As the chefs entered the kitchen they were faced with an array of petri dishes containing colourful, gelatinous pearls. Like something out of Willy Wonka’s factory, the judges explained that the scentless balls were the distillation of a flavour, putting our chefs through a very unique but extremely tough taste-test.
“It looked stunning, firstly,” Adi told 10 Play, “you couldn’t take your eyes off them when you walked in. It was some weird science experiment on the table.
“The pearls themselves were this jelly-like texture, and it was really weird and hard to work out what you were tasting when you removed the smell, the texture, and the visible aspect of what you were eating,” she added.
Despite the judges telling the chefs that the pearls had no discernible smell to them, most of the chefs walked up to their petri dish and took a big whiff, just in case. “I think we were so desperate like, please give me something!” Adi said, laughing.
Unfortunately, Adi was the first of four to incorrectly identify her pearls and, alongside Rue, Brent and Declan, found herself in the second round of the elimination where they were each randomly assigned a colour and had to cook a dish that featured that colour.
“It’s really tough to stay positive and stay in a good mindset when you’re in the second round,” Adi admitted. “Especially when you look around and it’s Rue, Declan and Brent. They are such strong cooks.
“I knew I had to bring my A-game but when you’re in that high-pressure environment and going home is so close it also makes you frazzled,” she said. “MasterChef is a really big mental game and it’s just what happens on the day.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs0vjQqxmqv/?hl=en Adi’s featured colour was green and, as soon as the second round began, she seemed to struggle deciding on a clear direction for her dish.
“I wasn’t pleased with the dish I ended up putting up, I knew the flavours could have been bigger, I knew I could have balanced it better and my plating was so rushed,” Adi said. “My biggest enemy in the MasterChef kitchen from day one was the time pressure.
“I enjoy cooking slowly at home, so to try and get it done under the time limit was really hard for me and my last cook was no different. I just struggled with rushing to get it all on the plate, and it ended up looking a lot messier than I wanted to.”
Each time the chefs walk a plate up to the judges Adi said it’s a “very vulnerable experience” having tried to put all their love and passion for cooking into a dish, under the pressures of the challenge.
“I found it really hard, and I think for a lot of us we almost had a self-identity around food and the fact that we are cooks and we enjoy food so much… it’s always tough to not put up your best work,” she added.
Those pressures were even greater for Adi who really fell in love with cooking through MasterChef itself. The endocrinologist said that during the Back to Win season of 2020, being locked down in Melbourne she wanted to find a hobby.
“I was watching MasterChef and I thought I could do that! I need to cook dinner every night anyway, why don’t I turn it into a real passion project.
“Putting my career on hold was freaky but I also knew that I needed to explore this part of me and this food dream of mine that, if I didn’t, I would not be as happy in medicine,” she explained. “I needed to do this so I could have experienced it and be able to even go back to medicine and know that I’ve done it. It was a no-brainer for me to be able to do that.”
While it was only a few years between the season that inspired her food journey and walking into the MasterChef kitchen herself, Adi said she had fully immersed herself in the world of food in that time. “I used to come home and read cookbooks and articles on the internet. I used to listen to podcasts about food… I was living and breathing it for so long.
“When I got on I thought it’s a big enough achievement, they audition hundreds of people so, just to get top 18 was a huge thing,” she continued. “Then, to get top eight, I’m so proud of myself and I really surprised myself with not only how far I’ve gone but with the sort of dishes I put up in the competition that I don’t think I would have been able to do at the start.”
A turning point in the competition was when Adi cooked a Maharashtrian squid curry during the Rick Stein challenge. During the challenge she spoke about the immense added pressure she felt cooking a dish from her heritage.
“I do cook Indian food at home, I was just so nervous to do it on TV,” she explained. “I was like, what if I don’t do it right? What if I get bad feedback?
“To do it and to get good feedback from the judges — but also from Rick Stein who I know loves India and Indian food — was a really huge experience for me and I got so many messages of support from people from India, people from my state of Maharashtra specifically, and that was just so validating and a really beautiful, warming experience for me.”
While she put her career in medicine on hold so she could go into the MasterChef kitchen, since hanging up her apron Adi said she’s returned to medicine part time.
“I still love medicine so just doing that part-time has been great…and has also given me the time to focus on food like I would like to. I’ve been making content that I’d love to put out in terms of helping educate people on how to cook and I’m still writing my cookbook which I hope to publish one day,” she said.
“I taught myself to cook in just a few years and I really believe that there’s no great secret behind it. There’s nothing inherent that some people were born with that other people don’t have,” Adi continued. “I would love to be able to teach that to people so they can elevate their cooking at home as well.”
