MasterChef’s Sam chips in with local inspiration

A CHIPS and gravy dish inspired by the Piping Hot Chicken Shop helped Ocean Grove’s MasterChef contestant survive elimination.

Sam Goodwin, who hopes to one day open up his own cafe on the Bellarine, has been wowing celebrity chefs and guest judges on the Channel Ten cooking show.

While filming has already wrapped up, the 25-year-old construction co-ordinator is becoming something of a local identity as the region watches him whip up a new culinary creation each week.

“I’ve just started to have a few people recognise me around town,” Goodwin said. “I’ve got a few mates who are teachers, and their whole classrooms have been supporting me from home. It’s been really cool.”

The promising young chef had a strong start to the competition, impressing judges Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan early on in his first episode a few weeks ago.

Goodwin has been watching himself on TV with the rest of Australia, and said it was cool to see the hours of behind-thescenes production work materialise on the small screen.

“It’s insane. Watching it on TV you think the emotion is fake, like ‘why are they so invested in this thing’,” he said.

“But then once you get in the kitchen and you’re spending time at home in the MasterChef house with all the other contestants, you get so close and you’re like family, and having to go through the process of losing one of your best friends once or twice a week, it is so much more intense than I would have ever thought by watching it on TV.”

He said the pressure-cooker environment of being “immersed in food culture” through talking about food, reading cookbooks and practising recipes with fellow contestants while living in the MasterChef house had been a big learning experience.

Meeting an idol and inspiration in Australia’s top chef Ben Shewry has been a highlight of the competition.

Goodwin said he discovered he had a knack for deserts after considering himself a “50/50 sweet and savoury guy”.

“Long term, I want to run a bit of a casual cafe/restaurant in Ocean Grove or on the Bellarine somewhere, but realistically that’s probably five years off I’d imagine, experience-wise,” he said.

“I want to get out and get into a commercial kitchen, do a bit of work experience and learn how kitchens run, learn the business side of things.

“I also want to travel a little more too, I haven’t done any of Europe so I’m keen to get over there and experience their food culture.”

After creating one of the top three dishes in the Invention Test with a beetroot, chocolate and raspberry desert on Sunday, Goodwin went head-to-head with guest chef Lauren Eldridge of Sydney’s Pei Modern.

While he was the closest to winning immunity with his dark fruits with roasted chocolate and gingerbread dish, judges gave Eldridge’s one more point, meaning none of the contestants got the immunity pin.

MasterChef airs at 7.30pm on Channel Ten.