MasterChef contestant ‘startled’ by ‘strange’ response to cancer story on The Project

A MasterChef contestant has broken her silence about a deeply awkward encounter with Chrissie Swan on The Project last month.

MasterChef Australia contestant Minoli De Silva has spoken about the incredibly awkward response she received on The Project when she revealed her breast cancer had returned.

In an interview last month, De Silva explained that the same day she heard the devastating news, she had received a call from MasterChef inviting her back on the show for a second time.

The Project co-host Chrissie Swan, who had asked De Silva to tell them about the day she received the call from MasterChef, then responded: “Wow, from the sublime to the ridiculous. I don’t know which one is which.”

There was silence from the panel and the camera cut to an uncomfortable De Silva, before another guest host changed the subject and asked about her win in the cooking show’s jaffle challenge.

Reflecting on the moment after she was eliminated this week, De Silva told Yahoo she was “a bit startled” and found it “strange” no one asked her how she was doing, but understood “things like this happen on live television”.

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Chrissie Swan responded to Minoli De Silva by saying, ‘from the sublime to the ridiculous’. Picture: Channel 10

De Silva said she was startled by the response to her cancer diagnosis. Picture: Channel 10

“I love watching The Project, and there is a sense of banter that surrounds you, so I just accepted that it was just a slip of the tongue,” De Silva said.

“Chrissie is very fun, she’s very quick-witted. I think it was just not her finest moment when someone admits that they’ve gone through breast cancer and her response is to make a quick remark.

“I might do that with my friends, but I think on a national level it’s probably not the right message that gets sent out.”

She also said The Project team had acknowledged their awkward response.

“I’m so glad that I had the support of everyone watching and they were able to feel the uncomfortableness and they spoke up for me,” she said.

“And at the same time, I spoke to The Project team later and they kind of understood that their response wasn’t ideal. People make mistakes, everyone says silly stuff all the time, but unfortunately, it was on live TV.”

How the awkward moment unfolded

De Silva was appearing on The Project to promote the 14th season of MasterChef, Fans & Favourites, after winning a jaffle challenge.

Swan asked her to tell them about the day she got the call to return. De Silva had come 10th place on the previous season.

De Silva first appeared on MasterChef in season 13. Picture: Channel 10

“It was probably the day that had the biggest high and biggest low I’ve ever had and it just seemed so surreal,” De Silva said.

“In the morning, I got a call from my doctor and he basically told me that the breast cancer had come back from an ultrasound that had happened a week ago and then I cried, just more tears than I can remember crying in a long time.

“Then MasterChef calls me up in the afternoon and was like ‘we’ve got some news that might be really shocking’ and I obviously didn’t say anything.

“They then told me I had gotten a chance to come back into the MasterChef kitchen, which was amazing, so I can’t explain to you how I felt that day but it was wild.”

Swan responded: “Wow, from the sublime to the ridiculous. I don’t know which one is which.”

De Silva’s cancer diagnosis was not mentioned again during the interview.

It was Swan’s second week filling in for Carrie Bickmore while the TV personality is in the UK with her family.

Prior to starting the huge new gig, Swan had confessed the role scared her a lot in a candid Instagram post.

Viewers took to social media to point out the awkward gaffe.

Minoli De Silva’s cancer battle

Shortly before returning to the MasterChef kitchen, the 35-year-old underwent a double mastectomy after a routine mammogram detected an abnormal-looking area that turned out to be DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ).

In a piece written for Mamamia, De Silva explained that “due to the location of the cells, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or lumpectomy wasn’t an option”.

De Silva was eliminated from season 14 on Tuesday night.

Shortly before she began filming for the show she had a double mastectomy.

The chef wrote that she felt “overwhelmed, helpless, angry, sad, and broken,” after receiving the diagnosis, and when the second unexpected call that day came from producers at Channel 10, it was like she was “on the receiving end of a tennis ball machine that mechanically ejects the ball for you to hit, except this one was faulty and ejects a ball every two seconds”.

De Silva was first diagnosed with stage 3A triple positive breast cancer in 2017 and underwent a lumpectomy, six months of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiotherapy.

A side effect of the longtime food-lover’s treatment was losing her sense of taste.

Last year, in an interview with news.com.au, De Silva described how the experience inspired her to cook with heart, and heightened her passion for food as she rediscovered her palate and found joy in new flavours.

De Silva was eliminated from MasterChef on Tuesday night’s episode.

She is now going to open her own restaurant, Ella by Minoli, in Darwin on June 1.