Andy leaned over. “Tell us about your Australian summer, Justin.”
Justin wiped his hands on his apron. “My summer isn’t a fancy restaurant. It’s the back deck of my parents’ place in Wollongong. It’s the prawns my dad burns on the Weber, the corn my sister insists on, and the dumplings my grandma taught me to make when I was ten. She said, ‘A good dumpling doesn’t need to look perfect. It just needs to taste like love.’” masterchef australia season 13 winner
Justin worked in silence. While Pete’s station became a frozen wonderland of shattered glass-like sugar and Pete himself frantically re-tempering chocolate, and while Depinder’s corner perfumed the entire studio with roasting cumin and saffron, Justin did one thing: he grilled. He grilled prawns over open flame until their shells were blackened and their flesh was sweet. He cut the corn off the cob and charred the kernels in a dry pan. Then he made a simple lemon myrtle butter—Grandma’s recipe, but with a native twist he’d learned from a foraging masterclass mid-season. Andy leaned over