"I applied to tick it off the list," the 29-year-old said from her home in Launceston this week.

"I didn't think I'd even get an email back.

"Then when I did, I thought, I can't go. It's in Melbourne and I can't just flit off whenever I want to.

"I told my mum a couple of days after I got the email and she said, 'Well you are going?'.

"She said, 'If you don't go, I'm going to book your tickets for you and make you go'.

"She talked me into going, so luckily I did."

Mrs Luttrell, who is a hairdresser at Launceston salon Bliss, become the first Tasmanian female contestant to reach the top 10 on the Channel 10 reality show in the latest season.

She was eliminated after failing to impress the judges with her Lemongrass Coconut Malaysian Curry with squid noodle.

The judges said the sauce was cluggy and the tentacles were undercooked.

Despite being eliminated and the show wrapping up with its grand final last Monday night, Mrs Luttrell's career in food is just beginning.

"I feel the second level can begin and I can be a little more myself as, rather than cooking for the challenges, I can cook what I want," Mrs Luttrell said.

She said a lot of the time it didn't feel real starring on the show.

"It kind of felt like school camp sort of thing, but the activities were quite intense."

Favourite challenges for Mrs Luttrell included one set by renowned chef Maggie Beer, where contestants were presented with gardening tools and had to go into the herb garden, get their own produce and create a dish in 60 minutes.

The chef is an inspiration for Mrs Luttrell.

"She's such a lovely person to meet," Mrs Luttrell said.

"How she built her dream from the ground up is inspiring.

"She bought a pheasant farm and began from there. I'm thinking maybe that's where I want to start and go from there."

Mrs Luttrell lives in a cottage town house in West Launceston with her husband Simon and their golden retriever, Harvey.

A vegetable garden is planted in the backyard, which is where the couple grow a lot of what they cook with.

The couple's ultimate dream is to buy a farm on the East Tamar, in an area like Dilston, and create a boutique food farm.

"It would be cool to have people over to pick some apples, pick some strawberries, pick a carrot and go make something with those few things," Mrs Luttrell said.

"Or to have a cooking school or something.

"I'm playing round with a lot of ideas."

Mrs Luttrell was introduced to cooking as a child by her mother Karen.

"As kids, mum used to make a batch of cookie dough and we would sit there and make little lines and trays of cookies," Mrs Luttrell said.

"My older sister would make all these perfect cookies and I'd make one mangled one and have no cookie dough left . . . because my favourite thing was actually eating the cookie dough, not eating the cookies."

Licking the beaters was and still is a favourite thing for Mrs Luttrell.

"You've always got the excuse that the proof is in the batter," she said.

"My dad is a bit of a breadmaker too, so I love making my own bread as well."

Mrs Luttrell's favourite thing to cook on Masterchef was quail.

"I've always loved to eat and cook quail, but I thought it was a little bit of a strength of mine to debone and cook it perfectly.

"I knew off the top of my head how to cook it perfectly every time and I felt that was a bit of a strength.

"It would be really nice to take that strength and go and breed quail myself."

But while Mrs Luttrell has always enjoyed cooking, hairdressing initially took her fancy as an occupation.

"The creativeness and social aspect of hairdressing was more appealing," she said.

"I've always wanted to (do something in the food industry) but never thought I'd be good enough to do it.

"But this (being on Masterchef) has definitely upped my confidence and maybe I can have a bit more of a career in food."

That food career has already started.

Mrs Luttrell has spent the past few months filming with season four Masterchef contestant and Devonport resident Ben Milbourne.

Milbourne has his own show, Ben's Menu, which airs on weekday afternoons and was shortlisted for a TV Week Logie award for Most Popular Lifestyle Program earlier this year.

"I'll have a weekly appearance on his show next season, which will be cool," Mrs Luttrell said.

"That's starting in September so I'll be back on the screens.

"When Ben's just doing his recipes or when we have a guest on the show, I'm in the background prepping recipes with his other prep chef, Lilly.

"We both prep the recipes for Ben so he doesn't have to sit there chopping onions or measuring things. And I'm also writing recipes as well as finding new locations to go to."

Mrs Luttrell said starring on Ben's Menu was a little different to being on Masterchef.

"You're focusing a lot more on the cameras," she said.

"Before it was quite easy to tune out from the cameras. There were a lot of cameras on you, but you had a job to do, so you just ignored the cameras and did it.

"On Ben's Menu, you're talking to the camera and showing the camera how to make cookies, so that's definitely unusual and it's definitely taken a few goes to get used to."

Between working on the show, Mrs Luttrell is still working at Bliss three days a week, making brownies for the salon and last night also hosted the first of a number of group dinners she has planned.

The Riverside Golf Club dinner was attended by more than 100 people.

"I didn't get any mystery boxes tasted on Masterchef, which was a bit of a bummer but this will be a good chance for people to be able to see what I'm doing," she said before the event.

Mrs Luttrell hopes to host a dinner every month at the golf club so she can show off her cooking.

She will also continue to make brownies for clients at Bliss.

"I've actually loved doing that as that's been a really good opportunity for people to taste my things."

A big dream for Mrs Luttrell is to work with Maggie Beer.

"Luke Nguyen is a really massive inspiration in my eyes as well," she said.

"I've had this huge love of Vietnam and cooking that sort of cuisine because of living over there a few years ago, so maybe doing something along those lines would be a dream too.

"I would also love to do some travelling and do some travel writing."

Email: mdadson@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Twitter: @ManikaDadson