An ex-Singapore police officer Sashi Cheliah emerged as the champion of MasterChef Australia 2018 with the highest score in the show's 10-year history: 93/100

The 40-year-old moved from Singapore to Adelaide six years ago where he found work as a prison officer. Prior to the move, Sashi was working as a police officer for 12 years.

According to an interview with The Straits Times, Sashi started cooking in Adelaide because he missed local food. "I would get recipes from my mother and watch YouTube videos. Fellow Singaporeans as well as Malaysians in the area would come and eat my food," he told the paper. 

For his audition, Sashi made chicken rendang with coconut rice, pineapple achar and roti jala.

For the finals, Sashi was pit against Ben Borsht, 31, where both had to compete in two rounds: Plate a starter and main course in 90 minutes and recreate a dish by famed chef Heston Blumenthal 

For the first round, Sashi made a starter of Sambal prawns, and snapper fish curry with cumin rice as his main.

Sashi's sambal prawns earned him rave reviews from the three judges, all of whom awarded him 10/10 for it. His snapper fish curry with cumin rice was also a hit. Each of the judges awarded him 9/10 for it.

In total, Sashi passed his first round with 57 out of 60 points, which put him far in the lead against Borsht.

The latter only managed to score 41 out of 60 in the first round for his starter (blue swimmer crab starter with finger limes, coriander and avocado cream) and main (deep fried whiting with peas served alongside parsley and garlic emulsion). 

For the second round, both Sashi and Borscht were awarded the same points (36/40) for their efforts in recreating Blumenthal's Counting Sheep, a dessert extravaganza consisting of coconut ice cream with a steamed sponge and panna cotta, a lychee, caramel and coriander mousse, yoghurt powder, and purees of pistachio, orange flower water and coriander.

Watch Blumenthal's Counting Sheep here:

In total, Sashi scored 93 out of 100. Aside from securing the title of MasterChef Australia, Sashi also won $250,000 which he plans to invest into his future restaurant specialising in Indian and Southeast Asian cuisine.

Sashi also plans to use his restaurant as a platform to support the rehabilitation and employment of ex-offenders:

"There are a lot of good courses in prison such as food-handling and pastry-making...But employment after getting out of prison is very limited. It would be great if I could do something for the ex-convicts."

- Sashi in an interview with The Straits Times.

Top images via Dreshare and MasterChef Australia Facebook.

 

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