In our story series ‘How Are You Today?’, we have a meandering, mental-health focused chat with some of our most well-known New Zealanders. Check out previous chats with people like Hayley Holt, Kiri Allan and Jacinda Ardern. Today though, we open up the series to a prominent food journalist and critic from across the ditch, Melissa Leong. In a video interview, she gets honest about owning her identity and heritage, and how she’s learnt to look after herself after decades of managing depression and anxiety. Plus, she talks about her new TVNZ culinary series showcasing the best of Aotearoa cuisine – Taste of Art
Trigger warning: This interview mentions mental health, rape and domestic violence.
Most people know Melissa Leong as the warm, relatable and trailblazing judge who made history as the first female judge on MasterChef Australia. But that’s just of the many hats worn by the multi-hyphenate Melissa Leong. She’s also a food and travel journalist, broadcaster and cookbook editor – even a fashion icon (at least one of the Australian designer pieces she wore on MasterChef sold out immediately after the episode aired).
But her road to fame wasn’t overnight, and it certainly didn’t come easy.
In her memoir Guts, released in 2025, Melissa opens up about being a child of Singaporean immigrants who was bullied at school for her ‘stinky’ food; growing up with a father who disciplined by physical punishment; being raped while working her way up in the hospo industry, the breakdown of her marriage, disordered eating, and her decades-long battle with depression and anxiety.
“They are heavy things, but they are real things, they are things that happen to all of us,” she says. “The way I’ve justified being a really private person and being able to share such intense things… if me writing about it opens up conversations for other people, then I consider that to be a win and contribution towards us collectively moving forward, and taking some of the darkness out of it.”
Now, Melissa is back on our screens and this time, on home turf. Last year, she spent a month in Tāhuna Queenstown filming Taste of Art, a seven-part culinary competition series that challenges top chefs in Aotearoa. She co-hosts and judges alongside Amisfield’s executive chef Vaughan Mabee.
We sat down with Melissa to talk about owning her Chinese-Singaporean heritage, why it’s important to talk about mental health, and what looking after herself looks like now – especially after taking on her first show outside Australia. We also couldn’t resist asking what she loved about the food culture in Aotearoa.
Taste of Art starts 7.30pm on Thursday, February 19, on TVNZ1 and TVNZ+.
Where to get help:
- Need to talk?: Free call or text 1737 to talk to a trained counsellor.
- Healthline: Call 0800 611 116, available 24/7
- Asian Family Services: Call 0800 862 342, Mon-Fri, 9am-8pm.
- Asian Mental Health Services: Click the link for local helplines.
- Rape Crisis: 0800 88 33 00, click the link for local helplines.
- Safe to talk: a 24/7 confidential helpline: 0800 842 846, text 4334, webchat safetotalk.nz or email support@safetotalk.nz.
- Shakti: 0800 742 584, provides culturally specialist, confidential support services to women and their children of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origins
- The Harbour: Online support and information for people affected by sexual abuse.
- Women’s Refuge: 0800 733 843 (females only)
- Male Survivors Aotearoa: Helplines across NZ, click to find out more (males only)
- If it is an emergency or you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 111.
