Nadia Mathiasen (28) is from Denmark and lives in Dublin. She is currently living in Dublin with her boyfriend. She is a freelance journalist, food writer and food blogger, currently freelancing for a Danish food magazine.

Nadia grew up with delicious homemade Thai dishes made by her mother who brought her into the kitchen from an early age. She says she has a natural love of Asian food because of her mother, and carries that into her cooking. Her signature dish is Thai spring rolls with pork bamboo shoots, glass noodles and two kinds of mushrooms.

In her early teens her parents split up and she decided to stay with her dad who couldn’t cook, so she took on the responsibility of cooking and has loved it ever since. She hopes MasterChef would give her the courage to live off her cooking skills, either teaching people to cook, developing recipes or opening up her own restaurant/cafe.

The dish that got her into the audition stage was Larb - Beef fillet. Her audition dish was Pan-fried scallops with peas.