Don’t mess with Melissa Leong.
The MasterChef decide, 41, rose to prominence in mainstream Australian media after debuting on the long-running Ten cooking present in 2020, and was instantly praised by viewers for her heat with contestants and eloquently worded critiques. And, simply two years into her gig, she managed to attain TV’s highest honour final yr with a Gold Logie nomination.
Despite all of the love, Leong has uncovered the cruelty she usually cops on social media.
Taking to Instagram on the weekend, Leong hit again at a hateful remark from a consumer named Gerrard which learn, “They scraped the bottom of the barrel when they went searching for new judges. How many restaurants did she [Leong] have when they interviewed her? None. Was she a world renowned food critic like [former judge] Matt Preston. NO. As I said scraped the bottom of the barrel.”
Leong took a screenshot of the remark and uploaded it onto her Instagram tales, the place she fiercely defended her profession from naysayers.
“Haven’t owned restaurants, just written for half a dozen of Australia’s highest profile publications for over a decade. It’s ok though, us non white males are used to [being] overlooked,” she wrote. “It’s how you don’t see us coming till we’ve arrived.”
Leong added that she was additionally beforehand a co-host of SBS’ TV collection The Chefs’ Line, and, “There’s also about half a dozen or so cookbooks and magazines I’ve ghostwritten, edited or subbed, not to mention working with industry legends like Marco Pierre White, Gelato Messina, Zumbo, MLA and more.
“If that’s scraping the bottom of the barrel, Gerrard, it must be very hard to see me from your lofty seat in the clouds doing … what is it you do exactly?
“Thank you armchair prince, I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad day you feel the need to s**t on a stranger who had bled for her career.”
Leong, who emigrated from Singapore to Australia when she was a baby, capped it off with one closing dig.
“FYI, I am writing this while sitting in my house, that I bought all by myself, with my unqualified, ill-gotten gains. Cheers.”
It comes as Leong is about to return to screens alongside MasterChef judges Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen for the fifteenth season of the present, which can debut May 1.
The trio changed long-running judges Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan from 2020, after their decade lengthy stint got here to an abrupt finish in 2019.
They have been reported to have give up after Network Ten refused to extend their rumoured $1 million particular person salaries “by more than 40 per cent”.
Source: www.news.com.au
