"Napier has everything I hated about LA - clean air, not a lot of people, not a lot of traffic and my dog has a yard. I would never be able to do Bonnie Cakes in LA because it's been done there. I never would have opened a bakery, that wasn't really my thing - it just kind of worked out this way."
Her "thing" was being a private chef for Hollywood movers-and-shakers including Mark Wahlberg, Russell Brand, Owen Wilson and Lisa-Marie Presley.
"Russell Brand, he was a vegetarian and gluten-free so really hard to cook for.
"Mark Wahlberg was more like catering parties for them, I think he was training for The Fighter so he would eat like a whole chicken, and Owen Wilson, I had to cook barefoot in his kitchen because he didn't allow shoes in the house."
Mrs Berkett was unsure whether it was her stint on the famous chef's show that earned her celebrity clients.
"I started getting lots of referrals, which I thought was more rewarding than really getting my own cooking show.
"They tie your hands with a contract that says you can't do anything else in TV for three years, so it's hard to capitalise on." However, her intentions were never to get famous; it was to beat a competitive culinary school classmate.
"She was really good, she had grown up in her parents restaurant and was an amazing cook, but she was really cocky and announcing it to everybody.
"I asked around and found out who the producers were and sent an email saying I was really interested in auditioning and that I was blonde and peppy and attached some photos of myself."
Three months of auditions were a piece of cake and Mrs Berkett made it onto the show.
"I think they thought I was going to be the dumb blonde and thought 'oh we'll keep her here for a little bit', but all I wanted to do was beat this one girl, and it turned out she hadn't even made it through because she was too young."
Filming every day for a month with little sleep and no contact with the outside world was exhausting.
"It was 27 days of never having a day off, never having a proper sleep.
"I wasn't allowed to have anything it was like prison. In hindsight it was terrible, every time I was up for elimination, which was like every day, I was like 'yes, I'm going home!'
"I think they do that so you're at your worst and ready to fight with people and make good TV."
Winner of the season, Rock Harper, won $250,000 while Mrs Berkett left empty-handed.
"I did it five years ago, so yeah, it's part of who I am but I have done so much more, I have moved to another country and started a new business and to me that's more of an accomplishment than being on that show.
"Its amazing, I didn't think I would ever make enough money to employ people or that I would have been busy enough to employ people."
Though one piece of his angry English advice has always stuck with her.
"I do kind of hear his voice in my head sometimes because he was always saying 'it's your food, my standards' and I try and implement that here because it's important to give people free range but to your high standards, so in a way he still kind of speaks to me."
The season eight finale of Hell's Kitchen screened in New Zealand on Wednesday night, crowning Texan mother Nona Sivley winner.
