Her Kitchen Notebook series has taken Rachel Khoo from Paris to Prahran, but a seat at the My Kitchen Rules table has proved a free ticket to travel to all points around Australia. 
And this British-born, gypsy-at-heart loved every minute of it. If our tourism poster boy, Chris Hemsworth, gets busy in Hollywood, you get the feeling Khoo would take his place in a New York minute.
"Australia is just my favourite place right now," Khoo says. "I wanted to come and live there at one point in my life, but then (first TV program) Little Paris Kitchen happened, so now I'm trying to make it up." Taking her place beside MKR favourite Colin Fassnidge (pictured right), Khoo says, was a passport to explore more exotic flavours of Australia.
"When we were travelling around, it was definitely the different ingredients, especially in tropical Queensland areas like Cairns which excited me," Khoo says.
"It was that diversity that I loved about Australia, the mix of different foods. You're always going to be surprised." Her week on air took three weeks of filming, clocking up plenty of frequent flyer miles but also stunning the TV newbie who "didn't realise we'd film such long hours".
Balancing the exhaustive schedule with a few laughs with Fassnidge, Khoo was determined to stay nice and avoid the "nasty judge tag".
"I hope my critiques were constructive. I would never set out to be mean, that's not my intention. 'OK, so you make a mistake, but how can you learn from it? Here's my advice â€¦' They can take that on their culinary journey," Khoo says.
"Cooking is all about learning. If you don't take on people's advice then you're not going to evolve as a cook and I apply that to my own cooking as well." While some chefs and food personalities turn their nose up at shows like MKR, Khoo embraces it, counting herself among the show's home cooks.
"The point about the TV landscape these days is there is that variety. I think back to when I was watching cookery shows when I was little and it was very much your home economics teacher trying to teach you how to make a shepherd's pie and it was so dull.
"It's good to have lots of different shows and some of which are fun, lighthearted and not too serious."MY KITCHEN RULES, CHANNEL 7, SUN, 7PM, MON-WED, 7.30PM