The Instagram cake queen breaking the rules on Dessert Masters

When Instagram cake queen Katherine Sabbath is asked to nominate who she was most intimidated by on season two of Dessert Masters, she doesn’t hesitate.

“Darren Purchese,” she says. “I visited his store, Burch & Purchese, when I hadn’t even left my career as a high school teacher yet … He came out and signed his cookbook for me. He didn’t know who I was at all, but I snapped a photo with him and I still cherish it.

“To be competing against him as someone that I looked up to before I even had the concept in my head that this might be a profession for me is surreal, it’s crazy. I was standing there going, ‘Oh my gosh, I respect you so much, but I’m also going to try to kick your arse’.”

Katherine Sabbath tackling one of the challenges in season two of Dessert Masters.

Sabbath and Purchese join eight other contestants for the new season of the sweets-focused MasterChef spin-off, with a split between more technically trained chefs and home cooks who found fame through social media or reality TV. Hosts Melissa Leong and Amaury Guichon return to judge the Wonka-esque creations, such as a dessert that looks like a jar of Vegemite, and another that evokes fairy floss clouds set aflame.

Sabbath was influenced to pursue teaching by her Vietnamese mother, who advised her to pursue a job with long-term prospects that wouldn’t be physically demanding. But her talent for baking led to success on Instagram, where nearly half a million followers ogle her lavish and colourful cakes.

While Sabbath doesn’t have the technical training of some of her competitors, she sees advantages to having developed her skills at home and on social media.

“Predominantly I make cakes for friends and family,” she says. “You’ve got some of Australia’s most prolific pastry chefs and cake creatives and I was nervous, [asking myself] ‘Am I at that level?’ But I knew that because I don’t have the classical training behind me, I’m not necessarily constrained by, inverted commas, the ‘rules of desserts’ and sticking to classics.”

Sabbath also believes Dessert Masters is an opportunity for viewers to see the work that goes into her gloriously over-the-top cakes that are presented on social media in 60-second clips. Some of her creations are made over several days.

“It’s good to take people behind the scenes to see the challenges, because that’s not something that you intuitively think to capture,” says Sabbath. “At home when you have a disaster, you feel embarrassed, you don’t take your phone out and think this is going to make a good post. So it’s great to let people know, yes, you can create these out-of-the-world desserts, but we all have our fails, too. Things in the kitchen never go to plan.”

Also competing this season is Emelia Jackson, back in the kitchen for the third time after taking out bronze in MasterChef Australia in 2014 and winning 2020’s MasterChef Australia: Back to Win.

“When any of the MasterChef franchise comes knocking, I’m always going to say yes. I’m a bit of a glutton for punishment and I just can’t say no,” says Jackson.

Having now competed on the sweet and savoury iterations of the show, Jackson – who jokingly describes herself as “at least 80 per cent sugar” – says desserts are more challenging than mains.

While that might prove stressful for the contestants, the high risk of last-minute flameouts makes for riveting television.

“Savoury cooking is definitely a lot more forgiving,” says Jackson. “When Kirsten’s [Tibballs’] birdcage collapsed last season, there was no fudging your way around that. Competing on MasterChef in lots of the savoury challenges you’d hedge your bets – ‘If this doesn’t work, I’ll do this’. That’s not the case with Dessert Masters. You’ve got one shot to really nail it.”

Dessert Masters returns on Monday, October 14 at 7.30pm on Ten.

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