MasterChef star Minoli De Silva says was ‘startled’ when Chrissie Swan made tasteless cancer quip

Minoli De Silva has shared her thoughts on a very awkward moment of live television she was embroiled in earlier this year.

In April, the MasterChef Australia star appeared on The Project – and was left stunned when host Chrissie Swan made a tasteless quip about her breast cancer diagnosis.

The 35-year-old said she found it ‘strange’ and was ‘a bit startled’ when Chrissie changed the subject from her cancer news by saying ‘Wow from the sublime to the ridiculous, I don’t know which one is which!’

‘Chrissie is very fun, she’s very quick-witted. I think it was just not her finest moment when someone admits that they’ve gone through breast cancer and her response is to make a quick remark’ Minoli told news.com.au on Saturday.

‘I might do that with my friends, but I think on a national level it’s probably not the right message that gets sent out.’

Minoli added that she accepted it was ‘just a slip of the tongue’ and says at The Project team later apologised.

‘They kind of understood that their response wasn’t ideal. People make mistakes, everyone says silly stuff all the time, but unfortunately, it was on live TV’ she said.

The incident occurred when Chrissie was lost for an appropriate response after Minoli discussed her cancer diagnosis.

The chef had appeared on the program to promote her appearance on the cooking competition, revealing that she had gotten the bad news about her health the same day she was approached to return to MasterChef.

‘It was probably the day that had the biggest high and the biggest low I ever had. It seemed surreal,’ the cook, who originally competed on season 13 of MasterChef, told Chrissie.

‘In the morning I got a call from my doctor and he told me that the breast cancer had come back from an ultrasound that happened a week ago and I cried just more tears than I can remember crying in a long time,’ she continued.

‘Then, MasterChef calls me up in the afternoon and it was like, ‘We’ve got some news that might be really shocking.’

‘I didn’t say anything and they told me I had got a chance to come back into the MasterChef kitchen.’

Chrissie fumbled a reply, ignoring Minoli’s discussion of her cancer altogether.

‘Wow from the sublime to the ridiculous, I don’t know which one is which!’ Chrissie interjected.

Co-star Sarrah Le Marquand then chimed in, changing the subject to a dish the chef had made during Sunday’s episode.

‘Let’s talk jaffles. Your jaffle saved all of the favourites from elimination last night. We want to know how did they thank you?’ she said.

The subject of Minoli’s diagnosis was dropped and not mentioned again by The Project panel.

Viewers watching at home noticed the omission, with one person tweeting: ‘Jeepers… a MasterChef contestant just opened up to you about a breast cancer diagnosis, and because it wasn’t scripted for your panel with prepared responses, they just froze and completely ignored it?! Pretty woeful’.

Another wrote: ‘Chrissy saying ‘from the sublime to the ridiculous’ after Minoli talked about getting a cancer diagnosis and a call from MasterChef on the same day was really poor. How about ‘how are you feeling?”

Someone else asked: ‘Did The Project just brush over Minoli’s cancer diagnosis?’

Minoli recently revealed that she had undergone a bilateral mastectomy – removing both breasts – prior to returning to MasterChef.

She was first diagnosed with stage 3A triple positive breast cancer at age 31  and underwent a lumpectomy, six months of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiotherapy.