Mini Chefs and the art of fine dining

BY SHERYL DIXIT

Children never fail to surprise me. In a day and age where entertainment options like Wii, Nintendo DS and iPods abound, you’d think that kids would prefer these more appealing technological forms of fun to the simple pleasures of, say, pottering around in the kitchen. So it was a refreshing surprise to learn that several youngsters actually think that it’s cool to be in the kitchen.

It’s common knowledge that Channel Ten’s MasterChef series has been a runaway success and, by the time we go to print, the final is predicted to enjoy an even higher viewership than the Prime Minister’s face-to-face pre-election debate with the Leader of the Opposition. And for a change, it’s not just foodies, gourmands and sponsors who have been impressed and inspired by the show. Like adults, kids across households in Australia have been showing a keen interest in the series, and have been motivated to try their hand at a bit of experimenting in what was originally mum’s domain. Watching MasterChef has now become together-time for the whole family.

Meet the chefs

13-year old Devna Luthra’s foray into cooking began at an early age, sitting on the floor of the kitchen, rolling pretend rotis with an overturned plate and spare rolling pin. Mum did all the hard work, including the cleaning up when ‘real’ flour was used, but it was certainly worth the effort. “My earliest memory of cooking is when I made a salad, when I was five,” she reminisces. “I did it like a TV show and mum recorded it too. I had to stand on a little plastic chair to reach the bench top – and I kept dragging the chair from the sink to the bench, all the while talking like a television food presenter”. Her brother Manan, 11, however, is quite the foodie. “I have many hobbies but I think food is my favourite one!” he says candidly. Manan began showing an interest in how food was cooked only in Year 3, in an attempt to cook his favourites.

Must be a ‘boy’ thing because 13-year-old Sudarshan Arvind too, wasn’t particular about the method of cooking, as long as it was good vegetarian food, and his mum always made sure it was.

“I always like eating nice food,” he says, admitting that his interest in cuisine now goes way beyond considering it as a chore.

For sisters Radhika (14) and Nikeeta (10) Bhatia, baking with their aunts was the beginning of their cooking adventures. Radhika also learned a bit of European cooking at school, simple dishes that had to be prepared within the half hour class. Alisha Vij (13) confesses to experimenting with different desserts to indulge her sweet tooth. And Sarina Patel (14) is her family’s acknowledged queen of rotis MasterChef mania

MasterChef has a lot to answer for, but fortunately in a good way. The series has played its part in bringing dormant cooking desires to the fore, and all our Mini Chefs are avidly interested in the show. Some have shortlisted recipes that they intend trying in the future, others have actually met with success when preparing recipes. MasterChef makes great family time too as everyone, including dad and the dog, plonk themselves down in front of the TV to watch the show. There are shared moments of tension, relief, wonder and applause as intricacies unfold, techniques are displayed and the end result is an array of fantastic food.

“I never watched cooking shows on TV until I became hooked on to MasterChef, but now I’m going to watch more of them,” confesses Sarina, who thinks the judges are quite arrogant.

Manan finds the characters interesting saying, “I liked Jonathan and Aaron. George is funny, he says such weird things. In the Indian segment we all laughed when he said, ‘You’ve got to move like a Bollywood dancer!’”

For Devna, certain dishes appealed as much as the contestants. “I loved the prawn curry that Kumar Mahadevan made on the show and also a chocolate dessert one of the guest chefs made,” she says enthusiastically.

Nikeeta’s love for the show took an interesting turn as she recently celebrated her 10th birthday with a MasterChef party. She and six friends divided into two teams and cooked from available ingredients. They also had a ‘name the food’ game and had an absolute blast, thoroughly enjoying an evening of creative cuisine.

Devna’s school organized a MasterChef challenge competition broadly on the lines of the TV show, and she did quite well. “I got to the semi-finals at the MasterChef challenge at our school. I had to cook a chorizo macaroni at the first level, and then udon noodles with beef and black bean sauce. Now my chef’s hat and wooden spoon have the pride of place in my bedroom,” she says proudly. Alisha also participated in the competition which required participants to cook the recipes they were given.

Proof of the pudding…

Our Mini Chefs don’t confine their culinary interests to just the show, they get out there and make food happen. Most prepare their favourites which run into desserts, but they do venture into the arena of entrées, main dishes and even have their own signature dishes. Sarina is particularly talented in this field. “I cook for the family as Mum travels a lot on her work. I made a great cannelloni recently, and was thrilled with how well it turned out. I also make nachos (my all-time favourite dish to eat and cook), omelettes, steak with mash potatoes and gravy, satay chicken and beef stir fry,” she claims. An impressive array indeed!

Manan, a true-blue foodie says, “I cook maybe once a month. My favourite things to make are chocolate crackles and rocky road. Sometimes I make hamburgers from scratch, with Mum watching, and we have them for dinner. I have also made pesto sauce in the blender, and I can make nice grilled cheese sandwiches.”

Radhika and Nikeeta are famed for their orange cake, which they were creating when I called to chat about their culinary skills.

“Nicky and I like baking, but I have to admit that we go strictly by the recipe. We bake cakes and cookies, and they are always delicious,” she says.

Radhika also made a special bread from a recipe seen on MasterChef, which was worthy of being on the show. Nikeeta too, shared a simple, yet exciting recipe for potato and rosemary pizza, which quite impressed me.

For Devna, baking is her favourite method of cooking. She enjoys making cakes, biscuits, cookies and specially pancakes for breakfast on weekends. Devna has also ventured into recipes from Masterchef. “I have tried some of Nigella Lawson’s recipes like her chocolate cookies, chicken pie, baked potatoes and her margherita ice cream. I wasn’t allowed to eat the ice cream though, it had several types of alcohol in it! Even Mum and Dad serve it in tiny shot glasses because it is so rich,” she says.

Alisha began cooking complete meals when she was in Year 5, and she can make a variety of different kinds of pasta. She has tried out recipes of different food genres, but desserts are her forte. She likes them rich and flavoursome, and when the rest of the family find it a bit too exotic, well, she eats them herself!

Any takers for Indian?

Yes, certainly, Sudarshan comes up tops with his avid love of Indian cuisine. Not only has he taken along prepared dosas and dry potato curry to his school for fetes, but he has also done a complete school project on regional Indian vegetarian food. “I now try out savoury main dishes, but my cooking doesn’t quite match up to mum’s yet,” he admits.

Sarina is the queen of rotis, having learned to make them on her dad’s insistence a couple of years ago. “I can also make parathas. When we have guests Mum and I get together and cook loads of rotis like a production line. I can also make potato subzi,” she says.

Manan isn’t too hot on Indian food. “I don’t think I want to learn to cook Indian – it looks too complicated, and I don’t know how to close the pressure cooker. But if Mum is busy I can cook myself a paratha – I take it out of the freezer and cook it on the pan,” he says, tongue-in-cheek.

Radhika and Nikeeta like their dal, rice, chole, but leave the cooking up to Mum, content to be her little helpers. “We haven’t begun cooking any Indian dishes yet, it’s quite a process. For the time being we just help out in the kitchen,” they say.

Alisha too, enjoys Indian food, but has yet to venture into its intricacies.

Delicious disasters

Of course, our Mini Chefs can’t always avoid the occasional disaster, but it’s all part of the experience. Devna painstakingly made a gingerbread house from scratch last Christmas. “I cut out a house with a roof, fixed the sides with icing sugar, decorated

Continued on page 18 the roof with chocolate chips and M&Ms and used a Flake chocolate bar for chimney. I also coloured some rice and made a garden outside with a path to the front door, and even a pool. I was very pleased with myself, but the next morning, the roof had caved in as it was too heavy. So we ate a collapsed house on Christmas day, but it didn’t matter because the gingerbread was delicious,” she says.

However, Sarina wasn’t so lucky. “I made sang choy bow – it turned out simply too sour! And there have been times when I’ve left the heat on too high and the pan burns…It’s such a mess to clean up!” she laments.

The world is their wok

One of the advantages of living in multi-cultural Australia is the exposure to different and often exotic forms of food. And these young kids have developed an astonishing sense of maturity when it comes to their selection of cuisine. They know what they like, and their choice is varied. Thai, Japanese, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Middle Eastern are all favourites, with specific choices of dishes. Their tastes extend to continental, contemporary, experiential, and they can even advise their parents on the uses of herbs and spices to enhance the dining experience.

“I love the Mongolian lamb and honey chicken at a restaurant near where I live, and I really want to learn how to make their honey chicken,” says Sarina.

Alisha loves Thai, with its different flavours that enhance chicken, seafood and meats, and she’s also a fan of Italian food.

Sudarshan’s tastebuds tingle for Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Middle Eastern food, making the option of finding suitable restaurants a challenge, as the family is wholly vegetarian.

At restaurants Manan no longer orders from the kids’ menus - it’s the full monty for him, thank you!

“I like to order seafood things and steaks. Recently I ordered steak tartare, but when it came it looked like steak finely chopped up. It had an egg yolk on top, and the whole thing was cold. I just stared at it, and then the waiter told me to mix the yolk in with the meat. It was delicious. The next night, when we were watching MasterChef, one of the contestants cooked steak tartare – what a coincidence!” he enthuses.

Nikeeta enjoys Mexican and Italian, while sister Radhika loves Thai, and both of them enjoy riceoriented dishes. Quite a variety for the family!

Equipped for the task

Apart from the variety of recipes, a couple of exciting things about MasterChef is the use of different kitchen equipment as well as technique information and food styling. All our Mini Chefs now understand the process and involvement required in creating both simple and unique cuisine. By observing the recipes prepared on screen, they know exactly when to add ingredients to give a dish its particular flavour. They also learn a lot about presenting and styling food, to give it an enhanced, attractive look.

And the gadgets! They’re enough to drive a kitchen-lover to distraction! Some of these youngsters are already building up their store of private kitchen artillery. Devna has her own section in the kitchen pantry, mostly filled with baking ingredients. “I have flours, icing sugar, chocolate, decorating things like little edible roses. I also have differently shaped cookie cutters collected over the years. There are icing sets and piping bags that my grandmother has bought me. And I have my own electric beaters which even Mum doesn’t touch!” she says. Devna has also picked up little things from the shops like kitchen scales and silicon oven mitts which her mum wouldn’t have even thought of buying, but which she now finds very handy.

MasterChef makes great family time too as everyone, including dad and the dog, plonk themselves down in front of the TV to watch the show

Sudarshan is still trying to convince his mum that they need some of the gadgets displayed on MasterChef. “But she says that we should make do with what we have,” he says resignedly.

Alisha tries not to go too mad with kitchen knickknacks, but she has bought a set of measuring cups which have been in use since they came home. Radhika does optimistically recommend kitchen equipment to her mum, but leaves the purchase decision to her.

All our Mini Chefs own a variety of cookbooks and if they need to look up a specific recipe, they hunt it out on the internet, the ultimate answer to every kind of culinary experience.

Masters in the making?

Devna thinks she could make a career out of food, but she’s still not sure. “I don’t know if I will be able to handle dealing with food directly like a chef, but something related, like reviewing, might just be my thing,” she says. Would she like to be on MasterChef? “Maybe, but I would make sure that I cook dishes other than curry!” is her pert response. However, Manan’s quite sure that food will be an important part of his life. “When I grow up maybe I would like to be a food reviewer, like a critic. But maybe I would like to be a video game developer. Hey, maybe I can develop a cooking or eating game; that would be super!” he says enthusiastically. The rest of our Mini Chefs are not quite ready to relinquish their future careers to the kitchen, but they’re happy to aspire towards becoming really great cooks.

I have to admit that I envy their parents – they’ll be the lucky judges to an array of exciting, creative and delicious cuisine. Imagine having to sample dishes made via Pressure Tests, Invention Tests and Mystery Box Challenges. And best of all, they won’t even have to vote them out of the kitchen.