First appearing in Season 4, it has been over a decade since Beau Cook's original season. Unlike many who have come Back To Win, after his first stint in the competition, Beau didn't pursue a career in the food industry and instead took up his dream of becoming a firefighter.

But when he was approached to return to the MasterChef kitchen, Beau said the call came at the right moment.

"After eleven years, especially in emergency service, you get a bit of burnout, so that really appealed to me. To just go away and do something that's a challenge, it's going to be fun, and then hopefully I'm refreshed for the next part of my career," Beau explained to 10 Play.

Standing alongside his fellow contestants, many of whom have gone on to open their own restaurants or work in kitchens for years, Beau said it was daunting at the beginning of the season.

"You kind of feel like an impostor, I did at the start," he admitted. "I don't have a public profile, I don't have a restaurant or work in a kitchen... but I figured out that I actually can cook. I'm not an impostor, and that was a bit of a wake-up for me," he continued.

"For me, what I'm passionate about is growing food. I have a big veggie patch and I love to cook for others, using stuff from my garden and sharing the excess with others."

Maintaining his skills by connecting with food by growing and foraging his own produce, Beau said, after he received the call to return, the one thing he felt like he needed to brush up on was dessert.

"I went and bought the sh*ttest ice cream maker you can find, made ice creams and failed to make pastry," he laughed. "But I think all those little failures just before I went in meant the next time I made them, they were going to be good... hopefully."

Despite being in the competition, Beau was unflappable throughout any of the challenges, including pressure tests.

"It comes back to my personality and what I do for work," he explained. "I was never truly stressed in the kitchen, for me it was like, 'pinch yourself, look around, take it easy'. When you've got that mindset, everything else flows so you don't miss a step, you don't fumble."

In the 13 years since his original season, Beau said he had time to really learn more about himself and about the kind of food he wanted to serve up.

"I wasn't trying to impress or cook to a 'MasterChef' style of food, I just wanted to cook the stuff I like to eat and share that with the judges," he added. "I think knowing myself and my food was the difference."

On Sunday night, the contestants were tasked with recreating childhood classics. Wearing a black apron, Beau said he walked into the kitchen "cool as a cucumber".

For the challenge, Beau wanted to reimagine the classic childhood treat of a spider. "It was something I loved, it was just a crazy adventure in your mouth," he laughed. "Ice cream and cola, I remember thinking this is cool!"

Rather than a traditional spider, Beau created a cola-flavoured granita to pair with some vanilla ice cream, adding rum, stewed sour cherries, and a roasted macadamia crumble, creating a kind of hybrid spider-sundae.

"Looking back now, I should have just made a spider. I should have made a fizzy cola and dunked the ice cream in there. That would have been so much more playful and simple, and I think that would've got me across the line," he added.

Having had some top dishes under his belt, Beau's confidence had grown, but the pressures of elimination also never truly weighed on him.

"I've said this a few times throughout the competition, but for me, I was happy either way. I was happy to keep going, but I was also happy to go back to my life -- which I love," he said, adding that MasterChef had invigorated his career.

"I never felt the threat of elimination, it just wasn't something that was on my mind," he continued. "I  don't have a reputation to maintain like a lot of the others. They've got big profiles, and to get eliminated early on is maybe a scary thing for them. I just didn't feel that.

"I had done enough, and it was okay to go. I had proven myself," Beau said.

While the season is all about coming Back To Win, Beau admitted that it was never about getting to the end for him.

"I think that's why my journey is a little different... for me, it was about having pride in what I served up to the judges and bringing them joy. Then, obviously, making the people who love me proud as well at home. It wasn't about the competition.

"I struggled with it at the start because it is the show, it's Back To Win but I couldn't bring myself to utter those words."

Throughout the competition, Beau served up some amazing dishes, and even aced Poh's pressure test, but his stand-out dish was his culinary tribute to the Anzacs, his Home Among The Gumtrees.

"That was my first top dish ever. I didn't have one back on my last season, except for a pressure test. This was my first, personal dish that got to the top and the meaning behind it, for me, was really special," Beau said.

That dish, his practically perfect replica of Poh's Jam Face Favourites, and his tiramisu are just a few examples of his top moments in the kitchen, and possibly the most shocking to Beau, they're all desserts.

"I think I've got the dessert queen reputation now," he laughed. "I might have stuffed up there!

"I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be making many desserts, although tiramisu is definitely on the menu for the rest of my life. But, to me, my reputation, my integrity as a person, I think I've maintained. That was the most important thing, coming across as genuine."

As for what's next, the firefighter said he's not looking to become the next food influencer, but wants to continue to pursue what he loves.

"I'm doing some collabs, working with people and I want to support local businesses around here, promote my local area and get back into the garden, maybe try to inspire people about growing things and supporting local producers."

Beau has also been working on releasing Wildpoint, an all-natural hard lemon alcoholic drink coming in July.

"That's the passion project. For me, I love cooking for family and friends, but it's not a career... I love food and produce, so making something like Wildpoint is really exciting."

MasterChef Australia: Back to Win continues Sundays at 7pm and Monday - Wednesday at 7.30pm on 10 and 10 Play