Melissa Leong

“You shop and you eat. These are the two great pastimes of my people…I did not grow up in a family that says ‘Hey, I love you’. But we always felt loved. And a big part of that was through food. Our love language is food,” says MasterChef’s Melissa Leong. In this edition, she spills the beans on the brand-new season of the reality cooking show, and what it’s really like in TV’s friendliest test kitchen.

More highlights in our edition:

• In her Letter to My Younger Self, comedian Mary Coustas revisits school bullies, discovers herself in Greece, and finds her alter-ego Effie in a bathroom stall.
• We look at “functional zero” – a personalised, hyper-local approach that is helping to end street homelessness across Australia by acknowledging people by name.
• Pop-soul singer-turned-food podcaster Jessie Ware on her new disco-inspired album – and why she’s happiest when she has multiple plates spinning.
• Environmentalist and former Greens leader Bob Brown talks trees, rivers and the power of protest – plus his new documentary The Giants.
• Author and historian Danielle Scrimshaw on her new book, which is a search for Australia’s lesbian history.
• Writer Amy Han treasures her late mother’s mementos and, by virtue, her memory.
• In The Big Picture, photographer Umberto Coa visits a tiny town in India that is flourishing thanks to a non-profit mozzarella project and a love of pizza.
• Plus, MasterChef favourite Khanh Ong shares his recipe for Vietnamese classic Shaking Beef in Tastes Like Home.