MasterChef has a winner, and it’s Chariya Khattiyot!
The 40-year-old went from expert coffee roaster to MasterChef Champion, becoming the 19th amateur cook to win the famous cookery competition on BBC One.
Chariya prevailed over 44 other talented participants at the end of eight exhilarating weeks of MasterChef culinary challenges.
The challenges concluded in a cook-off between the two outstanding remaining finalists, Anurag Aggarwal (41) and Omar Foster (31).
Chariya received the prestigious MasterChef trophy from judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace on TV’s most popular cooking show.
Chariya expressed her delight at her victory, calling it “unbelievable.”
‘It means the world, the sun, the moon and everything to me,’ she said.
‘I don’t think anything can top this. I’m so happy!
‘This just proves that if you dream something and you work really hard and you never give up, you can get it.
‘That’s what my grandad said to me – never give up. He would be so proud of me!’
Both judges wept tears when they proclaimed the winner.
John said: ‘Chariya’s food has always been honest and from the heart. It’s always exciting, it’s always unusual and it’s always been beautiful and addictive.
‘And not just punchy, exciting Thai flavours that we saw at the start, but also exceptional, innovative and exciting technique all the way through.’ ‘
He described her as ‘a proper master.’
Gregg was also full of praise: ‘Chariya is outstanding and one of the best MasterChef contestants I can remember. Chariya has delighted and amazed me in equal measure.
‘Some of her creations are absolutely beautiful – almost with an artist’s touch. She is one of the most creative, skillful cooks I’ve seen on MasterChef for a long, long time.’
Speaking ahead of the last cook-off, when winning was in touching distance, Chariya said: ‘From a little girl who cooked in a kitchen with no walls, to lift that trophy is going to be the story I can tell to inspire a lot of girls who have a hard life. If you work really hard, I’m sure you can achieve something.’
Chariya travelled to Istanbul, Turkey, for a taste of centuries-old cuisine, making traditional meals for discriminating residents in their ancient hamlet, supervised by one of Turkey’s best renowned chefs, Refika Birgül, in a demanding and exhilarating final week.
Then, at the two-Michelin-starred Istanbul restaurant Turk, chef Fatih Tutak charged Chariya with recreating a dish from his famed tasting menu during a crowded service.
The journey concluded with a challenge at Pera House, the home of the British Consulate General in Istanbul.
Chariya worked tirelessly under duress to prepare her dessert, a Turkish speciality of chicken breast pudding, which thrilled her lunch guests, including British Consul General Kenan Poleo, Fatih Tutak and Refika Birgül, and the three MasterChef Turkey judges.
Chariya faced the once-in-a-lifetime culinary test of Chef’s Table, held at Core – the three Michelin-starred restaurants owned by one of the world’s most recognised chefs, Clare Smyth MBE.
Chariya tackled one of Clare’s most stunning concoctions for a table of top chefs.
Her dish received the following compliments: ‘perfect’ (Nieves Barragán Mohacho), ‘amazing’ (Sat Bains), and ‘beautiful’ (Tom Kitchin).
Tonight (June 1), the final three faced the competition’s most gruelling and high-pressure challenge: making the finest three-course dinner of their life to show to John and Gregg that their culinary skill, drive, and originality could earn them the MasterChef title.
Chariya’s winning cuisine began with a Thai lotus tuille filled with coconut jelly, fried king prawns, and a honey, palm sugar, and coconut-flavored pomelo fruit salad.
On tasting it, Gregg said: ‘That’s fabulous. That’s a delicate little morsel, packing a very big punch.’
Chariya served a traditional Northern Thai ‘khantoke’ sharing platter for her main course, which included wagyu sirloin steak in hung lay curry sauce, minced lamb in a spicy tomato and shrimp paste, jackfruit and scallop salad, sticky rice and scallop crisp crackers, to which John replied, ‘I could eat that all day.’
Chariya completed her dish with a strawberry jelly and vanilla cremeux ring filled with macerated strawberries in strawberry liqueur, pistachio sponge, strawberry shards, and a strawberry and Thai basil sauce.
This was an homage to both the UK and her love of strawberries, which sprang from her youth in Thailand, where she looked forward to eating strawberries with her grandfather once a year.
Chariya is originally from Thailand and now resides in Basingstoke. Her passion for cooking derives from her childhood in Northern Thailand with her grandfather, who taught Chariya how to make the most of what they had and obtain the finest tastes from food despite their limited resources.
On what’s next, she said: ‘I hope there will be opportunities to work with food and I’m excited about getting experience and turning this love of cooking into a profession.
‘Long term, my dream is to open a restaurant – and eventually multiple restaurants – where I can showcase the food of my homeland in Northern Thailand – and hopefully work towards earning a Michelin star!’
MasterChef Series 19 is available to catch up on iPlayer.
Source My Celebrity Life.
