A Bristol supermarket manager has spoken of how he dreams to own a cafe in Bristol as he prepares to star in the next series of the ultimate BBC food competition show Masterchef.
Woei John Lee said he has been inspired to get on the programme after friends, family and neighbours all encouraged him after tasting the food he has cooked at street parties in Bristol.
The 41-year-old 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.
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The first test on the first programme - which is aired on the BBC this evening (Monday, April 10) is an audition round, where the three best cooks automatically win themselves a coveted MasterChef apron and their place in the next stage of the competition. To give them their best chance to succeed, the judges ask them to cook their Family Favourite dish and make it MasterChef worthy.
Getting on to MasterChef is already a dream come true for Woei, who is originally from Ipon in Malaysia but moved to Bristol some years ago, where he now lives with his wife and daughter.
He is hoping judges Greg and John will be just as wowed by his Malaysian cuisine as his friends and family are. He said cooking has always been an important part of his life, but took something of a back seat when he moved to Bristol and work took over his life.
“My job has taken over my life for the past couple years and I completely forgot in many ways that I love cooking,” he said. “Food has always been a part of my life, but for some years when I moved over here it was more a practicality rather than a passion.
“Working and supporting my family has always been my focus. However, when I started doing the odd bit of cooking for street parties or friends and they’d say they’d never tasted anything like my food, that started to reignite my passion,” he added.
Woei said he was inspired to enter MasterChef after seeing someone from his home town win it. “Seeing people like Ping Coombes win a few years back was a massive inspiration for me as she is from the same town as me in Malaysia. I want to use MasterChef to take my passion of cooking to the next level, to find my real purpose and I do it to remember my father, the person I got my initial inspiration from.
“My food is hugely inspired by the Asian food I grew up eating as a child in Malaysia. I love using lots of spices, and I cook lots of curries. I always want my food to remind me of a place or person that is close to my heart and it’s amazing to be able to share that with other people,” he added.
Woei said he learned to cook initially with his father. “When I was eight or nine years old, I can’t remember the exact first dish I ever cooked but growing up helping my family make satay chicken and coconut rice are some of my earliest memories,” he added.
After tasting all nine plates in the opening round on tonight’s programme, judges John and Gregg pick their three favourite dishes, giving those cooks immunity from cooking in the next round. The remaining six contestants then get another chance to impress the judges and win themselves one of four remaining aprons.
“Faced with an invention test, they must pull out all the stops to cook a dish – sweet or savoury – good enough to get them into the next round,” said a MasterChef spokesperson. “The pressure is intense and the stakes are high as two contenders will be eliminated from the competition.”
Whatever happens in the first programme, Woei said he hopes it will encourage him to take the next steps with his cooking.
“I want to make food an even bigger part of my life, to share my family recipes through cooking classes, a cookbook and maybe even a Malaysian café in Bristol. To make my family proud and to cook the food I love,” he added.
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