Judges spark rendang ding dong
jakarta — Indonesians and Malaysians have their feathers in a flap over MasterChef UK’s decision to eliminate a contestant from the popular cooking show because her chicken rendang wasn’t crispy.
Netizens from the two Southeast Asian nations — including the Malaysian prime minister — put aside a longstanding culinary dispute about the origins of the slowcooked coconut curry to express outrage at the cluelessness of the British show’s judges.
Judge Gregg Wallace and cojudge John Torode sparked a storm this week by criticising Malaysiaborn contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin’s dish because the “chicken skin isn’t crispy, it can’t be eaten”.
Rendang, which originates from West Sumatra in Indonesia, is usually chicken or beef slow cooked in spices and coconut milk for hours and is not crispy.
Olpin served her chicken rendang to accompany Nasi Lemak, a popular aromatic rice dish from Malaysia. Hundreds of people took to social media to point out the judges’ amateur mistake.
In Malaysian cyberspace, a Facebook page “Justice for Chicken Rendang” was set up collecting signatures for a petition demanding an apology from chefs Wallace and Torode.
“As a Malaysian, if I could, I would personally go to the show and rendang their head. Uncultured swine, doesn’t know variety of cuisine and claims to be Masterchef ?” wrote Facebook user Jin Wee on the page of Malaysian newspaper The Star.A critic added: “We should be proud of defending rendang’s dignity over ridiculous statement made by an ignorant caucasian chef that Rendang should be ‘crispy’.” —