MasterChef winner Justin Narayan didn’t see a cent of $250k prize money

Recent MasterChef winner Justin Narayan has revealed his regret at how he spent the $250,000 in prize money he won on the show.

A recent MasterChef winner has revealed the surprising way he spent his $250,000 prize money, dishing on one very generous detail.

Justin Narayan was crowned the thirteenth winner of MasterChef Australia in 2021, when he was just 27 years old and worked a day job as a youth pastor.

The Fijian-Indian chef had plenty to share about the culture behind the show in a recent interview, but he also opened up about the surprising way he spent his quarter-of-a-million dollar prize.

MasterChef winner Justin Narayan has opened up about the surprising way he spent his $250k.

Narayan confessed he had “never been asked this question publicly”, before revealing he hadn’t spent a cent of the winnings on himself.

“I actually didn’t spend any of it [on myself]. I probably should have, in retrospect,” he told Yahoo.

“But I was kind of like, I’m not going to buy anything flash, I’m not going to do anything, and I don’t have any regrets with it. Sometimes I’m like, ‘Why did I give it away, I could’ve bought this now,’ but at the same time, I never wanted money to control me. I always want to be generous with it. There’s heaps more where it came from. Just be generous, keep helping people, and things will work out.”

Narayan said it took “two or three months” before the money even hit his bank account.

“The way I’m wired, I wanted to be generous with it, so I ended up donating a lot of it and giving some away to some people that I thought needed it more than me. And then made some investments with the rest of it,” he shared.

2018 winner Sashi Cheliah used his winnings to open a pair of transcontinental restaurants.

2014 winner Brent Owens gave $50,000 of his prize money to fellow contestant Emelia Jackson.

Other past MasterChef winners have also opened up about how they spent the big prize.

Chef Sashi Cheliah, who won the competition in 2018, poured his winnings into opening two restaurants — one in Adelaide and another in India — while Brent Owens, who won in 2014, spent part of his prize on fellow contestant Emelia Jackson, making good on a top-four pact to give away $50,000.

Narayan dished on other details of the show, including what he said was an “intense” environment and a surprising lack of practical support for contestants behind the scenes.

“We were just running around and I feel like the first 10 episodes you’re just trying to find where the equipment is. Everything’s just so manic and frantic. You’re like, ‘Where’s the salt?’ It’s just intense. That was a surprise for me.”

Originally published as MasterChef winner Justin Narayan didn’t see a cent of $250k prize money