MasterChef judge Melissa Leong endures a lot of cruelty on social media, most she ignores.
But over the weekend, she decided to brilliantly clap back at one user named Gerrard, who unleashed a belittling diatribe against the writer, stylist, television host and marketing consultant.
“They scraped the bottom of the barrel when they went searching for new judges,” the user named Gerrard wrote.
“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 screenshot the comment onto her Instagram stories, adding her response.
“Haven’t owned restaurants, just written for half a dozen of Australia’s highest profile publications for over a decade…” she wrote. “It’s ok though, us non white males are used to [being] overlooked, It’s how you don’t see us coming till we’ve arrived.”
“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. FYI, I am writing this while sitting in my house, that I bought all by myself, with my unqualified, ill-gotten gains. Cheers.”
Leong was a co-host of SBS’ TV series The Chefs’ Line in 2017 before making her debut on Masterchef in 2020. Last year, the first-generation Singaporean-Australian was nominated for a Gold Logie, and for the Most Popular Personality On Australian Television.
Leong and her fellow MasterChef judges Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen are set to return to the screen for the show’s fifteenth season on May 1.