“Cooking is my best friend. I cook when I am on my highest of highs and lowest of lows,” says Neha Sen, one of the two Indian contestants on the Season 5 of MasterChef Australia.
The show, which has avid viewers around the world, has two Indian home cooks Neha and Rishi Desai, battling it out this season. MasterChef Australia has shifted base to Victoria and has narrowed down to 22 contestants as opposed to 50 home cooks in the previous seasons.
Talking about her foray into the competition, Neha says, “I was an avid watcher of MasterChef series. I have watched all the seasons and really enjoyed them. I remember that there were four hours to go for the application deadline and my husband forced me to write my application down. ‘Give it a shot. You enjoy cooking and you love being surrounded by food,’ he said.”
Growing up
Having grown up in India with parents who are doctors in the Indian Army, Neha was always on the move. “I was exposed to different cultures, languages and food every time we moved, as every state in India is so diverse. Not knowing any regional language, I would always use food as my comfort zone to adapt and get to know more about the locals,” she explains.
Rishi, on the other hand, was born in a traditional Kolhapuri household in Maharashtra, were food is a way of life. He even had an early start to cooking at the age of five, and inherited his love for cooking from his mother. As a gifted cook, his mother inherited the large traditional family’s cooking department, and there was always a big spread on the table.
“The inspiration and the knowledge for cooking comes from my mother. She is a great cook who produces some amazing Indian food, sometimes with rather unassuming and humble ingredients,” Rishi says.
Apart from competing on an international platform like MasterChef, Neha and Rishi also tried to dispel the popular misconception that Indian cuisine is all about curries. “During the course of the show, I did not cook any kormas or butter chicken. I did other kinds of food that a lot of people didn’t know about. I tried to portray Indian cuisine unlike what they have seen and eaten in Australia so far. By cooking some historic food and following my great-grandmother’s recipes, I wanted to show that Indian food is more than just butter chicken and curries.”
The show would be incomplete, of course, without its three endearing judges — renowned food critic Matt Preston and chef-restaurateurs Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris. Speaking about the judges, Rishi says, “All three of them are different in their own way. If you want straight out criticism and you want to know where you are going wrong, Gary is the guy for you. George, meanwhile, is an ideal mentor, and lastly, Matt is a funny guy and has an amazing sense of humour.”
Talking about her experience with each of the judges, Neha says, “I really like Matt for his immense amount of knowledge about not just Australian food, but world cuisine as a whole. George is a perfectionist. I call him the Picasso of food. He is truly an artist when it comes to delivering food on the plate. Gary, on the other hand, is someone who is all about flavours and comfort food. I really learnt a lot from Gary because he just loves Indian food, especially South Indian cuisine. Each of them have very different things to offer. And they all played an instrumental role in helping me get where I am today.”
And how tough was the competition? “I was more laid back in the competition. For me, It was more about the journey and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Every participant was a real tough contender. Usually MasterChef picks 50 cooks from Australia, but this year, it was the top 22. So everyone was extremely skilled and talented,” says Neha. But Rishi’s take on the competition is different. “For me, it’s like playing against myself. I wanted to outdo myself with each successive round. In my opinion, Christina Batista was my strongest opponent. She was extremely skilled and focused.”
Food for the soul
For every chef, there is one dish that has his patent mark, which cannot be recreated by any other hand. So, which is that one dish for these talented home cooks? “My signature dish is my simple and humble version of palak paneer. I make my own paneer and it is one of my favourite dishes. My comfort food is either a biryani or my mother’s coconut rice and mutton curry,” Neha says.
Rishi too has gone back to his roots when it comes to his signature dish. “I love Kolhapuri gosht, succulent mutton in a spicy gravy. I want to take Indian flavours and give them a modern twist. My comfort food, however, is Chinese food. I make a lot of Chinese food at home,” he says.
MasterChef Australia is known for setting some gruelling and exciting challenges for the contestants from ‘Battle of the Sexes’, ‘Kids’ Week’ to Italian food challenges. Contestants have to work in teams serving top quality food to thousands of people in the Australian outback and the bustling market streets. Sharing some memorable experiences, Rishi says, “I had an amazing time during an elimination challenge in Perth, where we had to cook for 80 diners. But, mostly, I liked the World Food Week challenge in Dubai — it was quite chaotic, but it was fun nonetheless.”
For many of the contestants, the show has been a launching pad for their food dreams and several of them have gone on to make a name for themselves in the Australian food industry by writing cook books and having their own television shows. What has MasterChef given these two contestants? Neha goes on to say, “I feel like a celebrity. People come up to me for my autograph wherever I go. Most of all, MasterChef has made me realise how important food is to me, and how much it means to me. It has instilled the confidence in me to turn my passion into profession.”
For Rishi, meanwhile, MasterChef Australia is a step towards pursuing his food dream: to open an award-winning restaurant with a modern Indian menu that will change the way Indian cuisine is perceived in Australia.