Age: 44 

State: Queensland 

Instagram handle: @alanalowes 

Previous season & place: Season 3, placed third.

While much has changed for Alana Lowes in the 14 years since her last MasterChef Australia appearance, her status as a master of flavour remains.

Though falling just shy of season three’s finale, her third placing catapulted Alana into the food industry and led to abundant opportunities. Combining her journalist background, Alana has worked as a television presenter on food travel programs, a magazine editor and travel writer, food stylist, photographer and even had her own range of sauces stocked in supermarkets across the country.

Now also mum to two children, a daughter Florence, 7, and son Walter, 5, cooking for her kids and inspiring their passion for food has become a driving force. Affectionately known as the ‘Flying Foodie’, Alana returns to the MasterChef Australia kitchen with fire in her belly and an eye on bettering her podium finish in the Back To Win showdown.

Adept at wrangling both savoury and sweet flavours, Alana credits her mother for her love of food, with special childhood memories of her parents’ back deck in Mildura overlooking the vineyards, with enough of Mum’s food to feed an army. It was here Alana learnt how connection grows from generosity; how food can help foster strong bonds.

As a lifelong learner, Alana has grown and developed as a cook by watching celebrity chefs, working with chefs, and eating at incredible restaurants across the world. She is inspired by the likes of Yotam Ottolenghi, Jamie Oliver, Jules Wiringa, and Ben Williamson and Coskun Uysal closer to home.

Planning to play to her strengths of multitasking and working quickly, expect to see Alana’s determination and competitive nature out in force as she challenges herself in the kitchen. She hopes to expand upon her raft of techniques and pick up efficiencies from the more established chefs around her.

This is just the start of Alana’s next MasterChef Australia chapter, with plans for restaurant and brand collaborations and hopefully more work in television in the future.