Masterchef Vietnam boosts Nguyen's profile

Luke Nguyen, co-owner of Sydney's Red Lantern and a judge on MasterChef Vietnam, says the Vietnamese program has several differences from the local version of MasterChef.

"They cook bush rat and live frogs over there," he says. "They had all sorts of characters on it. There was a mother and son, and at one stage she said he couldn't cook. I heard they opened a restaurant together after the show, then split. The winner of series one, Thanh Hoa Ngo, had a connection to Sydney, working here for a few years at Radio Cairo," Nguyen says.

The Sydney chef says the show has changed the food landscape in Vietnam.

"It was huge, 20 million watched it. There was no such thing as a celebrity chef there before; that has changed."

With a deal with Etihad Airways and his TV career booming, Nguyen is backing up for series two in Vietnam, and more fame: "Now they come up to me and say, 'Aren't you that guy?'."