Kirsten Tibballs is Australia’s undisputed Queen of Chocolate. Having enjoyed her role as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia across countless seasons, Dessert Masters will mark a shift to the other side of the bench for Kirsten as she prepares to show off the full gamut of her chocolate and pastry skills as a competitor.

No stranger to a contest, Kirsten’s creations have won accolades the world over, taking out Best Handmade Chocolates in the World Pastry Championships in Las Vegas in 2004, as well as gold and bronze medals at the Pastry Olympics in Germany in 2004.

Kirsten’s involvement in the competitive sphere has since come full circle, with 2022 seeing her serve as the Head of the Jury of Taste at the prestigious World Chocolate Masters in Paris in 2022, as well as the Patisserie Grand Prix in Japan and the World Chocolate Masters National selections in London.

With a passion for baking on display from a very early age, Kirsten made and sold cakes from home age 12 and began her apprenticeship at age 15, before working and training in Europe.

In 2002 she founded Savour School in Melbourne, an online cooking school and speciality retailer for chocolate and pâtisserie, which also offers hands-on classes to learn from the Queen herself as she generously shares her knowledge with students.

Having published her first cookbook, Chocolate To Savour, in 2012, Kirsten followed this up with 2016’s Chocolate: Luscious recipes and expert know-how for biscuits, cakes, sweet treats and desserts, and in October this year will release her latest hotly-anticipated cookbook, Chocolate All Day.

Alongside her many MasterChef Australia appearances, Kirsten is also the star of SBS television series, The Chocolate Queen, three seasons of which screen in over 40 countries, with a fourth in production.

A perfectionist familiar with the rigours of competition, expect to see Kirsten reaching for the stars during every single challenge in her bid to walk away with the inaugural Dessert Masters title.