Aaron

Date: 4/05/2009

Favourite chef: Ferran Adria

What’s your favourite restaurant?

Les Ombres, Paris.

What's your favourite ingredient and why?

Scallops - amazing texture and taste and truly versatile.

What's your favourite utensil and why?

Cooking smoke gun - a cool little way of adding flavour to anything.

What’s your favourite meal of the day – breakfast, lunch or dinner?

Dinner.

What do you prefer, chicken, beef, seafood or tofu, and why?

Beef, nothing better than a perfectly cooked well season steak.

What dish would be the way to your heart?

Rich indulgent chocolate tart (Chocolate Tart Robuchon from My Vue by Shannon Bennett).

What’s your favourite tune to cook to?

“Welcome To The World” by Kevin Rudolf and “Chelsea Dagger” by The Fratellis.

Describe how you felt during the MasterChef audition?

Nervous but was excited by the once in a life time experience.

Tell us about your journey into the Top 20:

So far, it has been a life-changing experience where I have learnt a lot about myself and my food.

What do you think you’ll learn from being on MasterChef?

An amazing food knowledge, personal growth and the ability to be a better chef and person.

Are you nervous about cooking for the judges and why?

No, I am here to learn and have constructive criticism about my food.

Tell us about how you got into cooking and how old were you?

I was 18 and through my first job at uni working in a restaurant, discovered amazing food better than anything I could cook at home, living off pasta and chicken at the time. I became curious, researched food, googled elBulli, discovered the culinary foam and I was off.

What’s the first meal you remember cooking and was it a success or a disaster?

The first meal I fully cooked was honey mustard chicken with roast potatoes when I was 17 for my father and I, and it was a success.

Who do you cook for the most?

Myself and my partner.

What do you love and what do you hate about cooking food?

I love the creativity and playfulness of food, Hate that all the good stuff (foie gras, truffles, scallops) is so expensive!

What three ingredients would you take with you to a desert island and what would you cook with them?

Beef, potatoes and chocolate for a great steak and veg meal and the sweet hit after.

If you were having any three people, alive or dead, over for dinner, who would they be and what would you cook for them?

Ferran Adria, Pierre Hermé and Joël Robuchon as they are my three culinary idols. I would cook ten entrée courses covering ingredients such as scallops, foie gras, kobe beef, duck, blue eye trevalla, things that I could pour my soul, personalty and love of food into.

What inspired you to go on MasterChef?

For the chance at a life-changing experience and to learn about food and myself as a person.

And how do you like your eggs?

Scrambled with toast, bacon, maple syrup and banana mascarpone.