Recently updated on September 4th, 2025 at 12:36 pm
Some TV moments make you hungry enough to book a holiday. When MasterChef Australia’s four judges shared their most treasured travel memories, each finalist in the Back to Win season chose one of those destinations – with a surprise ingredient hidden under a cloche.
From the jet-black drama of squid ink in Greece to the tang of preserved turnip in Thailand, these flavour-packed places hide ingredients worth crossing oceans for. Watching from the couch is tempting, but tasting them on a Trafalgar trip? That’s where the real memories are made.
Let’s dive into each destination the MasterChef contestants cooked up (and we’ll share the tours to take you there too!).
Perfect pairings: Trafalgar destinations and MasterChef ingredients
Greece – Squid ink
Squid ink is such a fun, dramatic ingredient – it has the power to turn any dish jet-black, but it’s about more than colour. Squid ink has a deep briny note that adds a strong seafood soul to a pasta, rice dish, or cream.
In this challenge, Jamie opted to serve a dish of charred octopus with squid ink lentils and a hot potato foam. “Greece is somewhere I really want to take Claire. I want to see those white walls and sit next to the Aegean with her,” said Jamie, reflecting on the travel story judge Sofia shared.
Greek cooking is simple, seasonal and produce-driven. When we think of the cuisine, the first things that pop to mind might be Greek salad, spanakopita and lamb souvlaki – but that just scratches the surface. Each town and island has it’s own dishes and rhythms, often linked by ingredients like olive oil, oregano and lemon.
Don’t just imagine tearing into the flaky layers of spanakopita – learn to make it in Greece when you join Trafalgar’s Best of Greece trip. On tour you can join a fun cooking lesson and try to prepare famous age-old recipes. After, savour your creations with a toast of local wine!
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Tour not found.Italy – Sea urchin
Sea urchin, or ricci di mare, is a delicacy plucked along Italy’s coasts. These spiky sea creatures are loved for the silky texture and rich, ocean-sweet flavour.
“It’s so peculiar. It tastes like the sea,” said Depinder. “I don’t know how to cook with it, but I’m going to try.” She was on the right track, choosing to stir it into a pasta sauce and serve some raw on top. In Italy it’s commonly stirred into spaghetti or eaten raw (like an oyster) with lemon.
Italian offers no shortage of inspiration in the kitchen. While sea urchin is a more unusual ingredient – you’ll find produce like creamy burrata, basil, tomato passata and olive oil more familiar. In summer it’s about a fresh caprese salad and seafood, while cooler months are ideal for a hearty, slow-simmered ragù with homemade pasta.
On Trafalgar’s 13-day Best of Italy tour choose to join a local family at their farm in the Sorrento countryside. Walk through lemon groves, visit the olive oil mill and see how mozzarella is made before you sit down to a spread of home-produced cold cuts, marinated vegetables and fresh olives, all served with wine made from their own grapes. Dreamy? Totally.
Tour not found.Thailand – Preserved turnips
“What the hell is that!?” Callum replied, laughing after the judges announced that his secret ingredient was preserved turnips. The contestant said he’s never cooked with the ingredient before, but Poh said he’s more than capable to take on the challenge.
Preserved turnip (or radish) is a bit of a quiet star in Thai cuisine. The ingredient’s sweet-salty tang brings balance to famous dishes like pad thai. But Thai cooking is not singular – the cuisine bursts with bold essentials from lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, to fiery bird’s eye chilies balanced with coconut milk. You’ll find these flavours layered into everything from aromatic curries to fresh, herb-packed salads.
“I think that’s the really wonderful thing about food – it’s about so much more than just a meal. It helps define your memories when you go travelling…and I think it’s another example of how special food is and how it all connects us” Callum said. He was thinking outside the box when he drew on his own travel memories and decided to make a kangaroo pho, inspired by a simple dish cooked for him by a humble rural family in Vietnam.
On Trafalgar’s 11-day Treasures of Thailand journey, guests explore the five flavors of Thai cuisine during a traditional cooking class in a colonial-style house. The experience starts with a visit to a local market, where you’ll source fresh ingredients to build dishes that balance the sweet, sour, salty, bitter and hot flavors of Thai food. Plus on this tour you’ll visit the famous floating market at Damnoen Saduak, and share a traditional northern Thai meal with a local family.
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Tour not found.Spain – Hojiblanca Olives
“I love Spain,” said Laura. “I actually went to Spain after I got engaged and I love olives. My mum makes her own olives so we eat olives by the bucket full in our household.” Laura’s plan for the travel cooking challenge was to make a dessert, based around the olives and olive oil.
Hojiblanca olives are golden-green jewels of Andalusia, prized for their buttery, slightly peppery flavour – delicious eaten whole or pressed into oil. Olive oil is a major staple of Spanish cooking, as is smoky paprika, garlic and plump tomatoes – which you’ll find in popular dishes like paella, gazpacho and patatas bravas.
There’s nothing like tasting an ingredient at the source, and on Trafalgar’s Best of Spain tour, you’ll visit an olive estate to see how oil is made, and taste it at its freshest over a farmhouse dinner. It’s a Be My Guest experience that captures Spain’s love affair with simple, quality ingredients – and the joy of sharing them over long meals with good company.
Tour not found.Feeling inspired by the Judge’s Destinations Challenge on MasterChef Australia and hungry for more travel inspiration? Taste the world and master the journey yourself with Trafalgar or catch up on the episode at 10.