How Are You Today, Melissa Leong? On Owning Her Heritage, Mental Health and Looking After Herself

Описание: Trigger warning: This interview mentions mental health, rape and domestic violence.

Most people know Melissa Leong as the warm, relatable and trailblazing judge who made history as the first woman on MasterChef Australia. But that is just one way to describe the multi-hyphenate that is Melissa Leong. She is also a food and travel journalist, broadcaster and cookbook editor – even a fashion icon, once wearing an Australian designer piece on MasterChef that sold out after the episode aired.

But her road to fame wasn't overnight, and it certainly wasn't easy.

In her memoir Guts, released in 2025, Melissa opens up about being a child of Singaporean immigrants, who was bullied at school for her 'stinky' food, growing up with a father who disciplined by physical punishment, being raped while working her way up in the hospo industry, the breakdown of her marriage, disordered eating, and her decades-long battle with depression and anxiety.

In this interview, we sat down with Melissa to talk about owning her Chinese-Singaporean heritage, why it's important to talk about mental health, and what looking after herself looks like now – especially after taking on her first show outside Australia. We also couldn't resist asking what she loved about the food culture in Aotearoa.

Taste of Art starts 7.30pm on Thursday, February 19, on TVNZ1 and TVNZ+.

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