A Bristol supermarket manager appeared on BBC's MasterChef on Monday (April 10) night and received compliments from the celebrity chefs for his creative dishes. Woei John Lee is one of the nine competitors on the 19th series of MasterChef, who put their skills to the test over the next five weeks on BBC One, in front of the judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
Woei, who is originally from Ipon in Malaysia but now lives in Bristol with his wife and daughter. On Monday's episode, he cooked marinated chicken, served with blue rice, and a fish broth.
In the first round the supermarket manager served the judges chicken marinated in turmeric, served with a tomato and chilli sauce, blue basmati rice and tempura curry leaves. Despite the chicken being "undercooked", he was grateful for the feedback.
Read more: The Bristol supermarket manager dreaming big on MasterChef
Talking about the dish, John said "I love that sauce. Rich and buttery, sweet with tomato nice chilli heat running through the back of it. That's great."
Greg added: "Your rice is wonderful. It's really light. It's really fluffy. I have issues with this chicken. There is a pink tinge inside my bits of chicken, which are putting me off. They're undercooked. Not all of it, but enough to make me uncomfortable. "
Reflecting on the chef's comments, Woei said: "A lot of stress in there, So yeah, I'm glad it's all done. You have to learn how to take criticism, as well. Resilience is the most important part of life.
The last dish went down much better as he served pan-fried mackerel on rice noodles in a chilli, lemongrass, galangal ginger and turmeric- infused fish broth with a chilli garlic and ginger sambal.
While cooking his last dish, he opened up about how he misses the food in Malaysia. Woei was complimented on his "great flavours, perfect fish prep and cookery" before receiving an apron, meaning he is through to next week.
Talking about being through to the next round, he said: "When I heard my name, I had to pinch myself.." He added: "I can't believe it."
Catch-up on the latest episode on BBC iPlayer.
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