A few months ago, they were battling it out on prime-time TV on MasterChef Australia Season 6, as most of India too cheered on, and this week, contestants Emelia Jackson and Renae Smith were in town to create a six-course meal at the High Ultra Lounge, for Bengalureans who always seem ready to experiment with their food.
MetroPlus caught up with Emelia and Renae as they were creating the special menu. Emelia had zeroed in on her favourite — panna cotta — this time a coconut panna cotta, and a chocolate sorbet. The “dessert queen” was also planning a Yuzu (Japanese citrus) tart, and a few dishes with pork belly, prawn, and chicken. The vegetarian in Renae was revving up with plans for a tomato-eggplant salad with Japanese dressing, a play with the famous Thai green curry tofu, and a miso soup … “I’m still testing in the kitchen!” she warns.
Emelia has come before to India in January, and was blown away by the food. “We don’t have the same quality of Indian food in Australia, which is so unfortunate. While I was here last time, I ate a whole lot of Goan fish curry and street food whose names I can’t remember.” She was warned of the ‘Delhi belly”, but says her stomach is always sensitive, even back home in Australia and proudly claims she can handle quite a bit of chilli.
Renae, who is vegan in Australia lets down her guard and turns vegetarian in India. She’s just had four rasgullas the day we meet up, and protests when Emelia insists on showing a video (in slow-mo) she’s made on her phone of Renae — Renae’s squeezing the sugar syrup from the rasgulla into her mouth rather dramatically! “I want to take back rasgullas from India,” Renae declares.
Emilia wanted to buy the decorative silver leaf (vark) used on Indian barfis; the other item on her food shopping list was cardamom. “I usually don’t use it much, but I love it…I sometimes use it in Turkish coffee.”
“I’m pretty much Indian,” says Renae. “Yeah she uses a lot of Indian ingredients in her cooking,” agrees Emilia. Renae’s got a mandala in mehendi on her palm to match her mandala tattoo on her back!
Renae was warned not to eat fresh-washed salad greens in India. “But I haven’t listened to that advise!” she laughs loud.
The first dish they think of, when they think Indian food? “Palak paneer,” says Renae without a blink. “Chicken tikka,” pipes in Emelia. “I like to put it in a roti and make a wrap, complete with that green chutney that’s often served with it!”
Renae on vegetarianism
While Renae points how many are turning to vegetarianism simply because there are so many options, she says: “I would like to think as more and more people become aware of how produce is derived — how animals are killed, what kind of wastage happens — they will make their choice. It’s just that people still don’t think about it that much. If I see a chicken on a plate, I only see a live chicken. On and off, my whole life, I’ve been vegetarian — I come from a family where we would turn vegetarian for a year, then maybe eat meat for six months. Ever since I moved out of my home, I’ve been vegetarian.” She also complains that how in most parts of the world, specially in the world of fine dining vegetarians don’t have too many options.
The Dessert Queen on Indian sweets
“Your level of sweetness in India is extreme. I’m shocked by the amount of sugar you use. On my first trip to Mumbai I had decided to try as many Indian desserts as I can, but after the first few…you guys dip everything in sugar syrup!” she rolls her eyes.
Renae pitches in “Yeah you guys must be very energetic through the day and it must be ringing in your ears. In Australia, with most desserts, you’re not sure if it’s a dessert — there’s a very fine line between sweet and savoury.” Emelia adds: “Most of our desserts have savoury elements to them.” They animatedly discussed how many spoons of sugar Indians might dissolve in a few spoons of water to create sugar syrup! They also admit these tastes are engrained in us, like how Australians love the yeasty vegemite, while most of the world reacts to it rather unfavourably.
Their relationship during and after MasterChef Australia
While both agree that what they share now is friendship, it was far from that when they started out. Renae admits that at the beginning “we thought we didn’t like each other. We seemed like two very different people, but after a month we came close real quick.” Emelia talks of how in the “house” during the contest where real-world friends and family are not around, “you tend to form intense relationships very quickly. My relationship with Renae has gotten stronger coming away from that environment.” Adds Renae: “Whether you’re the princess, or the generous kind — you learn everything about them. I’m not a very friendly person. If I usually don’t connect with a person in a few minutes, I don’t connect at all. The show has shown me I’m wrong.”
What food shows have done to food
Emelia is honest in admitting that she doesn’t get the same kind of enthusiastic reception back home as she does in India! “I suppose it’s because food is so engrained in your life. Also that you are limited in what you can access, so the food we make is a lot more foreign and so more intriguing.”
Renae takes a larger worldview when she says: “These shows have turned food from being something you eat to stay alive to something you use to express yourself; it’s getting more men on board and is no longer seen as a wussy thing for them to do. It’s a good movement.”
