Age: 31

State: New South Wales

Occupation: Senior Graphic Designer

Instagram: @dottys.bowl

New Zealand-born Dot McHugh has forever been a passionate foodie. Whether travelling across town to try a hyped sandwich, spending work from home days making sourdough or cooking for loved ones, food just isn’t a hobby, it’s a way of life.

Dot’s passion is inherited from her foodie parents, and she credits mum Michelle with teaching her everything she knows in the kitchen. She recalls sitting on the counter each night, watching her mum cook, listening, learning and taking it all in, becoming a tiny sous chef with no need for separate kids’ meals.

Her Nanna and Poppa back in New Zealand also helped develop her well-rounded palate from an early age. Her Poppa worked in the stone fruit industry and taught her all about seasonal produce and vegetable gardening - memories of eating tomatoes straight from the vine are ingrained and much-loved.

Holding a Bachelor of Design, Dot has built a successful career in graphic design, particularly within the publishing and branding industries, working across Sydney, New Zealand and London. It was whilst living in London that Dot met her now fiancée Katie, a Brit, whom Dot says is her biggest champion and cheerleader. Together for seven years, the pair love bringing people together around a table and hosting dinner parties, sparking true joy for Dot.

It’s this same joy she hopes to deliver in the MasterChef Australia kitchen. With a cooking style described as freestyle, creative and flavourful, Dot is a savoury gal through and through and loves creating hearty, rustic meals, leaning on her love of textures and flavours, making fresh, seasonal produce sing. She can’t wait to learn from the judges and her fellow contestants during the competition, ready to broaden her skills and learn new techniques.

Identifying deeply with Nagi Maehashi who swung the ultimate corporate-to-cooking career shift, Dot loves her job but feels it’s high time to follow her long-held dream of doing something meaningful in the world of food – whether it’s her own café or beyond, only time will tell.