MASTERCHEF S'PORE S3 CONTESTANT RAJ - PART 2

Published Jun 2, 2022, 3:00 AM

This week's guest and Foodie Friend is 58-year-old Raj Shagaran Mahalingam, a creative events producer and groovy grandpa whose colourful personality is matched only by his colourful cooking creations! He certainly spiced up the MasterChef kitchen with his antics and after making it into the Top 9, he's here to share his experience of the competition.

In part 2, Raj reveals his favourite judge - is it Audra, Damian or Bjorn? Why he doesn't mind if you call him a cockroach - in fact his new brand launch celebrates it! Also, who he'd invite to his fantasy dinner party and what food he'd serve.

it's all 905 sounds good, feels good. The eagles and a peaceful, easy feeling with raj master chef contestant who bid farewell to the competition in the most recent episode and he's with us to chat more about his experience, competing in the master chef Singapore kitchen. So let's continue with this question. Which is your favorite judge?

I mean I'm kidding. Which judge actually did you vibe with the most

All three judges were wonderful. Okay. Audra has a style and everything. I love the way she does the plating and cooking. Damien is hardcore like pneumonia style and you know you name the best symbol and everything, he knows his work, he knows his stuff. But my personal favorite judge would be chef school. I love his personality, his sense of humor and everything that we are in the entertainment industry. So I love the way he does things and how he presents great stuff.

He's got a really unique personality and sense of humor and I can see why you and he would get along so well. Yeah, we do. My next question is, what are you going to do now that you've left master chef? Do you have any exciting culinary plans in the

ascent to greater heights in the field of gastronomic cuisine has a result of my terrible fall our rice. I will not give it up. So watch out for

you know how I got the name because the entire episodes, I survived every elimination round like a cockroach. You know you just go on whenever you cannot feel them to step on it, he will still crawl his way and everything. So I said damn I'm like a cockroach man, I can still survive the next challenge again and again and again. So I shall call myself raja raja.

Yeah

that's gonna be my new brand in the pipeline and hopefully come on something like a home based chef that specialize in cooking with your heart H E A. R. T. Is our heart love cooking. So it is basically a plating and how you present food,

it looks beautiful. I want to blend beautiful food and great tasting food put together and present art

for sure. You're not going to stop cooking, huh?

No, I'm not going to stop cooking for sure. I mean cooking is a passion, it's a love, it's something I love to do. So just go on and do it, you know? And if you're good at it, why not?

I feel like that nicely segues into my next question. It feels like yes that is your life's philosophy. Never say die, keep on going, fall down, pick yourself up your arm doesn't work. Use the other arm, you're like a cockroach doesn't die. But do you have any words of wisdom or good advice to share. Don't

just exist. Live live life to the fullest. Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits. You know there's a lot of things in life that you can do. You got one life to live the life of your dreams

that really applies to anyone who's been following master chef Singapore and thinking yes, joy I I scared or whatever and your advice is just do it right, do it yeah.

And I dream about the apron

and bang next meeting. I'm in the show and now I get the apron.

What are you doing with the apron? Are you going to wear it or you're framing,

framing, framing up and keep it down the road. The value goes up.

If the home based cooking doesn't work out, you might auction it off

Like the oldest in the, in the show, it's up 58,

Nobody will believe you're 58, you are really as you say, you're 18, you can you make our day by sharing with us. I always asked this and it's the fantasy dinner party scenario so if you could invite

anybody dead or alive famous not famous to a dinner party that you're hosting, who would you invite? And what food

would you serve for this? I got to be a little sentimental because my dad who had lost like 45 years ago when I was only 13 years old, so he was like an inspiration in my master used to drag me and my siblings to take our market market those 45 years ago. I can imagine it's like an indiana jones adventure each time we go there. The noise and smell the chicken that everything. So it's like a trip was exciting and so it was mostly joyful and enjoyable. And I know he would love my signature pepper crab and fish curry that I make. I know he would love it and he'd be so proud of me. He's looking down at me and say, well done son. So my dad shout out to all fathers, Happy Father's Day in advance, thanks for

sharing that. Happy Father's Day in advance to you too.

And grandfather, grandfather,

I wanted to ask do your Children cook, have you passed on your culinary prowess to them?

My son can cook just probably passed out one dish. My daughter is able to cook a few dishes. She lives in Melbourne Australia. Where is my wife? She's good at cooking, but she can only cook five dishes. That's it for the past 34 years. I've been eating the same five dishes. So I'm saying she's a good cook, but she only can cook like five great dishes after a while. My kids will say, okay, can we have a right to put that.

So I experimented and I tried out and I said, okay, I love cooking. I can come up with wonderful dishes. So now she takes a step back. Now we have a variety of dishes for me.

Yeah, you are truly a young hot guy. You often go into Tiktok to check out other people's recipes, what they're doing. You learn

a lot from that techniques presentation. The way they cook recipes, wonderful. I think social media is pretty good on that instance through the ideas. You steal the ideas, but you make it your own stuff. That's innovative. Don't exactly make it your own stuff

honestly. Your personality is so infectious and if anyone can continue catching up with you, post Master Chef, is there any way we can follow you on social media or anything like that? You

that's coming up? We'll be launching soon. I think I can launch it on Father's Day, go down my website, done. Everything is done is just to

push it out. Yeah, absolutely launching with fireworks and everything raj style. Well before I let you go raj, my foodie friend now, right, yeah, so now I gotta get you to share with us some of your favorite places that I really, really enjoyed myself. So once again, if you want to catch all the action or re catch raj in action, you know, Master Chef Singapore. Season three is currently on, you can catch new episodes on five every sunday night or if you want to watch at your own time. Own target. All the catch up episodes can be found on me, Watch raj once again, thank you so very much and all the best for your culinary journey. We're looking forward to you launching la cucaracha raja

raja raja coming up soon

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