“I’ve been to India before, and visited Mumbai and Delhi, but I like Chennai best,” said Renae Smith. This is a rarely heard sentiment, but she has her reasons. “Everyone here is really warm, and I have had a wonderful time over the past few days,” explained the MasterChef Australia 2014 contestant, who made it to the top eight of the reality cooking show. She was in the city to conduct food demonstrations and a cook-along at Food Consulate over the weekend.
Regular viewers of the series will remember her as the platinum-blonde public relations professional and mother of two, known for her love of vegetarian food and her well-balanced flavours. Although she has returned to managing her firm, she conducts a cooking class for kids in Sydney (where she lives), and continues to travel around the globe for demonstrations and workshops. Busy schedules have kept her from being in constant touch with judges Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston, but Renae keeps in touch with fellow contestants Emelia Jackson and Colin Sheppard, among a few others.
“I know how important branding is and how one should always be relevant. I want to let people know that vegan and vegetarian food can be interesting and easy to make, and taste delicious,” she said, ahead of a demo on Sunday morning. “We made a vegan orange cake at Saturday’s session and people were amazed at how good it was. I simply want to change the perception about vegan food.”
While more restaurants globally are becoming vegan-friendly — recently, a popular pizza joint, which happens to be right down the road from Renae’s house, went completely vegan — Chennai has a lot of catching up to do.
“I would love to bring that kind of food to this city and make it more accessible. Mumbai gets everything they want, so does Delhi, because it’s considered cool. But why not give the same to Chennai, considering there is such a thriving food culture here,” she said, adding that she was really happy with the kind of people who had turned up for her classes. “They were so passionate and wanted to learn, which is exactly the kind of thing I like,” she said.
During the interactive session, Renae spoke about life in and after MasterChef. “People ask me how I got so good at cooking. The fact is, if you spend six months in a house with 24 other people who are as passionate about cooking as you are, and have no Internet, phone, television or newspapers, but only cookbooks, and all you do is cook and learn more about food, you will end up being good at it. This is true of anything,” she said.
However, after going back home, she found it “quite boring to cook without a timer, a competition and prize for cooking the best dish!” “I ended up eating pre-packaged meals for two months,” she laughed, as she made a cheat’s version of the MasterChef “death dish”, risotto. She also made a tomato tart, crispy salmon and roasted fennel salad and creme brulee.
“I love going around to places and learning; because I am still learning. It’s fun, and I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” she signs off.
