Justin Narayan won the 13th series of MasterChef Australia (Provider: Ten)
Justin Narayan was awarded a humungous $250,000 for winning MasterChef, but didn’t give himself a penny.
The 29-year-old took the champion spot in 2021 on the Australian version of the cooking show, but despite earning the money himself through his culinary talent he opted to give it all away.
A quarter of a million Australian dollars, which works out at approximately £133,000, was shared around in a way he deemed fit at the time. The Fijian-Indian chef recalled ‘donating a lot of it and giving some away to some people that I thought needed it more than me.’ Alongside this, he also made some investments.
He didn’t even treat himself to a holiday, or a fancy meal as a reward for his hard work on the reality show where amateur cooks compete in challenges to prove their worthy of the number one spot. Somebody needs to inform Phoebe Buffay that we’ve finally found someone who completed a selfish good deed (Season five, episode four of Friends if you don’t know what we’re talking about).
‘I actually didn’t spend any of it [on myself]. I probably should have, in retrospect,’ he admitted.
Justin had faith that by doing good, it would eventually come back to him.
Justin didn’t give himself a penny (Picture: Ten)
‘I don’t have any regrets with it. Sometimes I’m like, “Why did I give it away, I could’ve bought this now,” but at the same time, I never wanted money to control me. I always want to be generous with it,’ he told Yahoo.
‘There’s heaps more where it came from. Just be generous, keep helping people, and things will work out.’
All’s well that ends well as Justin described the show as ‘100% one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,’ and he now has over 100,000 followers on Instagram where he shares plenty of recipes.
Justin plans to give back even more (Picture: Ten)
Justin has previously shared ambitions to open an Indian food truck or restaurant inspired by the flavours he grew up with. In his typical charitable way, Justin plans to donate a percentage of profits to help feed and educate children in the slums of India.
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During the tense two-night finale that led to Justin’s victory, his competitor Pete Campbell served raw quail.
The thought of it still makes us feel a bit queasy.
MasterChef UK continues tomorrow at 8:30pm on BBC One.
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Justin Narayan won in 2021.
