Lessons from down under

The winner of the third season of ‘MasterChef Australia’, Kate Bracks, recently visited the City to showcase the newly launched bakery, Whitefield Baking Company, at Marriott Hotel.

“We realised that Indians are big fans of ‘MasterChef’ and in fact, the viewers here are even more than it is in Australia. We felt that bringing Kate down would add a touch of reality to the love for the show,” notes Matthew Cooper, general manager of the hotel.
“I never thought she’d agree to come down, but she accepted my invitation within 10 hours of emailing her!” he says. Matthew adds, “She is teaching our chefs as well as learning from them. For the public, there are a couple of cooking demonstrations and even a children’s workshop on how to make ‘cupKates’.”

Engaging with the media during the ‘master class’, she spoke about her culinary journey, shared anecdotes about the show and about her life before and after it.
Though she had cooked masala dosas the previous night, she decided to cook a batch of scrumptious chocolate hazelnut and raspberry muffins at the event. “Food isn’t just about flavours but also about the textures. That’s something I learnt from the show,” notes Kate, as she sprinkles her special ingredient, ‘demerera sugar’ on the muffins before putting it into the large oven.

Explaining the significance of each ingredient in the dessert as the muffins got baked,she spoke about chocolate. She says, “Chocolate is one of those amazing
ingredients where the better the quality you use, the better the flavour.”She also confessed that the show did make her homesick considering she was away for seven months with a phone call and two Skype calls allowed a week.

But all through the show, Kate used her personal philosophy to stay focussed.
“I kept telling myself that at the end of day, it’s just food — not life and death. Being a mom also helps — you know you just have to get up the next day and keep going on doing what you’re supposed to. That’s what I did in the show,”
concludes Kate, offering the piping hot gooey muffins to the guests.