"Get Your Feet Dirty"
Meet the celebrities
Sonya & Sacha
Sonya Karras and Sacha Kaluri are professional motivational speakers, each speaking at more than 200 gigs per year around Australia. Just finishing a USA speaking tour of New York this January 2019. They have a hit national TV program, weekly radio show and Podcast all called The Sonya and Sacha Show. They have written for all of Australia’s major newspapers including a weekly column in the Herald Sun. Authors of the international book The Two Worlds of Your Teenager. Official Australian Ambassadors for The New York United Nations Women’s Entrepreneurship Day and charity partners for Bully Zero Foundation, Footys4All, and The Polished Man. Finally, they are the founders and creators of the Australian Teenage Expo - our country’s largest youth educational event.
Pia Gava
Food was an important part of Pia’s Italian upbringing and there was a family dish suited to every occasion. Pia’s favorite food memory as a little girl was sitting on the kitchen step watching her mum make pasta!
Her food memories are strongly kept alive today, with recipes like homemade pasta, special occasion sweet treats and of course comfort food. Pia also wants to share her passion so everyone can have the same experience.
Since being a MasterChef Australia 2017 contestant Pia has successfully published her first cookbook ‘Pia’s Table’, has become an ambassador for charity OnePlate which included leading a MasterChef alumni food team to create a fundraising one plate dinner feast and she recently catered their Party Like A Parisian fundraising event. Pia has been teaching cooking classes, workshops, demo’s and festivals, recipe creation/testing, and also sharing her food passion via her website also!
Jo Kendray
Until two years ago, travel manager Jo was living in the city that never sleeps, New York, and says the experience as a foodie was one in a million.
Based in Manhattan and then across the river in Hoboken for five years, Jo says the melting pot of cuisines on offer meant an endless array of choice and experience to learn.
Traveling the country regularly meant she ate and learned about BBQ in Nashville, Cuban dishes in Miami, and noodle and ramen bars in the city. With such a variety of flavors and food on offer, she says her best food memories were created in those years.
It is a long way from Katherine in the Northern Territory where Jo was born, before moving to Darwin where she was raised. Throughout her 20s and 30s, Jo lived extensively across Australia, based for a time in Port Douglas, Adelaide and Brisbane, before she headed to the US.
In 2015 she returned to Australia, but not before a self-described foodie tour took her to Mexico, on safari through Namibia and Zambia, into Morocco and through northern Italy.
Basing herself in Brisbane briefly before relocating to Melbourne in 2016, Jo admits she sees herself as a nomad, always happy to move and chase a new adventure and dream.
A lover of Gordon Ramsay who she says has an utter focus on perfection, Jo also cites David Chang from Momofuku as her culinary inspiration.
Her passion for travel leads to her food dream and she hopes when her MasterChef Australia
journey comes to an end, she can combine her two great loves and create travel culinary tours for foodies across Australia and overseas. She hopes the experience will offer market and kitchen tours, and she can host cooking classes with local chefs.
Ra
I'm Ra. I am a Maori from NZ and I've been living in Melbourne for almost 7 years. I've enjoyed my time here so far and have no intention of leaving any time soon. My main occupation is personal training. I have been a trainer for over 6 years and I've been training personally for 17 years. I am a part-time model and a cabaret dancer during the weekends. I am a huge nerd/ geek.
Krishool
A guaranteed crowd pleaser, the African born entertainer has a natural ability to bring dance and rhythm to his performances.
He acknowledges influence from artists Michael Jackson, Usher, Seal and enjoys covering soul, jazz and hip-hop with a peppering of rock ballads. More recently, Krishool was coached by Will.i.am on Channel Nine’s hit show, The Voice, where he wowed judges with his soulful voice and energetic dance moves. The singer-songwriter currently performs regular solo gigs in his hometown of Melbourne and explores a love of acting, comedy and podcasting hosting when off stage. Classically trained, he has been performing since the age of five and after graduating high school, he toured Europe with boy band trio, 'Track 5'.
Rutendo Machachi
A walking embodiment of, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind shall achieve” Rutendo Mahachi has spent the last 6 years in the fitness industry spreading his influence through an astonishing transformation.
He also appears in The Crown Casino Show called Princes of The Night whilst receiving his TV debut through Channel 7’s first season of Take Me Out. He is a dancer, model social media influencer and fitness trainer.
Join us in supporting the Plate Up Project by visiting us at the MFWF on the Southbank Promenade or you can make a donation!
Bianca Rose
