With the new Foodies vs Faves season of Masterchef about to air, there was one familiar face many viewers were surprised to see missing from the line-up of contestants: Khanh Ong.
Having just completed a stint on Survivor: Blood vs Water, the conflicting filming schedules meant he probably couldn’t have done a third run on the show even if he wanted to.
“How many times do I want to lose Masterchef?” the 27-year-old laughs as he speaks exclusively to Now To Love.
Khanh Ong has appeared on Masterchef twice.
(Image: Channel 10)Though he’s not in the running this season, Khanh’s putting his money on faves Michael Weldon or Julie Goodwin to take home the trophy this year.
As for his advice to the foodies – both those on the show and the millions more watching from home – he has a few handy cooking tips to share.
“With food, it’s all about keeping it simple, stupid. That’s how I cook,” he says, adding that learning how to whip up your favourite dish will work out cheaper than ordering from a food delivery service.
Even though you have to spend a bit of cash to stock up on ingredients the first time, Khanh says “when you’ve got all your spices, you’ve got all of your oils, all your sauces, it becomes really, really affordable.”
Khanh adds that there’s also no shame in going with the more affordable Coles brand spices – so long as you use plenty in your dishes.
“Don’t do one little piece of parsley, or even just a little chop of parsley; load it up because that’s a flavour bump and it looks better as well!”
Investing in decent knives and kitchen gadgets is another of Khanh’s top tips, and one of his favourites is the new SodaStream DUO machine, which creates refreshing sparkling water with the touch of a button, perfect for summer cocktails or just drinking straight.
But Khanh reveals there’s a hidden way to use the machine in your cooking too.
WATCH: Khanh is eliminated From MasterChef Australia 2018. Story continues after video.
“What I like to do with a lot of my sauces, the lighter ones you use with seafood or with vegetables, is you put a dash of the sparkling water into it,” he explains.
“What it does is it lightens the sauce, adding this little spiciness, a little bit of those bubbles make everything fresher.”
He’ll even be gifting one to his mum this Mother’s Day, a subtle tribute to the fact that she was the one who first nurtured his love of cooking with her own incredible dishes.
Even now there are some dishes Khanh loves from his childhood but refuses to cook because he knows his mum simply does it better.
Khanh as a small child with his mum.
(Image: Instagram)“There are certain recipes that I won’t touch. I’m just like, mum, you make it,” he laughs, but the Masterchef alum still finds ways to impress her in the kitchen from time to time.
“She still gets so impressed just because I do new takes on old favourites, like things that she may have taught me but I’ve changed it a bit,” he says fondly.
The same can’t be said for his sister, Amy, who recently starred on Survivor: Blood vs Water with him, Khanh joking: “My sister is literally like, ‘I get it, you can cook. Just move on.'”
SodaStream DUO is an Australian first, inviting Aussies to embrace ‘duality’ to enhance their everyday life. DUO is SodaStream’s first sparkling water-maker to be compatible for both glass and plastic reusable bottles.
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