Matt Sinclair Travels from Sunshine Coast, QLD

Matt grew up in the Sydney shire of Sutherland, and as he puts it, has ‘great memories of family life there’. Matt’s passion for food began at an early age in the kitchen of his great-grandmother, Elsie. Matt credits Elsie, and his grandmother Elva, with inspiring his desire to pursue a culinary career – an inspiration that came full circle in 2014, when Matt catered for his grandmother’s 80th birthday.

Matt’s first real foray into the hospitality industry came at the age of 19 when he began working at ‘Summer Salt’ in Cronulla. Working closely with the chefs there, Matt was constantly asking questions and, in his spare time, attempting to recreate his favourite dishes. After a stint working in Canada as a bartender and landscaper, Matt chose to forgo a boys’ trip to Central and South America, deciding instead on a solo trip to India. This passion for new experiences was the driving force behind taking him to the MasterChef Australia kitchen.

One of Matt’s fondest memories from being on MasterChef Australia was the opportunity to travel to the United States and work in some of California’s best food trucks. The idea behind the food truck is one Matt identifies closely with and, in fact, immediately after finishing the Masterchef Australia competition, he and his best mate pursued their food truck dream in the form of a 20ft shipping container at Eat Street market in Brisbane.

After a successful stint at the markets, Matt along with 3 great friends took the plunge to make a long time dream a reality and opened the very successful Sum Yung Guys in Sunshine.

Their love for Asia is evident in the food, decor and ambience of the restaurant and the success of this is evident in the numbers that come through the doors each day and night.

Matt’s popularity and charm on Masterchef Australia has led to a number of great Ambassadorships and sponsorship opportunities and he was fast approached by Tourism Noosa to head up their Ambassadorship program for 2017. He is also an Ambassador for Cobram Extra Virgin Olive Oil and has recently run a successful Channel Ten TV ad campaign showcasing their products.

More recently, Matt has worked with Ardmona on their 2017 campaign and is closely associated with SilverChef, working on a new social media Influencer Campaign which sees’s him talk candidly about his experience in setting up his own business.

As if this wasn’t enough, Matt secured a new TV show in 2017 on Channel Ten – The Cook’s Pantry with Matt. This has made its way to the second series for 2018.