Larissa for MasterChef S22 Heat 6 / BBC
Age: 30
Job: Lawyer and Career Coach
From: Berkshire
How would you describe your cooking style?
“Instinctive, inventive, and rooted in classics, but always with my own twist – I never settle on one style. We have a saying at home: ‘We don’t waste flavour in this house.’ That comes directly from my Ukrainian grandmother, Baba, she taught me something I’ve never forgotten, to never be afraid to cook on instinct. I don’t follow recipes because she taught me to trust that you’ll get there without one.
“Food runs in the family on my dad’s side too, specifically in the form of sausage rolls so good they have become a matter of genuine priority. Once, driving back to university through heavy rain in a very small car, I nearly had an accident. When I arrived shaken and told my housemates what had happened, their first question – not their second, was: ‘Are the sausage rolls okay?! Did you put a seatbelt on them?’ I had. They were fine. We were fine!”
What is your favourite ingredient to cook with?
“Wild garlic. In every form, without apology. I briefly worried this would make me unpopular in student halls, until I discovered my housemates from Singapore felt the same way. Some friendships are built on shared values, ours was built on shared alliums!
“I love the sharp punch of raw garlic in a proper aioli. I forage it myself every spring and was once collected from the airport with a bunch of it instead of flowers, which tells you a lot about the people in my life.
“There’s something quietly moving about it too. My mum used to tell me about the family cold remedy, raw salted garlic and onion on toast. Not one I would necessarily inflict on loved ones these days or a bold volunteer to try it but knowing that generations of my family put their faith in the same ingredient means something to me.”
Why did you take part in the show?
“2025 was a lot – a big, bold, transformative year. I turned 30, had a health scare, came through burnout, changed career, and came home from seven months of travelling with a lot to sit with. Entering felt less like ambition and more like a moment of honesty and a promise with myself.
“I coach people for a living, and I spend a lot of time encouraging others to stop treating the things they want as ‘maybe one day’. I didn’t want to be someone who talked about food their whole life and never found out what they were capable of. I wanted to be able to say I did it, whatever happened.”
Would you like to work professionally in the food industry?
“Yes, a food writer, recipe developer, stylist, critic, any of it would be a privilege. But what I’m most drawn to is building something for people who came to food sideways: the self-taught, the career-changers, the ones who never went to cookery school but have been cooking with everything they have for years.”
MasterChef continues on BBC One and iPlayer.
