It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload.
The podcast last week Never Life.
And welcome back guys to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading on today's episode with David the eliminated contestant on Mastershef Australia, which as you would know, is on Network ten from Sunday through to Wednesdays at seven thirty. With a degree in pharmacology and toxicology to his name, David Tan's day job is a
National Clinics trial administrator. While he is committed to his important work with cancer patients on their crucial treatments, David has put his profession on hold just to see where this Masterschef Australia journey may take him. Growing up in Singapore in a food culture that underpins society, David jokes that eating is the national hobby and notes that his family of five would like nothing more than driving to
Malaysia on the weekends just to have good food. I've absolutely loved catching up with David today and I'm sure you will enjoy our chat, which is filled with his humble attitude. I will say David will talk about his journey to mass to Chef Australia and what sort of preparation he put into his abilities, including which dish he was worried about the most. We will also unpack his international cooking and find out if that is an actual an advantage to being a skilled chef in the Master
Chef Kitchen. I will find out why he connected with Poe the most and who he actually wants to win the show. Now we will also discuss the contestants who will welcome back last week, who he thought should have returned full time, and if he knows why two of the eliminated participants were not included. There's actually so much to unpack with David, as you can imagine, so sit back and relax as we unpack the wonderful world of Master Chef Australia. Hey David, how.
Are you Ben? I'm good, thank you? How are you today?
I'm doing really well. I'm also at an airport, which I apparently you're at an airport as well, so this is correct. Trains, planes and automobiles, we're connected.
Yeah, absolutely, and thanks for I appreciate the bit of mixture run in time as well with you know how transport is.
I'm such a big fan of this show and have been thoroughly enjoying your time on the show as well. So this is the length that I go to to not miss a It's David from Cheah.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
You know, I think a lot of people who've been watching the show had picked you as a possible winner, and I even read at some point people were saying that it had been leaked and it was you. What are your thoughts on coming out of the competition at this point?
Oh, look, I am just really appreciative of the whole competition and where I'm at. I'm really proud of how far I've come. Top twelve and then staff came back and then got a limb, But I still take Top twelve as it is, and look, it's it's a tough competition. You know, it's nice that people think I had the potential to win, and you know, really worth anyone's game, and you know, where I end up is where I
end up. But I've met so many amazing people, cooked ninety percent of dishes that I've never cooked in my life before I got some couple of top dishes, and so look, if that's not a win you know you kind of appreciate that. Then, yeah, I'm just bestoked.
I love how you've You've cooked up some humble pie for yourself today. Is it anyone's game at this point though? That's what I want to know.
It's a competition, and every cook is someone's worst nightmare and someone else's best, you know, best thing they could ask for. With last night's elimination, that was Harry's fish, you know fish. But for me, I'm not a fish person, and I'm not a thirty minute cook person, but ask me in the pressure tests before that four hours cook. That's my happy place. But nobody else loves it. And I would sign up for all of them if I could,
and everyone else would run away from them. So it just depends on the competition and how the ebbs and flows, and so, you know, you never know.
You know, what I think is good though, is that you're not a fish person, and you're you've never been on television with that weird fish hat that he had on, I think escaping that he's a good.
Win exactly, That's that's an absolute win. And like that fish hat was actually awesome, the.
Thing that I picked up on and you know, you sort of allude to this before, but cooking something that you'd never eaten before seemed like an interesting option. Was there something else that you feel like now you could have cooked that was with the fish, that you could have done that. Now you're kicking yourself that you didn't try and do that. Maybe you tried in the past.
I'm not one to kick myself up about this sort of things. I was very conscious with every challenge of this is where I'm at right now. This is the best decision I can make right now, and I'm going to give it my all. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. That's just the outcome. And so I know that I did the best I could. And after that first cook my brain was flat, you know, Like I said, I was neurologicy, spent my creativity. I actually set my brain so if like walked out of
me and just out, good luck, you know. And so that's all I could do. That was the best I could do at that time. And so I can't regret.
That, No, you really can't. I mean, this is the thing for me. So you're going to have to clear something up, because do you prepare a certain amount of dishes before. Like, let's say you get the phone call you're doing Master Chef. You've been dreaming about it for a long time. What an exciting opportunity I could imagine if it was me, I'd start preparing dishes in categories. I'd be like, well, what happens if they say fish?
What happens if they say yeah, what kind of plan did you put in place once you've gotten the call you're doing the show? And did you even contemplate being faced with the fish?
To be honest, I didn't think too much about fish because proteins, like with red meat and chickens, I'm fairly comfortable, okay, And I didn't think about fish because I was most scared about desserts. Funny enough, I don't make desserts at home, and so when I found out I was going to get onto Martha Chef, I was just immediately all right, start working on desserts because I've gotten no clue about dessert and I know that's a bigger portion that I have to work on. And so fish and seafreud did
even come to my mind. But I ended up cooking quite a bit of seafruit funk the show.
Yeah, and I realized now that you said that you're so focused on desserts, that's why you brought raspberries into your fish dish, because you were focusing, hyper focusing on yes.
Wait, yeah, exactly, And so I was, you know, and there's a really good stage of bringing avery into sweet food and I really enjoyed that. And I was trying to keep pushing the boundaries. It's like, well, what can you bring over to the other side to make it interesting? And you know, you got thirty minutes. You want to do minimal prep if you can, and so I was just trying to make smart decisions. But hey, you never know.
You never know. Can you have phone calls like this, You're having a phone call your auditioning, and then once you selected, what sort of questions you're asking the producers, because I'd want to know, do you get told that there's going to be certain dishes coming, do you get told if there's going to be certain chefs being a part of it? Like what kind of preparation questions are you trying to get out of the producers at that point?
Well, to be honest, I was just gobsmacked that I even got the audition to be honest, and you know, I was just like, well, what an amazing opportunity. And the advice they said it was just look, just watch the previous Master Chefs seasons. That will give you a good gauge and what sort of cuisines you should be across, what sort of timings you should be across. And that was probably the best gauge and best advice that I was looking for in the good gif.
Need to cast you because you're a good looking rooster. They needed to, They needed to up the ante on the attractive males on the show. So you know, you kicked a box.
Thank you man. You're too kind. You're too kind, Bamanda, other people that were really good looking John, I mean those are top tier guys.
Well, I think you're at the top. I think you've beaten them.
So you tell all of them, I know.
Yeah, if you listen to the podcast, you then hear back that I've said that to everyone.
No, I'm joking exactly do that.
Do you think that being from an international background can help you in a show like this? You know, I'm such a big fan of international dishes myself. I'm in love with flavor combinations. I'm in love with spices, and I think having that sort of heritage or cultural cuisine background I think is really good prep for being on a show like this.
What do you think I think, look at having that background is helpful in terms of communicating ideas, For example, with the team really a challenge. Harry was just like, all right to do Southeast Asians by curry, and so in my head I've got a reference already roughly what the ingredients look like around that sure, and so that does help. And like, you know, like if you're going to make a curry, you can generalize a curry recipe
in Southeast Asia by certain number of steps. And you know, I was really fortunate to be in that second person, and so I could start carrying those things up. But in terms of cooking, I actually never learned to cook in back home in Singapore. I only learned when I came to Australia. And so my Asian cooking isn't that great, to be honest.
Ah okay, yeah, yeah. What you're telling me is that you were very lazy when you were young. You let your parents do all the cooking.
That is well, when you grow up in Singapore, yok, or you eat outside you don't have to cook it all so very I just enjoyed the fruit.
I wanted to ask you about this because as a viewer, and I also looked online to see people talking about this as well. I think that's navs. Don't you think, okay, you have to give me a just opinions. Don't you think that she should have been included in that black Apron challenge? Do you think it was fair her to sit it out? You know a lot of people were debating this online, and yeah, I'm wondering what you thought about that in the time. Did you think could get down here and cook with us?
You know, what did you think to be honest as nerdy as people think I am, I'm also quite an airhead and I don't really pay attention too much of that sort of stuff. And you know, regardless of fair not fair, it's not really relevant for me. What it's relevant for me is what can I do? What's competition? Would I what's cook? Will I have to cook on
that day? And so if she was awarded an immunity for elimination cook, that's awesome that you know she fought so hard she smashed out nine dish or something crazy like that, and she fought her way back and if that was the rules of the show, and that's what they decided to go with out of my cro control. And so look, I'll celebrate for her, I'll come back and I focus on what I have to do the next day.
See, David, this is how you've gotten through life so well.
I cry my herds.
Mentality, having this idea of yeah, that's I think that'll keep you going.
Oh as a plan.
What about with your thoughts on when they came back and they were cooking this week, did you have a guess on who was going to get brought back into the competition? Did you think you knew who was coming back?
I had, I wasn't sure, And like I said, it's anyone's games, you know. I don't know exactly on what the metrics are that they used to judge food and how they wait each thing, whether it's like a center weighted average or like a you know, the average across the board. But personally, I loved Schnezz's dish. I would
have loved her as a person. I love all of them, but you know, and I we had quite a few cooks together and as bench buddies, and I think she just left the competition too early, and I wanted to see her come back. You know, if I could have swapped with her, I would have swapped with her, and so personally, I would have loved to see that. But again, as someone from a science background, you wait for their ups to come out and then you make your conclusions after.
Fair play, fair play, you'll have to do what I'm doing. I had the privilege of chatting to Shnaz as you know I'm talking to you now, and then now we're taking on Instagram and swapping dishes. I've gone out and bought myself a like a Dutch like a French oven is what it was called. But yeah, she keeps seeing me it's a Dutch oven anyway. And then great, well, I've been making these dishes now. And so as your relationship with her, just like mine is with her, it's
not ended. You can still hit her up, absolutely right, absolutely right, And she had way more to give, and she just had.
I knew she had stuff that she didn't get a chance to show, which is awesome that she did the serving dish when she came back. And you know, right after I got eliminated, we started chat out of chat with all the people who got eliminated, and it's just so awesome that on the other side of me, what.
About these people that didn't come back? Because that's the other conversation that you kept seeing popped up online. You know, where was where was Steve? You know, was their explanation to you guys as to we there was two of them that didn't come back?
Do I know the honest answer, Yes, I do. I actually I actually got no idea.
Let's call that I didn't. We'll call it.
I didn't. Yeah, we can, we can call them from an art then, but I actually just never checked. I was just like, oh, you know, I just got so caught up with the moment of everyone coming back and there's just such high energy, and then I realized, you know, Stephen Lauders and dangers, like, oh, you know, I don't know.
I don't know. It's not my job, but the rest are.
Here and the rest are fighting for it, so you know, I'll pay attention to what's run in front of my eyes and where we go.
Well, you haven't helped me with any goss on that one, so that's totally fun. There's a huge conversation about the screen time of people this season, you know, is there enough screen content for everyone? And what's your interpretation of that. Do you think that the show should be trying to evenly split, you know, people to make sure there's equal screen time or do you think we just go where the story goes? Like, how do you feel about the way in which I know? I can't answer this myself.
You know. The funny thing is I can't answer it because I didn't edit it either more than it was compete and so and I think what with Master Chef, you know, you get big days of filming, big days, and how much has shown one hour that's you know, easily less than ten percent of the content that was filmed. That you've got to edit and you've got to make really crazy sharp edits, And that means I guess not
everyone can get equal screen time. They want to show the highlights, they want to show the gasping moments, they want to show where you know, maybe it didn't do too well, and so you know that's the editors called on how they want to edit that. And like I said, I'll take what comes. Some people I would have loved to see a lot more and hopefully as they stay in the competition, they will get a lot more airtime,
so you know, until the whole season is finished. It's a bit hard to say, you know, what's the airtime equal or I don't know, but all I can say, I'm just super appreciative of when it does come out and that we share with each other, just like, oh, you remember this happened that wasn't shown, but you know, I'm rich just so glad that I got a memory of it.
Yeah, and that's a good thing as well to have those memories. And I've been harassing everyone. It's just such an annoying question, and you've been so diplomatic that I'm now scared as to what your answer is going to be.
I'm from Singapore. We shake cans of everyone under Asian Switzerland.
That's what they call it, Asian Switzerland. Well, I don't want you to be Switzerland. I don't want any fans sitting Who do you want to see win this competition? I don't want two names, I don't want three. I want one name who's left in the competition that you'd like to see.
To them, I would love to see them win.
Mm hmm.
That's a tough one. That's like asking me what my favorite food is.
That's okay, because I'm going to move on to that next if you don't answer this one correctly, Oh.
Well, you know, well I tell people when you ask me a question what your favorite food is, it's like asking what your favorite who your favorite child is? These are all questions.
Yes, well you know that for different reasons. But David, do you want to know you're the favorite child? You want to know? Come on, we we well, I.
Definitely I definitely want the favorite child. That's not a problem. You know, I take I claim that, and my siblings give me for that. But that's okay.
This is a this is a double barrel question. So I'm not even just asking who do you want to win? I want to know who you' favorite judges? So can he help me? Yeah, let's go. We'll go with those two questions.
Who I want to win? Okay, let's if you force me to say one person. Yeah, I would say I want Dash to win. Okay, because you know that when he did that are chicken and gravy dessert? I mean that for me was just like, you know what, you pulled off something extraordinary here. I was really envious that he pulled that off. That was inspirational for me. It's just like I would love to pull something off like that and so and that was like a perfect sweet,
savory dessert and it just blew my mind. And for that reason, that's stuck in my head. And if you had to force me to say, well, that's the one I'm going with. But again, there's all of them. I love all of them for different reasons, and that's just me being diplomatic but also true.
Well, I like dash it and I'm really happy with I'd be fine. I'd be fine him with him holding up the plate at the end. Yeah, we haven't talked much about the judges, and in previous chats I have sort of unpacked youre but putting you on the spot with this. We've got four very amazing people, all very different in lots of ways with their personalities and the way in which they appear to be relating to everyone. Who did you feel you connected with the most?
That's a tough one for me. I connected well with Jean Crosov and Paul. If you have to choose one who I connected a little bit more with, I would say is Paul. She you know grew up in issues from leisure. She understand it where I came from in terms of the cultural contexts, but also could respect when I deviated off that, especially in Behind and in Chicken Rise. She was like, you know, this is so familiar for me, and you've done this specific thing that's different, and I
respect that. And she could really take that on board and also really give me good advice, you know, and so and you know a couple of times when I cried, she definitely gave me a hut that's on the side then, So that from me was it. Yeah.
You know, David, they often talk about this about people being very genuine, and that's sort of a bit of a buzzword. But the thing that I recognize about Poe and the interactions I've had with her is she's present, Yes, you know what I mean. Like, that's where you can see when someone's being genuine is when they're really present. They're not thinking about what they're going to say next, They're listening to you and they're curious.
You know.
And I think that's where Poe works the best.
Yeah, and she was really grateful that and she you know, because it's a contestant before like Andy a bit more fresh, and it's the first time and so you know, she's done an amazing job. And I definitely I feel like I connected with the boss obsessed.
My last question ask everybody, anyone that's ever dropped the podcast, whatever show it is, is what is something from behind the scenes, something we didn't get a chance to see. Now, I don't need you to, you know, ruin the whole show and say that the desks aren't real and someone else cooks the food for you. We don't want to know that, but maybe something fun from.
You, like ah, yeah. Probably the highlight of my experience outside of the kitchen is doing what we call open and commerce. Research was a bitter with the contestants. We would go hard on the weekends. I think there was one weekend or one Saturday night we went to three different restaurants with dinner in the name of research, and so we.
Were just to channel ten, like, what's going on with that?
No, that was oh personal and so maybe a claiment on tax but you know, we're just looking for inspiration, but being surrounded by a bunch of people who are all very curious about food and just wanted to try stuff and bouncing off each other with ideas that were
so fun, and we tried really amazing dishes. And when I go up to restaurants, I tell the guys like the answers yes, It's like, if you want to order it, and you want to ask me if I wanted the answers just yes, just order it, don't worry about it, and we'll just have the best time. We'll talk about food and we'll think about how the chefs has done it and how we can bring that into the master chef pidgin.
David, Can I just say it has been a pleasure to talk to you. My brain has been my brain has left the room while we've been talking, and I love I love people who have got logic like that. So you know, this has been really a real treat to be able to chat with you and unpack your time.
Thank you, Yeah, I really appreciate you. Thank you for your time as well.
Thanks David. I have to run. I'm literally, David, I'm cool and get a airport in Queensland and I'm on the front, the front lawn out the front and people security of walk past me. People have walked past with their bags. I'm sure they think that I'm the most bonkers person to be sitting here, my entire podcast gear on the lawn. But yeah, this is what I'm.
I'm just landed in Alice Springs and going to ut outside the airport and so wow, here you go.
Okay, well I'll send you a quote of what I look like and then you can say photo with the rock when you get there.
That's good, Red Rock, take care of lookup. See you have a good one.
Bye now