The first-ever MasterChef Asia debuted last Thursday where 15 amateur home cooks vie for the coveted title and a cash prize of US$50,000. Representing Singapore are housewife Sandrian Tan, engineer Lennard Yeong and lawyer Woo Wai Leong.
During the media conference, we were treated to a live demonstration of a 30-minute Mystery Box Challenge by the contestants where Yeong, Tan and Woo had to cook a dish with only the ingredients provided. For a foodie (loves to eat but doesn’t know how to cook), watching and admiring the talented trio felt like magicians performing their act, except substituting their woks and knifes for sugar, spice and everything nice. It was magical.
30-minute Mystery Box Challenge: (L-R) Dish prepared by Yeong, Woo and Tan.
Judging the contestants are renowned chefs and personalities around the world: Susur Lee, Bruno Ménard and Audra Morrice. All three chefs also attended the media conference where they gave comments and opinions during live demonstration, like how that would in the actual show.
From ‘century egg mystery box challenge’ to ‘getting out of our comfort zone’, contestants Yeong, Tan and Woo shared their experiences on the show; their challenges and sacrifices made to join the first MasterChef Asia.
In addition, the judges also talked about their roles in the competition and some of their biggest no-nos in the kitchen!
MasterChef Asia airs every Thursdays at 9pm on Lifetime (StarHub TV Ch. 514)!
Contestants (L-R): Woo Wai Leong, Lennard Yeong, Sandrian Tan
What are your thoughts when you watch the other episodes of MasterChef?
- Lennard: I think it’s very easy to judge when you’re at home watching the television. Sometimes when you watch it on TV and it’s so blatantly wrong, you’re thinking how can this person not know. But if you’re actually there cooking, you will realise that you are a victim of circumstance - like something is not there or something doesn’t work, so you have to make do with what you have. Yeah, I’ll never look at the competition the same way again.
- Wai Leong: You can divide it to two periods: Pre masterChef Asia and Post MasterChef Asia. Pre MasterChef Asia will be like ‘Come’on! You can do better than that’, or like ‘What a rookie mistake’, but after going through the entire experience, you just realise that when you’re in the zone, under that kind of time pressure, there are times that you can even make the simplest mistake. Now whenever I watch MasterChef, I am very understanding.
What made you join MasterChef Asia, considering that you might have to quit your full-time job?
- Lennard: For me it wasn’t an irrational choice. You have many aspects to think about, like the repercussions. At the end of the day, I look at MasterChef Asia as an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and if I don’t do it now, the opportunity might not come again.
- Sandrian: This is the year where I supposedly have to go back to the corporate world, but when this opportunity came, I went for it. I don’t know what came over me, but if it was me way before, I will never, ever join a competition like this because I would never have the courage to do it. But when you have a family member who passed away, you realised that life is so short, so just go for it!
- Wai Leong: When the opportunity came, I didn’t want to squander this chance. For me, it’s about just go and join the show, and if I am invited to take part, I will then worry about what happens to my job. The firm I was working with was gracious enough to let me take six weeks time-off to do the show. When I finished, I reached an understanding that my heart wasn’t really in my job, so that’s when we departed ways. It’s like I took part, and realised what I wanted to do, and then make a decision after.
Before entering the competition, was there a challenge that you were most afraid of?
- Wai Leong: I think they we were trying to guess like what ingredients that will throw us off. Sandrian came up with century egg, durian and all that and it kind of got into our heads! We thought: ‘What do we do if we get durian and century egg together?’ So we were just trying to guess all the things that could possibly happen during the day itself and as always, we almost got it all wrong.
- Lennard: Personally, I was so afraid of going into a dessert challenge with no recipe. Basically you have to memorise all the different ratios for like pastry and doughs… I don’t like doing desserts that much.
- Wai Leong: No recipes! Yes, a lot of downtime was reading a lot of cookbooks and putting recipes to memory. I think the challenge that I both look forward to and fear was the pressure test where you have to follow a recipe. Yah, the instructions are there, but you wouldn’t know who’s dish is it, and you always wondered if can you live up to that standard.
Judges (L-R): Susur Lee, Audra Morrice and Bruno Ménard)
Are there specific roles that the judges take on? Like the ‘good guy-bad guy’ personalities?
- Bruno: We don’t have roles, or who plays the ‘good cop, bad cop’. We’re here to share. We want to help them to grow and share our knowledge. Knowledge is better than gold as it is what makes you unique. The know-how is very important ad we are here to help home cooks do better.
- Audra: The three of us are very different and often come from quite different perspectives. I came into this wanting to mentor and inspire these contestants. Having been in their shoes before, I know exactly what they are going through so i do relate. Also i have come out on the other side and now run a successful catering business, i have my own range of products in the market as well as a cookbook. So i am a testament to the fact that MasterChef can help you drive your dreams to fruition.
- Susur: You also have to understand them individually. Sometimes our words may be harsh, but it’s to make them better… it’s called coaching. We are not trying to beat them up, but they have to perform in order for us to help them. You have to have that tough love.
Judging of food can be subjective. Is there sort of a checklist (ie. techniques, presentation, taste) that the judges look out for, when selecting a challenge winner?
- Audra: Yes that’s definitely true. We all have different tastes. However we know our food and we do have great tastes! All three of us judge from very different perspectives so we do provide a varied approach. Whilst it’s ultimately about the taste, we also judge based on presentation, techniques and don’t forget, we watch them while they cook. If we see them doing something quite inappropriate, we will let them know.
- Bruno: Everything comes in order. They bring their dish, tell us the story and why did they decide to go with the dish. We look, smell and taste it. When we are tasting the dish, we don’t speak quickly and really let the flavours flow. We kind of try to think of what they said, and see if it reflects what we were expecting, and if it comes through in the taste.
Audra, what was the biggest challenge for you to switch from contestant to judge?
- Audra: Huge! It’s no longer about me, it’s all about the contestants. i take mentoring and inspiration quite seriously. I want to encourage people and not break their spirits. It’s about sharing my experience and my success with them so that they can be challenged to reach their goals.
What is your biggest ‘no-no’ for you when it comes to cooking, and did it happen in the MasterChef kitchen?
- Susur: For me, if I see that they are cutting raw meat with a knife, and then use the same knife for a salad, that’s a huge no-no in the kitchen!
- Bruno: Food wastage drives me crazy. And disorganised and untidy people! You can give me a nice plate with a good dish but if your area is a war zone, and that happens many times, that is something you cannot accept as a chef because those are the basics as a chef.
- Audra: Hygiene and food safety is incredibly important when you are cooking. With poor habits you could send a diner to the hospital. It’s quite a serious issue. I think people don’t realise that as a chef, there is a lot that goes into the prep and how we prep is crucial. As to whether it happened in the MasterChef Asia kitchen? Well you will have to watch and see.