Outgoing MasterChef star Melissa Leong has announced a new TV project following her ‘axing’ from the cookery show earlier this month.
Leong is set to swap her apron for hospital scrubs when she fronts documentary series The Hospital: In The Deep End for SBS next year.
Leong will star in the three-part series alongside actor Samuel Johnson and Gardening Australia host Costa Georgiadis.
The chef has revealed that she was approached by SBS to star in the series due to her mother’s experience in healthcare.
“She was nursing unit manager in the emergency department in Sutherland Hospital for about a decade, and she’s been a nurse since she was 17,” Leong said. “So to be given the opportunity to be a deeply unqualified fly on the wall, to get a feel for how much pressure the public health system is under, why would you say no to that?”
Leong’s shock departure from MasterChef Australia hit leadlines earlier this month. At the time, reports emerged that she had been axed just weeks ahead of filming for the new series.
However, Leong has refuted the rumours, and claimed that her exit was always part of the plan.
“I always said I would love to be in the position where, when it’s my time, I get to welcome and congratulate the next batch of judges and hand that baton on,” she told The Herald. “And I get to do that, which is the most wonderful thing, and I get to explore so many other parts of who I am.”
She continued: “MasterChef made me wake up to the other parts of my life that bring me joy, that turn my brain on … [now] I get the best of both worlds – I get to be able to grow a beloved institution with Dessert Masters, plus I get to do this [The Hospital].”
Leong first addressed the controversy surrounding her exit in a post on Instagram last week.
“I get that there is going to be a bit of confusion and chaos about the ‘why’ of it all right now. I’m here and happy to clear that up, because negative tropes draped around women who achieve something is boring, and frankly we are all better than that,” she wrote.
“This is a shift I embrace with joy. One that allows everyone involved, to expand. To put it plainly, I’m very fortunate to continue to be a key part of [MasterChef], yet have the space to evolve my career.
“In effect, I get to have my cake and eat it too … and what could be better than that?!”