We Indians sometimes overcook food: MasterChef Australia contestant Nidhi Mahajan

Mumbai: When she said goodbye during her elimination in MasterChef Australia, she made judges cry. Nidhi Mahajan, 30, certainly made it her mission to make everyone fall in love with her bubbly personality and her traditional Indian cooking style in the show.

The call center worker, originally from Chandigarh, Punjab, certainly left a long lasting impression by touching the feet of the judges ‘as a mark of respect’ after her elimination.

(Photo: Facebook/ Nidhi Mahajan)

Nidhi was asked to leave the competition after her stir-fried cauliflower dish with potato bhajiyas failed to make the cut.

Though her journey on Star World's show came to an end, Nidhi has some big plans for her future. We caught hold of judges’ favourite contestant for a quick chat.

In a candid conversation with Deccan Chronicle, Nidhi talks about her experience in Masterchef Australia kitchen, the bad choices that she made and about her upcoming restaurant.

Your elimination was unexpected, even the judges were brought to tears. What was going on inside your head at that moment?

It was unexpected for me but I think the choices and the decisions that I made were not right. Sometimes you have good kicks and sometime bad kicks and that was the day I had a bad kick. The day I was leaving, the judges were crying and I was overwhelmed too. I use to make them laugh, we had a good connection.

During elimination round everyone was seen experimenting with flavours and techniques. Why would you take the risk and serve something as simple as bhajiyas and cabbage salad?

So when I saw the ingredients, cauliflower took my attention. I thought I could make a salad. It was a bad day, all the steps that I have taken were not right. The decisions that I took that day were wrong.

(Photo: Facebook/ Nidhi Mahajan)

How tough it is for a person with an Indian palate to compete in MasterChef?

I don’t think it depends on the Indian palate. It totally depends on the ability and how you handle stress. It’s about how you love food. In terms of spices, it's not at all difficult once you get the hang of the flavours. And our cuisine is not the only cuisine that uses so many spices. There are many other cuisines as well. It’s all about the combinations that is used in cooking a dish.

How would you describe food served in MasterChef kitchen to food served in India?

The chicken is cooked how we cook it. But in case of lamb, it is served pink. I feel we Indians sometimes overcook food. We don’t take nutritional value into consideration. I am not a meat person but once you start eating the way it is cooked here, your palate gets used to it.

You were given a second chance during the wild card episode. Do you think you did your best?

Yes, I definitely think I did my best. But Teresa or Charlie, they did better than me. Teresa made everyone surprise, she brought an excellent dish out that impressed the judges.

Now you are coming with up Nidz Kitchen, tell us about that?

So Nidz Kictchen at present is kind of a restaurant but at your home. So I will go and cook at people’s own kitchen who want me to cook for them. I am working to open my own restaurant by end of this year or early 2017. It will serve Indian food with modern outlet.

(Photo: Facebook/ Nidhi Mahajan)

Which chef inspires you?

When you talk about food, a lot of people inspire me, not just one. While growing up, I looked up to Sanjeev Kapoor. Tarla Dalal and Vikas Khanna are also inspirational. However, chef Marco Pierre is my favourite and I don’t think I will ever be able to do anything like he has done in his era.