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In this audio interview, cook and author Nadia Lim sits down for a mouth-watering chat with Ande Schurr to reveal the secrets that took her to the top to win NZ’s 2011 MasterChef. She shares morsels for all freelancers, not just culinary artists, to plan for success with integrity.

“Instead of trying to think how can you be successful, and make lots of money, always think of ‘how can I help others, or what do others need’.

“If you come up with a solution that helps people, you can if you want to, always turn that into a business.”

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When it comes to celebrities it seems there are two kinds. Those who get their primetime-TV, glossy magazine-covered position due to money and beauty, and those who arrive after time, effort and making their own luck. Nadia Lim falls into the latter although you couldn’t accuse her of having a face for radio!

This interview not only reveals the events that led up to her attaining this coveted TV cooking-show opportunity but also her mindset that ultimately won her the title - an especially difficult task when it would have been so easy to give up as a finalist and return back to her family after months of isolation from the outside world. Nadia reveals how discipline and desire, over a long period of time, are the real qualities behind her success.

I worked with Nadia, as one of the film crew sound recordists for MasterChef NZ 2011, and although I saw her as diligent and humble, I couldn’t see what was really going on in her mind. Such is the reality for all success stories when buying your way to the top is not an option; it is behind the closed doors of that person’s mind that the real work is taking place.

Back to Nadia - working three years as a diabetes dietician for the Auckland District Health Board, advising people with diabetes how to better manage their condition, Nadia already had a satisfying career in the works that helped shape her current business, My Food Bag - which delivers fresh food and produce weekly to people throughout the main cities in NZ, along with recipes that she creates to go with it.

Nadia shares recipes for her success in this audio interview.

We cover:

• The events that led up to Nadia applying for MasterChef including the ‘many coincidences’
• What happened when she was 12 that set the course for the rest of her life
• How her family backed up her vision to present on camera and have her own cooking show
• The big mistake her boyfriend (and now husband) made that actually saved her from failing
• Why she didn’t sell out to the big sponsors of MasterChef as a strategy to create her own brand