‘Very, very impressed’: MasterChef Australia chefs impress Hong Kong guest judge Vicky Cheng

“I immediately said yes because I’ve always valued it,” he says, revealing that he was the show’s first choice guest judge to be based in Hong Kong.

“The judges and people involved in choosing who would take part in the competition said they were looking for me and no one else. So they really had their fingers crossed that I would say yes!”

Cheng took the opportunity to appear in the show’s Hong Kong segments. Photo: Kelly Gardner

And here is the team and participants MasterChef Australia went to Hong Kong for a week of culinary adventures, which began with a challenge organized at M+ Art Park overlooking Victoria Harbour.

Participants were given a “Mystery Box” filled with ingredients sourced from Hong Kong and had 75 minutes to prepare something special using at least one of them.

The next challenge was cooking dishes in give me pai dong on Stanley Street in Central, on Hong Kong Island. Three teams of two were divided into wok, pan-fry and deep-fry stations, each having to prepare two dishes for 40 hungry diners.

Cheng (centre) with the MasterChef Australia judges. He was the first choice for a guest judge in the Hong Kong-based challenge. Photo: Kelly Gardner

Given Cheng’s stellar reputation, it’s understandable that the challenge he faced was much more technical – and much more sophisticated.

Chef calls the challenge a “pressure test,” in which contestants typically have to try to recreate a perfect copy of a famous chef’s dish.

The care, the result, the speed, the discipline – honestly, they could come into my kitchen at VEA and work right in front of me.

Vicky Cheng

Cheng clearly thought long and hard about which dish to highlight – but there were some special conditions, given the show’s creators’ decision regarding where the challenge would be filmed.

“We were actually shooting a movie in Po Lin Monastery (on Lantau Island), so part of the challenge was that it had to be vegetarian – because we were in the Big Buddha (statue) space, where you weren’t allowed to eat meat,” Cheng says. “I usually always use dried seafood because it’s so representative of Wing, VEA and me.

“Honestly, it forced us to be creative because we put all our efforts into creating something that was true to my concept.”

Cheng created a new dish for MasterChef Australia contestants to recreate – “Three Ages of Daikon”. Photo: Kelly Gardner

Cheng ended up developing a new dish specifically for the show—but it turned out so well that Cheng plans to add it to the menu at VEA. It features a very humble ingredient with very deep roots: daikon radish.

“My dish, ‘Three Ages of Daikon,’ uses an ingredient from my dad’s hometown in Chiuchow,” Cheng explains. As the name suggests, the dish showcases the ingredient in different stages of ripening: milky-white fresh daikon, brown, two-year-old preserved daikon, and 20-year-old preserved daikon, which is almost black.

Cheng believes that most people do not know that daikon radish can be a source of intense Umamithe famous savory “fifth flavor” that adds depth to the deliciousness. So, armed with the quintessential Chinese ingredient, Cheng created his entirely vegetarian dish using largely French techniques.

“If you take a radish and boil it and then reduce it, it literally becomes something like monosodium glutamate (MSG)monosodium glutamate), so we took advantage of that and treated the vegetable like a piece of meat, roasting it like a big piece of beef bone,” Cheng explains. “We caramelized it and made a stock out of all those vegetables, strained it and reduced it—it took almost as long as if it were meat.”

The chef adds that because Po Lin Monastery follows Buddhist principles, he is not allowed to use allium plants such as onions and garlic to enhance the flavor.

Cheng’s demonstration of the dish was filmed at VEA, but the cast and crew were so large that not everyone could fit in the restaurant.

Cheng shows off her recipe on the show. Photo: Kelly Gardner

What is worth noting, Chef The participants were not given a recipe and were not allowed to take any notes. Cheng explained how many grams or millimeters were needed at each stage, but ultimately they had to try to recreate the dish entirely from memory—all in just 75 minutes.

What’s more, they weren’t cooking in the VEA, but outside in the elements, by the Big Buddha, almost 500 meters (1,640 feet) above sea level. As is often the case, it was also one of the coldest days in Hong Kong’s recent history.

“It was bloody cold! Cooking with your bare hands, it was crazy, freezing,” Cheng laughs. “I felt like I was in Canada!”

Cheng said that despite the many obstacles they faced, he was extremely impressed with what the day’s participants ultimately achieved.

“I’ll tell you, I was very, very impressed. Their execution, their memory, their discipline, but also their hunger – I could tell they were hungry to win. I don’t know if it was the money (the winner gets A$250,000 or $166,000), their career or their pride – but they were absolutely hungry.

“The care, the result, the speed, the discipline – honestly, they could come into my kitchen at VEA and work right in front of you. If you just sat down to eat, you would feel like they were absolutely part of the team. I don’t know where these chefs come from – I wish I knew more home chefs like you!”

Denmark was assessed by Cheng along with a full-time MasterChef Australia judges Andy Allen, Poh Ling Yeow, beloved contestant from the first season of the show, food critic and journalist Sofia Levin and award-winning French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli.

“Jean-Christophe is an inspiration, he was great. Poh is an incredibly talented artist and she sent me one of her works, which now hangs on my walls at home. And Sofia and Andy are super nice, just wonderful, nice people.”

While Cheng did not reveal the outcome of the Ages of Daikon challenge he set, it is clear that he loved every moment of his time on the show.

“It was great to know that they trusted us – and me – to do this show that I’ve always admired. It was an absolutely brilliant experience.”