It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week. They might welcome back to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents, plus the talent that we see on our screens.
TV Reload reloads the shows that you were currently watching and gives you a better insight at our television industry and streaming services today. On the podcast, I have one of the latest eliminated Master Chef Australia contestants. It's Sashi. Master Chef. Fans versus favorite showed its teeth this week as we lost one of the series most celebrated contestants ever. Sashi, who won Series ten, was back to compete up against the likes of Julie Goodwin, Billy Michael and all the fans.
But this week we saw his shock exit and we get all the inside goss. Huge Sashi fan and I hope that isn't too noticeable with my excitement and my voice talking to the man himself. We do go behind the scenes of his return to MASTERSHEF Australia, and we do get some signature Sashi laughs, which always makes me giggle. We find out what is next for him and who he wants to win. However, let's get started with today's guest. I'd like to welcome Sashi to TV Reload.
Everybody has a reason why it came back. Master Sheff has produced some of the biggest names in food. My biggest inspiration is my Auntie's my mom.
The first time ever it's fans versus favorites.
I was just pushing and pushing and making sure I don't give up.
We've got Billy Sashi.
He jolly good one. I think mathashev is never about grooming someone to be a winner. Sashi.
Unfortunately, mate, you're.
Going on and already if everyone ne won Master show, Hi, Sashi, I'm good, it's good good.
Your elimination was one of the most brutal so far on MASTERSHEF Australia Fans versus Favorites. I honestly thought that you would win for a second time around, because I absolutely adore your food.
I went in with a bit of an expectation. Also, like because I've win one time so winning second time would have been very nice, But the main reason for going back into the show was to really challenge myself. I needed a bit more competitiveness in me because the two years of COVID is just keeps you at home doing the basic stuff, just surviving through the whole pandemic. Nothing was there to really push you. And Master Chef
gave me that push. Just make me go there and smash out some amazing dishes, put me under the palm, get me perspiring a little. So, yeah, it's fun.
You know what I loved. I love your perspective on now having the full Master Chef experience because you know what, you had never been eliminated before, Sashi.
Unfortunately, mate, you're going on, I've never been eliminated, so I've got a taste of everything in Master Chef.
Now this is family for me. Master Chef is family. I love coming back again and again. So I'm I'm upset, but it's okay. It happens.
Was that always in the back of your mind when you returned, that you would try and see it from a positive perspective.
Because when I go into the competition back, there can be only one winner, and already so the changes of you going back is obviously very high. So I went in with the mindset that definitely there might be something elimination, I might get illuminated. So going there with that mindset actually helped me. Actually, when I got eliminated, I know
that that's only even one winner. Not everybody's going to everybody's a winner in terms of going into the competition, but and l a day, there can be only one master chef.
Do you know or do you think that some of these favorites took some more convincing than others to return to the competition.
Maybe I'm not sure. Like everybody has a reason why they came back, so like I have a reason why I come back. It's pretty much to push myself to get my creativity back and all that there were other contestants have their own reasons. And as long as they're happy with the reason they're coming back and they're achieving what they want to achieve, that's what is the most important thing.
I just expected that some people would cost more money than others, and I worried to get you back into the competition, that you might have bankrupted Channel.
Ten is good. They would take me back anytime.
You know it's actually when you cook on television, I honestly can smell your food. I mean it's just such a visceral experience. Obviously with a huge cultural influence. Who has been your biggest inspirations with food?
You know when you're cooking, Obviously it starts from family. My biggest inspiration is my Auntie, is my mom, everybody who I seen cooking as a kid, and my howkers centers the food that I add growing up as a kid and a young adult in Singapore. They were my biggest inspiration also because you can see that they're putting so much of love and passion. They might do one or two dishes, but that one or two dishes they
make sure is perfect. So the commitment, the kind of love they put into the food to deliver to their customers really inspire me to do what I'm doing at the moment. I want to make sure my customers who come through my dog in the restaurant are happy, so every single detail is taken into consideration, which I also do in the competition. I like to go into pretty
much a lot of details. That's why even that dosas was not coming out perfectly last night, I was just pushing and pushing and making sure I didn't give up. So India, I managed to get a good dison dosa on the plate, but I just neglected a little bit on curry. I should have paid a bit more attention.
I bet you're wondering what went wrong, and you probably think it was a doso mix. But we think because you were so worried about that, your attention probably wasn't where it needed to be. Your fish curry. It was burnt on the bottom of the pot, and that flavor actually permeated throughout the entire dish.
Did you notice that the curry had burnt and that when the judges were giving their rationale that they're been a burn layer down the bottom, and that that had seeped through into the to the rest of the dish. Did you know that that had happened at the.
Time, I didn't notice that. Also, because I finished the sauce, I taste everything because the curry was done one day ahead, so the curry sauce was done. The only thing I did was I blitzed it up into a nice thick pace and poached a fish in the curry. So I was letting the curry do his work cooking the fish, and I was focusing a lot on the dosa. But during that period, not thing's meant to happen.
So yeah, what do they say? What's the saying? Shit happens.
And even when I'm plating, I didn't go right deep into the pot. I just scoop up the fish nicely from the top with a bit of gravy, so I did not even realize it was even filled. Now I don't know whether it is burnt at a bottom or not.
You know what, also was delicious with those chutneys. So I'm not the best of cook in the world, but I'm definitely going to try and make some of those chutneys. You can give me the recipe.
I had a very big vision of plaiting the whole dish with banana leave and all those frenzy stuff, but in the end there was not enough time. I quickly could grab whatever I could put them together. They will make it look a little decent, not so bad.
Don't worry, Matt, It look good. What was the biggest difference between this season and the season that you won Season ten? When it comes to how you approached the competition, the.
Biggest difference is the last season, I don't know anything pretty much. I'm new into the season. At the same time, after a couple of weeks, there is more like a format. You know, Sunday is elimination, Monday mystery box. There is a format every day for five days of cooking, whereas now you don't know. They mix and match everything, So you're going in thinking that it might be a mystery box. It will not to be a service challenge. So you can't predict anything a moment, and even if you predict,
most of the time you will be wrong. So you will be surprised with a lot of the changes that is happening.
I always wanted to know with Master Chef whether or not you feel like you're getting a winner's edit, like you know you won season ten. Did you feel like you were getting a winner's edit then? And then when you came back did you feel like you weren't getting that? I guess the question I'm trying to ask you is or does it come down to luck, chance and circumstance on the food that you're cooking on this particular episode, I.
Think Marthaschev is never about grooming someone to be a winner. It's always about the dish on that day. So you could have done some amazing dishes throughout your journey, but that one dish, if it's not perfect, you're home that night. So for me personally, is absorbing the brief and working towards the brief and putting a best dish possible gives
you the chance to win the same time. Sometimes team challengers and all that, like for example, Round one, even though I did a very good dish, but only the best dish saves the whole team. Just imagine it was the bottom two dishes go for elimination, so the whole scenario would have changed. So sometimes these kind of things do take a bit of an effect on the final outcome. So anyladay, you have to cook your best every single time.
Sashi, one of the things that I really like about you is you always try and push yourself a little bit harder. Do you think that there was more pressure on you this time around, being that you are one of the most celebrated winners in Master Chef history.
The last time I was a bit culculative in terms of taking risk because I have a vision to achieve, a dream to achieve, Whereas this time around, my vision and my future plan was to push myself. So every time I got a brief, I will challenge myself. I'll push myself to make sure that I how to say it, make something better than my last one. So there was I was challenging myself.
I'm a competitive person, so I want it pretty badly. I'm sure everybody else in the room is going to feel the same way, so bring it on.
If Julie Goodwin doesn't win, what sort of advice do you have for her? Now that you kind of have some sort of understanding how it feels now to be eliminated, do you have any words of wisdom for Julie?
Not really, I'm not going to give any advice to anyone because they are experts in their own field. I will sorongly say, cook what you believe in. So I believe that I want to challenge myself. I want to do dishes that cannot be done easily. So that was my vision. Julie might have her own vision what she wanted to cook. Michael or Billy can be anyone, So just follow with your guts and do what you think is best for yourself.
Mastership Australia has changed your life and I love your food in and out of the show. I often buy your home kids the Sashi Secrets.
Thank you.
What can we expect to see now? Has this return to the show set up new goals for you?
So obviously the restaurant Gaja by Sashi is doing well at a moment. We are constantly changing our menu trying to give our customers the best experience possible. I launched a new platform within Gaja called Gaja Express. That is I'll be going to relaunch the brand again with some changes that is happening within the week or so. The biggest one is coming up is my restaurant in India, So we are starting a new restaurant called Pandan Club that is launching end of June early July. And cookbook.
I just finished my cookbook, so that will be coming out in August. So I'll be traveling around in Australia in August doing some book launchers and uh yeah, book signing, seeing some fans. Yeah, it's going to be some interesting time.
So Hit, do they know in India how well you were celebrated here in Australia, Yes.
They do. India is also one of the biggest market for my fan base So India, South Africa, Europe. Yeah, it's been a pretty big fan following in these countries.
In those really short cooks. Is it a little unfair of the judges to be talking to you because I feel like they need to back away from the benches like watching you. In particular, I'm like, Sashi needs to cook, like leave him alone.
I did that in my first season. I think first one or two weeks. When anybody who comes ask questions, I'll see not now, let me finish this. I'll come back to you shortly.
Sashi.
Yes, Hippie's good choice.
What are you gonna do?
I'm doing like an oyster sauce pepee with lemon grass capea lime chili and a bit of Vietnamese wrint, not ten minutes. Ten minutes. Over the years, I have learned to cook and talk at the same time. If you ask me this question bag in season ten, yes, I would say it's unfair because I wasn't able to juggle dead back then, But now with so much of experienced at talking and cooking is something that I'm able to do.
One thing I noticed this week was when the ads revealed something as big as a spoiler last night that a favorite is going home? Is that giving away too much and ruining the first part of the episode for the viewers. I mean, we already knew that Favorite would be on the chopping block for the sake of promoting drama. Are the producers eating into the viewers enjoyment of each episode?
I'm not sure what was the whole idea behind it, but I was a little surprised because the first round fans and Favorite both were there. So by advertising favorites going into elimination, Yeah, you're right, maybe they have given away some for the first round, but an already it's good fun watching everything on social media and TV.
Do you also think that we got like a really emotional story from Aldo last night? I mean, to make sure that viewers didn't absolutely spew when you were eliminated. It felt like we were given a little bit more of a reason to be okay with your exit by getting this beautiful and amazing backstory for Aldo.
I'm not sure what, but ELDO's story was very touching. I was personally very because I know Eldo very well and that story of his was very emotional.
My last time that I was back home really was for my wedding actually to my husband, and that is when my father decided to not show up to the wedding because he thought there was a circus.
But I'm not sure about the other anger because I had to keep things very simple and just think about what's happening with my cooking and my at time. Yeah, I'm not sure how that been transplied.
How much of those challenge twists affect you in person in the kitchen. I mean, some of those challenges harder on others because they are purposefully not leaning into their skill set. I mean, how much of last night's pressure tesch was a burden on you.
I'm not a big fan of too much of time in cooking because that is how I cook at home. For me, time is very crucial, if anything more in nineteen minutes, I don't even bother looking at a recipe, So that is me. So I like to keep everything fast, simple and flavorful. So I guess having a lot of things to juggle at home, kids, family, business, restaurants. I don't do long cooks unless i'm you know, my longest. Also not eighteen hours. I've never done anything for eighteen hours.
I hardly do smoking and all that, So yeah, it was a bit of a hard job for me. But the fermenting the better is something that I do regularly at home, so there was something I don't mind doing it. That's why I choose okay when they say long cook, okay, let's do those as because you will not be able to do it thosa in the kitchen, and I thought, yeah, why not, let's do it.
Well. The great thing to ask you at this point is what has been your highlight coming back to Mastership Australia.
That's a few The moment when I walk into the kitchen, that jaw dropping movement from the fence, that was really very nice to see. Then the egg plant when the fans thought that they choose a very difficult vegetable and it turned out to be my favorite vegetable, so that was an interesting episode. Then me, Michael and Tommy being a team calling Funk Brothers and we were creating some amazing tim dishes pretty much all the dishes that we whipped up during the team challenges worn so that was
very interesting. I think I can go on and on this.
I'm just really happy that you have had such a good time going back. I mean there's so many fans out there that you know, celebrate you and have been following your experience now for quite some time.
There wasn't a bad cook at all throughout these last four weeks until yesterday. Other than that, everything us pretty good cooks.
Who do you think who do you think is going to win the competition? Not what you know now, but who did you think was going to win the competition at this point?
I think Michael got a very good chance based on his experience, the way he's looking into food. Yeah, I got a soft spot for Michael, So yeah, maybe Michael.
Maybe Michael. What is something This is something I ask everyone who joins the podcast. What is something from behind the scenes that where as an audience didn't see but we and we won't say that you can share with us from your experience of making Master Share for Australia fans versus favorites.
Is the production team? How much did it take care of us? Not many people know. There's a lot of time and effort put into the show and behind the scene. There's so many people that are putting in such long hours in making sure the kitchen looks beautiful. We are taking care so the production team, your lovely production team they have over there, which not many people see or know about them, which I personally feel you need to be highlighted.
And yeah, I've talked about well, I just loved you on the show and I just want to say a funny little story about me. When I grew up, My mum used to ask us what we wanted for takeaway, and I'm sure the rest of Australia was saying that they wanted McDonald's o KFC, and my brother and I would be like Indian Food, we want to have the spicy Indian.
Food Mega trip. Now the words are open negative. Better late you. We will treat you with some amazing dishes. You won't get your traditional carriages in mar restaurant, but you will be blown away with some of the creations we have.
I'm on my way. I'm on my way. I've bought my ticket. I'm on my way to Adelaide. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Congratulations on your time in Mastership Australia and I will continue to follow you on in your career.
No pro Thank you so much for having me. Lovely