New South Wales Age: 33 Occupation: Senior IT Analyst

Friday evenings in Lisa’s family can often be described as enjoyable chaos. Her mother prepares a sit-down dinner for more than 20 family members, as the close-knit group gather to celebrate the end of a working week.

Born in western Sydney, Lisa is the youngest of five children, a close family with relatives spanning the globe from the US to Vietnam.

Following high school, Lisa studied Finance and Mathematics before completing a degree in Operations Management at the University of Western Sydney.

Food has been a central point for Lisa and her family and as a child, each Saturday was spent together at Yum Cha. Growing up, every event was celebrated with a good meal and Lisa says it could be something as small as a good report card to gather the family to celebrate over dinner. Food was the driving factor, be it to celebrate or commiserate, and later her parents owned their own Vietnamese restaurant in Cabramatta.

Married since 2014 to Haw, Lisa is the proud mother to her 18-month-old son Hunter. She says since having her own child she is more mindful of what goes into her dishes, although he is his own little foodie, eating everything in sight.

Following her MasterChef Australia journey, Lisa hopes to write her own cookbook and open a pop-up restaurant which moves around Australia showcasing Vietnamese flavours using local ingredients.

When she’s not cooking, Lisa loves travelling and keeping active through basketball and snowboarding and also boasts she can nail a Rubik’s Cube in a jiffy.

Lisa cites desserts as her weakness, but keen to impress the judges this season she is doing all she can to whip up some sweet treats.