Chef Wan boiling over judge’s remark

Datuk Redzuawan Ismail, better known as Chef Wan, will share tips on how one can capitalise on his or her cooking talent and passion to turn it into a good career, at the Star Education Fair 2018.

PETALING JAYA: If cooking show judges cannot tell the difference between an undercooked chicken and a crispy one, they should exit the programme gracefully, says Chef Wan.

Wading into the Rendangate saga, the outspoken chef said on Instagram yesterday: “You are a judge and you can’t tell the difference between a chicken that is undercooked and crispy?”

Datuk Redzuawan Ismail was responding to claims made by Gregg Wallace, who on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday came up with the “crispy skin” remark. Wallace was alongside fellow judge John Torode.

“I said the skin wasn’t crispy. I didn’t mean it wasn’t fried like fried chicken. What I meant was that it wasn’t cooked. It simply wasn’t cooked,” said Wallace after the controversy erupted.

Chef Wan, who has over 27 years of experience in cooking, said if he was the judge he would cut the chicken at the thickest part of its thigh to check if it was undercooked.

“If it is not cooked, I would have told and shown Zaleha,” he said after Wallace’s criticism of Malaysian contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin during an episode of the MasterChef UK programme.

Zaleha had prepared a traditional rendition of nasi lemak with chicken rendang.

Wallace also claimed that Zaleha was eliminated not because her chicken rendang skin was not crispy but it was due to the other chefs being better.

Chef Wan said no one was disputing that the other chefs were better, but the judges needed to be “fair and well informed” with their critiques.

Zaleha, on Instagram, thanked the public for their overwhelming support, including Chef Wan and London-based Malaysian chef Norman Musa.

She also explained the reason for not responding to Rendangate earlier.

“Prior to being a contestant of MasterChef UK, each of us had to sign a contract with the BBC and Shine TV, the producer.

“At the moment any correspondence, interviews and promotions are tied in to this contract that requires approval from them,” she added.