Canberrans are proving they can stand the heat in the MasterChef Australia kitchen.
Two of the final six contestants hail from the ACT as the competition reaches its pointy end.
Registered nurse Annabel Lloyd, who grew up in Canberra, and Casper Kenworthy, who lives in Ainslie, are both in contention to become the national capital's first MasterChef - and win the $250,000 prize.
"Winning still feels pretty hard to imagine, but I know I'd love to use it to give myself a genuine shot at building a career in food," Annabel, 31, said.
"It's crazy to think I could find myself lifting that trophy in a few weeks," Casper, 28, said. "Being in the top six makes it feel like a real possibility now."
(Canberra's third contestant, Jack Hosking, a former Radford College student who now lives in Adelaide, was eliminated from the competition in June.)
The rise and rise of the Canberrans comes as Channel Ten announced that the episode featuring Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex as a guest judge, will air on Sunday, July 26.
Meghan filmed the episode in April in Melbourne while her husband, Prince Harry, was visiting Canberra.
Annabel grew up in Yarralumla and went to Canberra Girls Grammar School. She moved to Sydney to study nursing and stayed there, now living in Bondi.
She is the last woman left in the 2026 MasterChef competition.
"It's pretty special, to be honest," she said.
"I definitely miss the girls because they were such an incredible bunch of women. And while I absolutely adore the boys I'm left with, the dynamic naturally changes once you're the only woman there.
"There were definitely moments where I felt really flat and had to keep reminding myself that I'd earned my place there.
"Looking back though, I'm actually really grateful for those moments because they forced me to trust myself, keep showing up and remember why I walked into that kitchen in the first place."
Canberra will always feel like home to me, and knowing I've got so many people back there supporting me has been incredibly special.
For Annabel, being on MasterChef is a dream come true, with many highlights including bonding with the other contestants, "the most wonderful humans".
"Every now and then I have to stop and remind myself that back in 2020 I was sitting on a night shift in ICU, right in the middle of COVID, imagining what it would be like to one day walk into the MasterChef kitchen," she said.
"To now actually be living that dream is pretty surreal. It's probably one of the biggest goals I've ever set myself, and that's a really special feeling when I stop and reflect on it."
"Winning still feels pretty hard to imagine, but I know I'd love to use it to give myself a genuine shot at building a career in food. At the same time, healthcare is still such a huge part of who I am," she said.
"I've been lucky enough to do volunteer healthcare work overseas before, and one of my dreams would be to build a career where cooking helps fund more of that work. Being able to combine the two things I love most would be pretty incredible."
Annabel has spoken about how her food memories including going to the farmers' markets in Canberra with her mum. And she's getting a lot of love from friends and family in her hometown.
"The support from Canberra has honestly been unreal and it's something I'll really cherish," Annabel said.
"One of my favourite parts has been getting messages from people I haven't spoken to in years. It's so cool that this experience has opened up those lines of communication again with people I probably would've never crossed paths with otherwise.
"I'm someone who gets a lot of energy from being around other people and I really value the relationships in my life, so having so many people reach out, cheer me on and come along for the ride has meant more than I can probably put into words.
"Canberra will always feel like home to me, and knowing I've got so many people back there supporting me has been incredibly special."
Casper, meanwhile, grew up in Stirling and went to Canberra Grammar School. He studied at the University of Canberra for a year and then switched to engineering at UNSW Canberra.
His current role as a technology consultant within the public sector and health industry has honed Casper's analytical mindset, something he brings to each cook in the MasterChef kitchen.
But he's still amazed to be in the final six.
"I'm honestly feeling pretty lucky to still find myself in the competition!" he said.
"There have been a few close calls over the past few weeks, but each one gave me a chance to learn and grow. So I'm proud of how I've tried to lean into my mistakes and make the most of the moments where I've been at the bottom of the pack. More often than not, that's found me right back at the top soon after."
"It has got to be landing the top dish in Sanjeev Kapoor's mystery box with my Indian spread featuring pickled mussels," he said.
"Going into the competition, Indian food was easily the weakest part of my repertoire, a gap I identified pretty early on, so taking out that mystery box was proof that the hard work I've been putting in outside the kitchen researching and practicing a few more traditional techniques like the finger millet roti and podi had been paying off. His influence and authority across all cuisines, not just Indian food, can't be overstated, so getting that validation from someone of his calibre was incredible. It was also pretty nice to have a win with mussels after they almost sent me home the week before!"
Casper said former MasterChef contestant Marion Grasby, who has her own range of Marion's Kitchen products, gave him some solid advice when she appeared on the show recently as a celebrity judge.
"Before this week, I was pretty unsure what my path would look like outside the kitchen, but chatting with Marion Grasby about how she made the most of her time on the show and then took action afterward really helped put me in the right mindset," Casper said.
"First and foremost, the prize money would let me reduce or even leave my current job and invest time in kitchens across Australia and overseas to keep learning. If this competition has taught me anything, it's how much more I want to learn about food - and honestly, how little I actually know!
"Beyond that, I've got a few other fun ideas that I'll keep under wraps for now, but writing a cookbook is a dream I've had for a while, so having some capital to put toward producing that would be amazing too."
And he could count on some Canberrans buying his first cookbook.
"The support back home in Canberra has only grown since the start of the competition," Casper said. "All the messages from family, friends, and even complete strangers who are locals have really motivated me to stay driven and keep pushing right through to the end."
