Maggie noodles

Rishi Desai aims to morph Indian cooking in Australia from ‘curry in a bowl’ to an esoteric culinary experience with just a dash of Heston

BY DEEkSHA CHOPRA

It was a heart-wrenching moment for his family and fans to watch Canberra’s favourite contestant Hrishikesh Desai, aka Rishi, come so close to making it to the grand finale of MasterChef Australia 2013. However, one fatal mistake in the elimination challenge sadly sent him home. But for this 35-yearold, who cooks from the heart, it’s not all about winning. Rishi has a bigger plan in mind. He wants to take Indian cooking to a whole new level in Australia. And he is grateful to MasterChef for giving him a platform to showcase his talent and bring him step closer to achieving his dream of opening a modern Indian restaurant to work towards my dream”.

Rishi was focused and on the right track from his first team challenge on the show. He surprised everyone by his accuracy and speed in the kitchen. People’s expectations started to rise with every perfect dish he presented, and unlike his fellow contestants, he never lost his composure at the MasterChef headquarters.

“I am the kind of person who thrives under pressure,” said Rishi. “In a high pressure situation, the worst thing to do is to lose your composure. It is better to step back for a few minutes, assess the situation and come up with a solution, rather than panic, lose 30 minutes of valuable time and have no solution at hand. It is common-sense for me, and this is what kept me focused. What kept me going was my end goal, which to walk away from the show on his last day. Recalling where things went wrong on the day, he said,

“I was disappointed in myself for not making it to the finals. I knew I could have done better than I did that fateful day. On the day of my elimination I had 30 minutes to cook the mussels dish. So I had a process and a checklist in my mind… this is what happens when you work as a machine and not as a human,” he said with a chuckle.

“As I did not have a lot of time, I made a list of things I needed to get done – one, cook mussels; two, make sauce; and three, make flat bread. In my mind I ran this program and executed it with fantastic accuracy, except my order of steps was wrong. So I cooked the mussels first which ended up overcooking by the end of 30 minutes,” lamented Rishi.

One of the most cherished moments for this talented chef on the show was the opportunity to cook with his role model and someone from whom he draws his food inspiration. “My most memorable moment was working with my food hero, Heston Blumenthal,” he said. “I cooked in the kitchen with him for four days and was privileged to cook the Heston trifle and Heston’s edible garden. The immunity pin challenge cook off against Heston where I wanted to reproduce something that I had learned watching him, was hard to replicate. Unfortunately the ‘Snow Man’ did not work out,” said Desai. Another challenge very close to his heart was the ‘Dreams’ week. “We had to cook for our families and in the elimination, we had to serve in our restaurant,” he said. “The challenge gave a boost to my ability to cook modern Indian food. My favourite masterclass was in Perth, with the backdrop of the Indian Ocean and I made impersonations of Gary, Matt and George,” he chuckled.

Experimenting with different cuisines is something Rishi loves to do in his spare time at home. Cooking is therapeutic to him.

“I love to cook different cuisines at home,” he said. “We love to try Chinese, South East Asian, Indian, Italian, Mexican and North African flavours. I specially love Chinese food in general, but Sichuan province food is my favourite”.

Rishi also thoroughly relishes his traditional Kolhapuri food. His favourite place to eat in India goes back to his roots. “I always would go back to a sugarcane farm and have traditional Kolhapuri food of bhakri, mutton sukka, tambda rassa, pandhra rassa, and for dessert, hot fresh jaggery and bhakri. There is nothing like it in the world,” he said with relish. Rishi stays well connected to his family back home, visiting every couple of years.

Rishi was born and bred in

Known for his precision and nicknamed the ‘machine’ by his fellow contestants, Rishi received a lot of praise from the judges as well