Hi Sofia! There are some pretty intense challenges and tests on the MasterChef Australia. If you could invent a fun challenge or rule for the show, what would it be?

S: I would love to see a challenge where contestants cook with offal (organ meat). A lot of us grow up thinking these are the “yucky” parts of an animal, but if you cook it properly, offal is tender, tasty, textural, and incredible at soaking up flavour. Many cultures eat it daily, and it’s a great way to make sure nothing goes to waste. A few examples you can find easily include chicken liver pate and sausages (the casing is traditionally made with small intestine), but there are soups, stews and slow-braises that are some of my favourite foods.  

 Who would you love to have as a guest judge on the show?

S: I would love to have chef Matty Matheson and host and cookbook writer Samin Nosrat on MasterChef. Matty would be so much fun and extremely entertaining, while Samin has a rare way of explaining complex flavours and techniques extremely simply. 

This season, MasterChef Australia went to Hong Kong! Where else would you like to go and film?

S: I have a huge list. I would love to revisit Indonesia, Turkey, Spain and Vietnam with the crew and contestants. I’ve also never been to South Korea and hear the food is very special. That’s the beautiful thing about food: every culture is so proud of theirs and wants to share it.

Tell us about the very first dish you ever cooked.

S: I honestly can’t recall as I’ve always been surrounded by food. It would have been something simple, like baking cookies, with my mother or grandmother.

 Aww! What’s the strangest yet most delicious food you’ve ever had?

S: The word “strange” is subjective when it comes to food, because something you think is strange might be something someone in another country has for lunch every day!

You’re hosting a dinner party and can invite five people. Who would you pick?

S: That’s way too hard, there are so many people I’d love to dine with. One thing I can promise you is I’d over-cater and there would be lots of leftovers!

What’s your signature meal and dessert at this dinner party?

S: I would cook something uniquely Australian so these people from overseas could experience something they might not have otherwise tasted. I’d kick off with a simple starter of local scallops with scampi roe, which is naturally bright blue; move onto kangaroo steaks; and finish with pavlova that I’d spike with wattle seed and decorate with different native Australian fruits, like Kakadu plum powder and finger lime.

MasterChef Australia airs Sunday to Wednesday at 7:30pm on Network 10 and 10 Play.

Check out bonus interview content with MasterChef Australia judge Poh, here!

Find more of our interview with Sofia and fellow judge Poh in the new June 'Furr-ever Friends issue of Total Girl, out now!