Age: 28

Occupation: Pharmaceutical Manager

Born in Jakarta and emigrating to Australia as a five-year-old, Nicky is as passionate about eating as he is about cooking. His earliest memories centre around food: eating steamed rice noodles with peanut sauce every day after school in Jakarta and trips to Sydney's Chinatown with his grandma every Sunday to get the weekly groceries.

"I knew it would be a special Sunday dinner when she would let me choose two live mud crabs to take home. She would allow me to race them in the back garden, before then teaching me how to masterfully cook our family dinner."

Nicky is engaged to Clara, a school teacher and also has a cat, Sumo, who he only feeds Wagyu beef (Sumo weighs 12 kilograms).

Nicky is a big believer in trying anything and everything. There is virtually nothing he won't eat. He likes to challenge people's ideas of good food by cooking with ingredients that most people would avoid. An avid traveler, he seeks food experiences wherever he goes.

"So far I've had the pleasure of sharing a big bowl chanko nabe with Sumo wrestlers in Tokyo, surviving a meal of fugu in Osaka, going ice fishing in Sapporo and frying delicious beignets in New Orleans."

His passion to pursue a career in food came when he saw the reaction on the faces of friends and family after cooking them his Sunday roast chicken for the first time.

"Their glee was priceless, knowing I had created something to give them so much pleasure. For that instant nothing else mattered except that they were enjoying the flavours I had put together. I felt that I could spread happiness through my food."

Nicky says his greatest strengths are his knife skills and fish fileting. He has a great love for meat, so much so that his engagement party was held in a butcher shop. Nicky dreams of opening a mini Izakaya that serves honest, affordable and accessible nose-to-tail cuisine.