in Season 16 last year, Snez barely had time to consider returning to the world of finance and her day job before she was called up and asked to come back to compete on Back to Win.
“I feel like I never left,” Snez laughed, “the call arrived and I was like, yes! Let’s do this all over again,” she told 10.
In her original season, Snez felt the wrath of a pressure test early on, devastating her just as she felt like she was gaining momentum in the competition. “The way I left, I had such great dishes and then left from a pressure test, I felt like, oh my god, I was just warming up! I didn’t feel like I was ready to go home at the time,” Snez explained.
“When I got this second chance, I was just thinking this is a really good opportunity to go back and show my food, and some of my culture that I didn’t have much chance to show the first time. And cooking with all these legends? How could I say no?”
Last year, Snez really found her footing when she was cooking dishes that honoured her Balkan heritage. Croatian-born Snez moved to Serbia as a child, giving her a rich repertoire of Mediterranean flavours and heartier Serbian dishes.
“Getting such great feedback from the judges, and all of my community hearing this feedback about dishes that are so day-to-day, hearing the positive feedback from professionals was really incredible. It was so beautiful and special and, honestly, I’m really glad that I did it,” she said.
Snez also admitted that she never expected so many fans of the show to rally behind her return to the competition. “I honestly thought nobody would notice me because there were so many good cooks!”
Before walking back into the kitchen, Snez had no idea that Back To Win would be full of returning chefs. “The first day we got to see everyone, I was terrified,” she admitted. “I called my husband like, oh my god, surely I’m back here so I can be eliminated first!
“It was really terrifying and I feel like, at the start, I was really self-conscious,” she continued. “I was insecure and lacking confidence and you can see it through my dishes at the start. Later, I picked up my game, gained more confidence and had been learning from [the other chefs] a lot.”
Facing a pressure test set by Curtis Stone, where the chefs had no recipe to follow, was a turning point in the competition for Snez, who realised she was able to rely on her instincts and plate up a nearly perfect replica of Curtis’ dish. “I was cooking with professional chefs and I was like, oh my god, there’s absolutely no way! I’m just going to embarrass myself! But I just let go, made it, and I was so proud of myself.
“I thought, you know what? I actually know this and I just need to trust myself al little bit more. Since then, I went a little bit more crazy, a little less safe, and a little more brave.”
Finding herself not only making it further and further into the competition, but thriving in it, you could see Snez having the time of her life, admitting that this time around, she loved every pressure test she found herself in.
But on Sunday night, the chefs faced a classic MasterChef challenge where they had a total of 90 minutes to use across two rounds. Chefs could use as much or as little time as they wanted in round one, but the three least impressive dishes would find their maker in the second round, with whatever time left they had banked.
“I had a strategy: go quick and crazy in the first round and leave myself as much time if I need to fight for my spot in the kitchen,” Snez explained. But her plans unravelled quickly when an aioli she’s made many times before split three times. Frustrated and losing time, Snez had to battle her own mindset.
“I felt like the more mistakes I made, the more shaky and insecure I became,” she explained. “Andy did say, ‘Time is your biggest enemy in this kitchen,’ and I stuffed it up in the first cook. I spent too much time on that aioli, lost too much time and didn’t leave myself enough time for round two.
“I was really frazzled, standing there smelling all the aromatics from Ben’s bench, I knew that would be an epic dish… I could just smell the beautiful seafood coming from his bench and knew there was no way it would be a bad dish.
“And, knowing Sarah, she’s so amazing and comes up with these crazy creations,” Snez continued. “I could see her whipping up pastry. I got a bit shaky thinking, what can I do? I feel like I made a bad decision, and it was not my best work.”
Admitting that she wasn’t 100 percent happy with her final dish, Snez said she was prepared to face elimination, but wasn’t expecting the outpouring of love from the judges and other contestants when the moment arrived.
“I felt so good, even though I was eliminated, I felt good. I achieved a lot, I cooked with these legends, and I really, genuinely appreciate the judges. It was such an emotional moment and I’m so, so happy about it,” she said.
Despite her journey coming to an end, Snez couldn’t be prouder of her growth throughout the season. “I see a lot of comments like, ‘I can’t believe how much you changed and your cooking progressed,’ and now my husband and family expect a different level of cooking. They’re like, why are there no microgreens on top of my dish?” Laughing, Snez continued, “I can definitely feel a massive change.
“MasterChef completely changed my life, and this season gave me even more opportunities for this to hopefully be my full-time career. I don’t feel like I can go back to finance and do the same job after doing this,” Snez said.
“I didn’t expect anyone to think I could win and, now, I feel like I should have thought that way at the start,” she reflected. “I never went into the competition the second time thinking I could win, I always thought there was no way I could win against all these professionals.
“But, looking at the end, there were seven of us, and I felt like the cooking was on a similar level! I should have thought more highly of myself. We are our own worst critics.”
MasterChef Australia: Back to Win. Watch + Stream Free On 10. Sundays at 7pm and Monday - Wednesday at 7.30pm on 10
