She only started cooking a few years ago, but Adi Nevgi — the only Indian-origin contestant on MasterChef Australia Season 15 — managed to make it to the Top 8 round, winning hearts along the way, even as she whipped up some winning dishes. t2 chatted with Adi, who is a doctor by profession, on her dream run and her food journey going forward. MasterChef Australia S15 is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar in India.
What's life been like after your MasterChef Australia stint?
It is different. Thankfully, I have a really lovely family and a great partner who have made sure that it hasn't changed too much and that my feet stay on the ground.
I am still working as a doctor, which is what I was doing even before MasterChef. It's just that now I have other opportunities in the world of food that am trying to pursue. I would love to publish a cookbook. I am writing recipes and publishing them on my Instagram page. I am working with people in the food industry and brands here. So there are definitely other things happening on the side. And then, of course, there's just the surreal-ness of being recognised on the street that I'm still getting used to!
Do your patients react to you in a different way now?
What is actually really helpful in the hospital is that we still have to wear masks, and hence very few people recognise me at work. Which is good for me. I think it's nice to have a bit of separation between my doctor world and my food world.
What are your most abiding memories from your MasterChef Australia journey?
Gosh! There are so many. One of my favourite cooks was the team challenge that we did at the NGV in Melbourne, a very famous Melbourne institution. It's an art gallery but they had set up this beautiful structure outdoors that looks like the Parthenon in Athens. It was all colourful, and we got to cook there, and I'm a Melbourne girl... so (laughs).
Honestly, some of my favourite memories are behind the scenes, because all the contestants stuck out together. I lived with Rue (Mupedzi, contestant) for a good portion of the filming and we have become very, very good friends. So a lot of the stuff that you don't even get to see on camera ends up being the most vivid memories.
Of all the things that you cooked on the show, what's been the most satisfying personally?
The first one was my take on S'mores and the judges cooked the marshmallow themselves on the stick, and I was really proud of how creatively I approached that challenge, particularly because dessert cookery is not necessarily my strong point.
The other dish that I am extremely proud of is a Maharashtrian squid curry when Rick Stein (celebrity chef, writer, TV presenter) was in the house. He is a very big fan of Indian food and what I was particularly happy with that day was that I made what was very much a regional dish. Indian food is famous, and everyone in Australia has some idea of what Indian food is, but these sorts of smaller regional local dishes often don't get showcased on national or international television. So to really be able to say: 'This is how we do it in my state of India. This is how my grandmother makes it' was very special.
What are your biggest strengths as a cook?
I have a foundational knowledge of food. I only really got into food because I found it an academic exercise. I read a lot about food, read about the science of food, and why certain things work in certain ways. I do have excellent basics. And I think that sets me up very well, regardless of what cuisine I am cooking.
How did your interest in food begin? I am given to understand that it only happened a few years ago...
I was never a big cook, and to be honest, as a child, I was a very fussy eater! It really happened specifically in 2020 when we were in lockdown and I suddenly had a lot of time at home and I needed a hobby. Obviously, I was still going to work, but I needed to come home and have something to look forward to.
Many people were watching MasterChef, Australia that season, as was I. And I really started thinking: 'Hey, I could do this. I need to make dinner every night, anyway, so why not make something that I can really try and learn and excel at?' And the more I did it, the more I became almost obsessed with it.
That must have functioned as a kind of therapy after spending the whole day as a frontline worker...
You are absolutely right in describing it as therapy. It really was very therapeutic for me. It was like a very conscious mental switch-off from everything that happened at work. I could come home and just delve into reading new recipes, reading about different cuisines. I also love to travel, and, of course, we weren't able to travel for so many years, so exploring different cuisines and reading about the history of the cuisine, and how it's developed was kind of a way to travel from my own home when I couldn't travel, and when I couldn't eat out. So yes, it was like therapy for me. It was like travel for me. It was like eating out for me.
I was reading somewhere that you have actually travelled to some 50-plus countries...
Yes, 55 so far. And I am doing a few more.
Which countries have stood out to you in terms of their food that you want to kind of also incorporate into what you cook henceforth?
I love cooking Spanish. I love cooking Southeast Asian, and Mexican food as well as occasionally. French food and Indian as well. The countries that have really stood out to me are ones where I was particularly surprised because they are not necessarily known or celebrated for their food culture. Portugal had some of the best seafood I have ever eaten. Turkey has a wonderful food scene. Vietnamese food is, I think, one of the best in the world.
This was the last season that we had Jock Zonfrillo as a judge before he passed away suddenly. What are your biggest memories of interacting with him on the show and learning from him?
It was really special to get to know Jock. Before I went on the show, I felt like the judges didn't care about the contestants, that they are there just for the paycheck. But when you are there, you realise that they are genuinely so passionate about food and about helping us find our fate in the industry and become really good chefs.
Jock did that for us, He would just come into the contestant green room and pick out a cookbook that he thought would be appropriate for each one of us. He would say: 'You know, I know this is your style of food. This is a book that you should be reading to help you.' He always tried to give really good feedback and always tried to push us to be better. I am very, very grateful that I got to meet him
What are your biggest childhood memories around food?
Growing up, there are quite a few for me. Every Sunday, a lot of my friends here would be having a Sunday roast but my mum would always make a curry. I would look forward to that for the whole week. I just love my Maharashtrian food. I think we do seafood really well. Just really simple food for me, like fried fish is the ultimate. It's the best comfort food I can think of.
Even just having dal and bhaat is so good for me. I don't honestly need any of the fancy stuff. Basic home-cooked Indian meals are all that I need.
Are you aware of the constant evolution that's happening in the food scene in India?
It's so exciting! I am a Bombay girl. I haven't travelled a lot to India, I have been, you know, mostly to the West and to Bombay, but even just in Bombay every time I go there, it is such a dynamic food scene, with so many styles of cuisine. There is some incredible Japanese style, Portuguese style food there.
What is your long-term food dream?
I would love to work in the food education space I learned how to cook, just in the last few years and I feel anyone can learn how to do that once they have those fundamentals intact. So I would love to be able to impart that to people. I would love to publish a cookbook and then see where that can take me. But yes, I would really, really love to teach people that cooking is nothing to be afraid of. It's something that anybody can do.
Priyanka Roy