MasterChef fan favourite Khanh Ong using his platform to spread positivity
Former nightclub DJ turned MasterChef fan favourite Khanh Ong is known for his positivity, with his slogan t-shirts catching the eye of viewers. Now he’s using them for a good cause that’s close to his heart.
Confidential
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Five years ago, Khanh Ong was a DJ at trendy Bond Bar in the city.
The boy from Springvale mixed it with some of Melbourne’s most fashionable and social crowds.
But he never could have imagined how his career path would diverge from those nights spinning the decks.
It was just a friend’s random idea to audition for MasterChef Australia. Ong made it onto
the 2018 series, where he developed a strong fan base, becoming a firm favourite, and finished third.
In the past five years he will have appeared on the cooking show twice — he is on the current Back to Win series with returning stars — released a book, launched a charity clothing range, worked as a chef and hosted his own YouTube channel.
“It’s kind of really surreal,’’ Ong says.
“I feel as though if you spoke to me even five years ago and said by this time you would have been on MasterChef twice, had your own shows, own cookbook … I would have legitimately been saying, like, ‘How?’.
“Five years ago I was DJing at Bond. How does that all happen?”
The ever-smiling chef, who works at The George on Collins, is achieving success through hard work, talent and opportunity.
By his own admission, the 28-year-old struggled as a young gay boy.
On MasterChef two weeks ago, he showed how much family means to him when he broke down while revealing an image of him with his parents, Dzung Chau and Tam Ong, and sister Amy.
Ong was born to Vietnamese parents in an Indonesian refugee camp, where he spent the first couple of years of his life.
His family resettled in Australia during the early 1990s, making their home in Springvale.
“That photo was from the day we were about to board a boat to Australia. It just hit hard,’’ Ong says.
“I kind of shied away from talking about family life the first time around. And then I was inconsolable. It was a really hard day.
“Everyone only sees the last five or six years of everything. They don’t know mum and dad gave up everything and took a massive risk to come to Australia.”
Ong says his school years at Haileybury were some of his favourite, but it was a nervous time, coming out with his sexual orientation.
“I’m so thankful. I love the school to pieces,’’ he says.
“I did the entrance exam for Melbourne High for year 8 going into year 9. Going there wasn’t for me though, it was so academic. That’s like the dream of an Asian mum, to go to Melbourne High.
“But I wanted to go back to Haileybury where the school fees were high so the deal (with my parents) was, ‘You get a scholarship and you go back’. And I went back to Haileybury.
“Coming from an Asian household, I was like, ‘How do I even have this conversation about being gay?’. It was something I was so nervous about. When I told my parents, especially Mum, she was the coolest person I could have imagined. She was like, ‘OK, do what you want’.
“I’m so close to my sister as well. We spend most days together.”
He says youth charity Minus18 helped him find support from others in the LGBTQIA+ community.
He started wearing T-shirts on MasterChef that declared “You Are Loved” and has now built a business out of them, with part of the profits going to the charity.
“I feel if I’m on a national platform, spreading positivity is something I want to do,’’
he says.
“I did have it in mind before I went on MasterChef.
“We give $10 from each t-shirt and right now we’re sitting at almost $25,000.
“Going to events with Minus18, we celebrated who we are and it was kind of like a first step into the community.”
Ong’s book, A Gay Guy’s Guide to Life Love Food, will be released next month and will also include some juicy dating stories.
He is heading for the top 10 on the current MasterChef series and says even if he doesn’t win, the growth is just as important to him. His next big goals are to boost his YouTube channel and travel the world cooking.
“The channel is just me sitting around eating random things but without all the glitz and the glam parts,’’ he says.
“I’ve done the cooking on TV where there’s a bench and a crew there to stop me if I say something wrong. But this is the opposite, there’s no filter here.”
New MasterChef judge Melissa Leong serves up high praise for Ong.
“He approaches food in a very thoughtful way and always incorporates his personality into each challenge, which is something I love to experience when I’m eating someone’s food,’’ Leong says.
“He understands bold flavour, and strikes a balance between classic ideas and pushing the envelope. I personally love his take on Vietnamese cuisine and would recommend that if you ever find yourself in possession of an invitation to his house for a meal, you should without a doubt accept.”
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