Rebecca Gibney’s Celebrity MasterChef confession

She’s won the Gold Logie, but Aussie TV star Rebecca Gibney reveals her choice to go on Celebrity MasterChef wasn’t her own.

Rebecca Gibney is feeling like she may have bitten off more than she can chew.

The award-winning actor and director really, really, really did not want to go into the MasterChef kitchen, saying no when producers came calling for the celebrity version of Ten’s feel-good cooking show, which has just started filming in Melbourne.

But 17-year-old son Zac pleaded with her to change her mind.

“I’m like ‘Dude, I haven’t cooked in years because I work all the time’,” Gibney shares. “He said ‘Mum, you could make your banging spag bol and you do a really good roast chook’, I’m going ‘Mate, it’s the MasterChef kitchen, you don’t do a spag bol’.

“He said ‘Mum, it’s the only reality show I watch. It’s got cred’.

“So, all of a sudden I’ve got cred because I’m doing MasterChef – forget Halifax, forget Packed to the Rafters and forget Wanted.”

The 56-year-old leaves most of the cooking to her artist/producer/production designer and fantastic cook husband Richard Bell.

Rebecca Gibney with her son, Zac who convinced her to go on Celebrity MasterChef. Picture: Instagram

Rebecca Gibney leaves the cooking to husband Richard Bell. Picture: JOE CASTRO

Gibney laughs as she adds she thinks people are confusing her with her Logie-award winning role as Julie Rafter, which she has just reprised for Amazon Prime revival Back to the Rafters.

“I’m no Julie Rafter,” she says. “Sportsbet’s going Rebecca for the win. And I’m all no, no Julie Rafter is a figment of everyone’s imagination. She is not real. I just pretend to be her.”

Gibney’s not being modest about her abilities. She’s had to learn how to use a pressure cooker and an ice cream maker in the first few days of filming. She jokes she thought a mandolin (a blade to thinly slice vegetables and fruit) was a guitar, a hibachi (grill) was a Japanese toy and she hoped she could have a sous chef rather than a sous vide machine in the MasterChef kitchen.

“It’s so stressful that I have already laid down on the floor and cried and I’ve only cooked twice,” Gibney says.

While’s she’s super nervous in the MasterChef kitchen, Rebecca Gibney’s already made some lifelong friends in the cast which includes (back) Nick Riewoldt, Matt Le Nevez, Dami Im, Ian Thorpe, Chrissie Swan, (front) Archie Thompson, Tilly Ramsay, Dilruk Jayasinha and Collette Dinnigan. Picture: Supplied

Nerves aside – and it’s the most nervous she’s ever been – Gibney’s loving the other contestants which include fashion designer Collette Dinnigan, Olympian Ian Thorpe and Nova radio host Chrissie Swan and meeting the “encouraging and lovely” MasterChef judges Melissa Leong, Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen.

Celebrity MasterChef: Rebecca Gibney. Picture Supplied

She nominates Dinnigan to finish in the top four and does not rate her own chances at all.

“There’s a lot of people (in the cast) who have lied and said they can’t cook,” Gibney says. “I don’t care how lovely they are, they’ve all lied because they can all cook.

“The only way I will win is if I sabotage everyone else or cheat – turning off ovens, putting tablespoons of salt in their desserts.

“I’m the light relief – and that’s OK, I don’t take myself seriously at all.”

Celebrity MasterChef will air later this year.