Doctor has winning recipe for Masterchef triumph
DOCTOR SALIHA MahmoodAhmed has become the 13th amateur cook to claim the Masterchef title.
The 29-year-old from Watford beat competition from Steve Kielty and Giovanna Ryan to be named champion in Friday night’s show after seven gruelling weeks of culinary challenges and an exhilarating final cook-off.
Mahmood-Ahmed’s winning meal, which included a starter inspired by her grandmother’s house in Pakistan, was awarded the Masterchef 2017 trophy by judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
The junior doctor and mum of one, who battled 64 amateur cooks to take the prize, swapped on-call shifts with colleagues to ensure she could take part in the competition.
She joked the win had left her smiling so much her cheekbones were hurting. She said: “A shock, a surprise, I’m happy, excited...if you’ve got an adjectives dictionary then I could fill it with all the positives. It’s great, absolutely great.
“Watching back brings back all those memories. It’s a very emotive thing cooking the food you’ve designed when you love to cook and love to please people with your food.”
During the final week she has had to cook for the American Ambassador to the UK, embark on a culinary mission to South Africa, and impress one of Britain’s most creative chefs – the two-Michelinstarred Sat Bains.
Last night’s show saw Mahmood-Ahmed, Kielty and Ryan prepare a three-course meal for Torode and Wallace. Her winning starter was a venison shami kebab with cashew and coriander green chutney, chana daal and a kachumbar salad. It was followed by a Kashmiri-style sous vide duck breast, with crispy duck skin, freekeh wheatgrain, spiced with barberries, walnuts and coriander, a cherry chutney and a duck and cherry sauce.
And the champion dessert was a saffron rosewater and cardamom pannacotta, served with deconstructed baklava. The Middlesex-born doctor said she would love to continue with her medical career – in which she is specialising in gastroenterology – but also dreams of writing cookbooks and tackling obesity.