M'sian contestant, 27, who won MasterChef challenge apologises for roti canai pronunciation, talks about M'sian roots

The Malaysian representative on Season 16 of MasterChef: Global Gauntlet, who won the week's “World Cup Cookoff” challenge, has apologised for her pronunciation of roti canai.

Jamie Tan, 27, who is a content creator, took to TikTok to address the backlash.

She said, "It makes me sad to disappoint so many Southeast Asians."

"I know how important it is to people, so I just wanted to say I'm sorry. It was not intentional at all, I do not mean to misrepresent a national dish on television."

Tan added that the pronunciation was a mistake and that she now knows how to pronounce roti canai.

Challenge victory

In the hour-long challenge, contestants were told to prepare the ultimate World Cup watch-party food.

The official MasterChef on Fox Instagram account shared a video of Tan's victory and the process of cooking the dish.

She was the overall winner of the challenge after cooking roti canai with Malaysian coconut curry, coconut rice, and cucumber and pineapple salad.

However, her pronunciation of roti canai angered some Malaysians.

In the video, Tan was seen explaining her dish to judge Tiffany Derry, where she pronounced the word, canai, with a hard "k" sound instead of a "ch".

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by MasterChef (@masterchefonfox)

Grandparents owned kopitiam

In her apology video, Tan said she was not raised in Malaysia and that she is Malaysian American.

She said, "We do not have many Malaysians here. My dad is from Johor, and both my grandparents even had a kopitiam before they passed away."

"I feel strong roots to Malaysia and feeling like I was carrying that or like representing Malaysia on the show was just so meaningful to me so of course I'm upset at myself."

She explained why she cried multiple times in the aired footage of the show, saying that "when I finished my roti, I knew that it was not a perfect roti".

"It takes hours for the gluten to develop, and [when] people properly make it, they actually rest the dough overnight, so it was a huge risk for me to do in under 60 minutes."

'Spare me please'

Tan broke down the dish she prepared in under 60 minutes and said, "Spare me please".

She added that she knew it would not be perfect, but there would not have been another opportunity for her to make the dish.

"There's so many beautiful dishes in Malaysia, it's like always my goal to show those foods."

She added, "I haven't even read all the comments because I know the criticism will like lowkey get to me because I am that hard on myself as well."

"Any type of criticism you guys thought of other than the roti canai incident, I have already thought of. I've beat myself for it again and again".

She concluded the video by saying, "Much love to Malaysia, and I'm sorry I butchered roti canai".

"Guys, I might not be able to say roti canai properly but I can open a durian with my bare hands and I think that's pretty Malaysian, Jamie boleh."

@igumdropI am sorry 🥲 roti kanai incident♬ original sound - jaime