Beloved MasterChef star Tommy Pham has revealed COVID restrictions kept him from seeing his toddler for almost six months while filming season 13 of the cooking show in 2021.
The beloved cook, 34, said it was ‘an absolute killer’ being without his son Miles, now four, during the height of the pandemic isolations in Melbourne where filming for the reality TV show takes place.
Pham told Daily Mail the only way Channel Ten producers could get him to agree to come back for season 14 in 2022 was by flying his partner Wendy and their infant down from NSW to stay with him during the series.
‘For the first season, I was away for six months,’ Tommy explained.
‘Technically, if you have little ones, they’ll fly you home every two to three weeks, but because of COVID… I got to see them like twice in six months.
‘It was really, really tough… It was an absolute killer. Mentally, it was so draining for everybody.’
Tommy went on to say he struggled so much living away from his partner and son for so long, he refused to return for season 14 Fans & Favourites the following year.
‘The second time when they asked me to come on… I was like no because I just came back to my life with my kid,’ he said.
Beloved MasterChef star Tommy Pham has revealed COVID restrictions kept him from seeing his toddler for almost six months while filming season 13 of the cooking show in 2021
‘But they were like, “We’ll let you take your family.” Then I was like, “Okay, if you let me take my family, I’ll think about it.” And then I thought about it and I took them.’
However, while Tommy loved having Wendy and Miles with him, he said having his family in Melbourne during filming posed its own issues.
‘Coming home to a family is nice because you’ve had a stressful day, but also there is so much stress in MasterChef that you kind of need to come home and relax and do nothing, but I came home to a crazy toddler running around,’ he joked.
‘It had its pros and cons, but it was nice.’
When asked if he would give MasterChef another shot to finally win the crown, after only placing 7th and 10th in his respective season, Tommy said he would never return to the competition.
The beloved cook, 34, said it was ‘an absolute killer’ being without his son Miles, now four, during the height of the pandemic isolations in Melbourne where filming for the reality TV show takes place
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‘I think twice is enough. I feel like my heart would disintegrate if I came back on MasterChef,’ he said.
‘I don’t think my heart could take it anymore. It’s so stressful. It’s so draining physically and mentally, I just don’t think I could do it.’
Despite finding the series stressful as he juggled a young family with the pressures of the show, Tommy said he doesn’t regret a thing about his time in the televised kitchen.
‘I really loved how I did.. I learned and I grew a lot as a person on MasterChef. I grew a lot of love for my [Vietnamese] heritage and culture which I didn’t realise I didn’t have,’ he said.
Just a few months after starring on season 14 and returning home, Tommy and Wendy welcomed their second son Hugo who is now two-years-old.
And in August, the lovebirds welcomed their third son who still has no name.
‘There is still no name… It’s so tricky having a third name – if we had a girl, we had a name for it, it was so easy. With a third boy we’re almost out of ideas,’ Tommy explained.
He assured he and Wendy have eight weeks to register a name for their third boy and plan to take their time finding an ‘old school’ name to match Miles and Hugo.
Aside from spending as much quality time with his growing family as he can, Tommy has recently embarked on a new business venture with Alula Advance+ Toddler.
The MasterChef alumni has partnered with the brand to launch the new Alula Toddler Tummies Cookbook to raise awareness of the importance of prebiotics in toddler digestive health.
This year, Tommy welcomed his third son to the world with Wendy but has yet to name him. Pictured with his infant as well as friend and MasterChef co-star Julie Goodwin
Tommy’s passion project aims to make it easier for parents of young ones to manage meal time for their children by providing ‘healthy and easy’ toddler-friendly recipes.
‘It comes to you all of a sudden… what do I feed [my son]? What’s healthy? What’s good for him? How do I fit it into my lifestyle?’ Tommy said.
‘The research says that two thirds of parents admit that they don’t know what they’re doing to support their toddler’s nutrition. They don’t know where to start.
‘It’s a minefield. It’s crazy. You don’t know. You’re sleep deprived. You’ve got to feed the kids, and you’re like well what’s healthy and easy? A book like this is a good start.’
The father-of-three concluded that he was ‘all for’ anything that can help ‘take an edge off the stress of parenting’.