Larissa Takchi (born 1997) is an Australian cook who won the eleventh series of ''

MasterChef Australia ''MasterChef Australia'' is an Australian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British ''MasterChef''. It is produced by Endemol Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Cal ...

'' in 2019. At 22 years old, to date she was the youngest contestant to win the competition.

Biography

Larissa Takchi was born in Australia, into a family of Lebanese origin. Her grandparents had emigrated from Lebanon to Australia, and founded a stone fruit farm in Glenorie. Her mother owned a cafe in

Dural Dural is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 36 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government areas of Hornsby Shire and The Hills Shire. Dural is part of the Hills District. ...

. Prior to winning MasterChef Australia, she served as the general manager of her mother's cafe. In high school she attended Hillside Public School, followed by

Mount St Benedict College , motto_translation = Peace , established = , principal = Michael Hanratty , location = Pennant Hills, North Shore, Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Sydney , p ...

. Takchi attended

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

, where she studied business.

MasterChef Australia

Takchi was selected in the 2019 auditions to join the 'Top 24' as a contestant on ''MasterChef Australia''. On 23 July 2019, Takchi was announced as the winner of ''MasterChef 2019'' and received a cash prize of $250,000, a new

Holden Equinox The Chevrolet Equinox is a series of crossover SUVs from Chevrolet introduced in 2004 for the 2005 model year. It replaces the North American Chevrolet Tracker and Chevrolet S-10 Blazer. The third-generation Equinox also replaced the first-ge ...

car, and a monthly column in ''Delicious'' magazine for 12 months. Her winning dish was "Szechuan Pavlova", a dessert featuring beetroot and blackberry sorbet, Sichuan (Szechuan) pepper, and lemon cream.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Takchi, Larissa 1997 births Living people Australian television chefs MasterChef Australia People from Sydney Participants in Australian reality television series Reality cooking competition winners Australian people of Lebanese descent