Tash, who writes the blog, A Kitchen Cat, was outed on Twitter on Wednesday as being one of the contestants.

Channel Ten has been running a promotion for series six in which some of the contestants feature.

Ms Shan, originally from Malaysia, now living in Canberra, pops up at about 46 seconds dressing a plate in the MasterChef kitchen and then at 52 seconds as judge Gary Mehigan looks over her dish.

A spokeswoman for production house Shine Australia said only that: “We can confirm that the contestants who appear in the current MasterChef promo have all reached the stage of judges’ auditions.

''To find out if they reach the top 24 or further, viewers will have to tune in to find out’’.

Last season, Rishi Desai, who lives in Queanbeyan but works in Canberra, got to the top four of the cooking competition.

He is about to release his first cookbook, Modern Indian, published by New Holland, in June.

Mr Desai is also in talks with a production company to film a cooking and travelling show in India.

He was thrilled to hear another Canberran had made it to the show.

‘‘Canberrans do love their food and it’s really exciting see people are applying and getting on the show,’’ he said.

Ms Shan, who also worked with a pet rescue organisation, says on her blog that she lives with her partner, two rescue cats ‘‘and a KitchenAid named Heston’’.

‘‘A self-confessed foodie and a bit of a kitchen control freak, I can often be found flagging pages of my recipe books with colour coded post-its,’’ she writes on the blog.

‘‘I’m nitpicky about little things, I like my cutlery and spice jars to match which might make you think that I’m super neat – unfortunately, that’s not the case.

‘‘I’m an unashamedly messy cook. I tell myself it’s because I need a bigger kitchen but really, I know I’m just messy.

''Oh well, at least I’m a decent cook. Can’t win ‘em all right?’’

This season, all three original judges – Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan – return, along with special appearances by acclaimed chef and food writer, Kylie Kwong, as a regular guest mentor.