Age: 40

State: Victoria

Occupation: Financial Services

With food always on the brain, it’s little wonder Snezana Calic has found her way to the MasterChef Australia kitchen. At breakfast, she’s thinking about lunch; at lunch, she’s planning dinner; and she reads cookbooks to relax.

Croatian-born Snezana moved to Serbia as a child so grew up with both Mediterranean flavours, and heartier style Serbian dishes. Her Mum Mira is an incredible cook, and Snezana shares that she always has at least three meals on offer, even for a quick visit.

Snezana started cooking around age seven, learning her skills in the kitchen from observing her Mum over the years and heavily inspired by traditional Serbian culture. Showing her love through food to her own family now, she cooks for husband Aleks, daughter Lenka, aged seven and son Lazar, five. The extended family are also a big bunch of foodies, and Snezana is proud that her own daughter is showing a keen interest.

After completing her university studies in Serbia, Snezana followed family to Australia in 2009. Despite the huge task to start life over in a new country, with a new language, Snezana rose to the challenge and is now ready to tackle her next big one.

In her current career in banking, she finds her creativity stifled and is drawn to start cooking as soon as she gets home; it’s where the magic happens. Hoping to change her career path through the competition, Snezana would one day love to run her own rural, home-style café.

With a cooking style that will steer toward homely meals such as pastas, stews, curries, and soups, Snezana usually favours quick cooks, while packing in maximum flavour. A fan of Jamie Oliver’s unstructured cooking style, Snezana loves slow-cooking and baking too, and while she can be nimble and versatile in the kitchen, she warns that she can also be a little chaotic!

Enjoying keeping active and healthy, Snezana is competitive to the point of having no qualms in beating her own kids at card games and sports, so she most definitely brings a huge desire to win with her into the MasterChef Australia kitchen.