Jamie Fleming is a contestant on MasterChef Australia Season 6 & 17. He is placed 4th on Season 6.
Biography[]
Retrieved from 10play.com.au
Season 6[]
This young dad has his eye on the prize and creating a solid future for his family.
Growing up in Adelaide, Jamie and younger brother Luke, now 22, had well-developed palettes. This was thanks to mum Celia’s work selling educational products which took them right around the country. As they drove around Australia they sampled the cuisine at every stop.
Jamie says he decided he wanted to be a chef at age six, mesmerized by the kitchen prep in a family friend’s restaurant.
After finishing school, Jamie lived in New Zealand for three years, first stepping behind a bar while working at Mount Hutt. Additional travel saw Jamie trekking in Nepal and he spent four months in India.
Returning to Australia he continued his work in hospitality. It is an industry he loves, perhaps because of his own love of eating and drinking with friends.
Jamie fell into bar tending, which he’s done for eight years - seriously for four - as he has worked his way up.
Meeting partner Rhiannon while staying with friends in Sydney in 2011, the two were engaged within six months. Soon after they were expecting daughter Amelie, now a year old. A second baby is on the way in 2014.
His hard work and his bid for success in the MasterChef Australia kitchen is to secure a good life for Rhiannon, Amelie and their new arrival.
His food heroes include David Chang, Jamie Oliver, Thomas Keller and Luke Nguyen. Eating at Momofuku and Tetsuya’s changed the way Jamie looked at dining.
His food ambition is to marry his passions for cooking and cocktails, by becoming a business owner and chef at a number of Sydney venues. He wants to concentrate on good food, good drink, good times and creating happy memories.
"I want to entertain and give people an experience that sticks with them.”
He would love to open a small bar with a great food list, a bistro more focused on food, as well as a crazy bar as an outlet for his creativity.
“Nothing is too great to achieve if you put your mind to it. I want to meet new people, taste new flavours and textures and learn new skills. I hope to increase my arsenal in all areas and apply them to my world of cooking.”[1]
Season 17[]
After finishing fourth on his first spin around the MasterChef Australia kitchen, Jamie’s culinary journey has delivered both highs and lows. Jamie ran the award-winning Alba Bar & Deli in Brisbane for five years before having to make the tough financial decision to close its doors. Happily, Jamie bounced back to open Spill Wine in Maleny in 2024, and says that his latest venture, run alongside partner Clare, serves as his love letter to the wine world and celebrates the best of the Hinterland’s produce.
Raised in Adelaide with his mum working long hours, the dinner table was the place the family could come together. Getting to know restaurateurs over the years showed Jamie firsthand just how much food and dining has the incomparable power to unite, and he wanted in.
Indulging his love of travel after school, Jamie spent time in New Zealand, Japan, Nepal and India and when he returned to Australia he became a bar tender. Over the years he has worked extensively across the food and alcohol industry, providing mentoring and education for bartenders across Australia.
Inspired by the culinary credentials of Paul Carmichael, David Thompson and Albert Adria, food is Jamie’s love language. It’s the way he shows his appreciation, the way he communicates care and security to his three children and even the way he apologises. Jamie can think of no better day than one spent in the kitchen with his partner and kids, making pasta from scratch or folding dumplings.
Passionate about food education, Jamie is inspired to help the community address the lack of food education amongst youth, with future success a generation who respect food and learn how to prepare nourishing meals.
With garlic, butter and thyme making up his holy trinity, Jamie notes his fridge is full of flavour bombs like butter and kimchi, and plans on bending big flavours to his will during Back To Win. With less unbridled confidence and more experience and maturity guiding him now, this could be Jamie’s time to go all the way.[2]
Trivia[]
- He is the only contestant of the Season 6 Final 4 to not win a Mystery Box Challenge.
References[]
External links[]
Jamie Fleming on Instagram