Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week. They might welcome back
Speaker 1: to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris and on this
Speaker 1: podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players
Speaker 1: in television. Each episode you will get a front row
Speaker 1: seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and
Speaker 1: casting agents, plus the talent that we see on our screens.
Speaker 1: TV Reload reloads the shows that you were currently watching
Speaker 1: and gives you a better insight at our television industry
Speaker 1: and streaming services today. On the podcast, I have one
Speaker 1: of the latest eliminated Master Chef Australia contestants. It's Sashi.
Speaker 1: Master Chef. Fans versus favorite showed its teeth this week
Speaker 1: as we lost one of the series most celebrated contestants ever. Sashi,
Speaker 1: who won Series ten, was back to compete up against
Speaker 1: the likes of Julie Goodwin, Billy Michael and all the fans.
Speaker 1: But this week we saw his shock exit and we
Speaker 1: get all the inside goss. Huge Sashi fan and I
Speaker 1: hope that isn't too noticeable with my excitement and my
Speaker 1: voice talking to the man himself. We do go behind
Speaker 1: the scenes of his return to MASTERSHEF Australia, and we
Speaker 1: do get some signature Sashi laughs, which always makes me giggle.
Speaker 1: We find out what is next for him and who
Speaker 1: he wants to win. However, let's get started with today's guest.
Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome Sashi to TV Reload.
Speaker 2: Everybody has a reason why it came back. Master Sheff
Speaker 2: has produced some of the biggest names in food. My
Speaker 2: biggest inspiration is my Auntie's my mom.
Speaker 1: The first time ever it's fans versus favorites.
Speaker 2: I was just pushing and pushing and making sure I
Speaker 2: don't give up.
Speaker 1: We've got Billy Sashi.
Speaker 2: He jolly good one. I think mathashev is never about
Speaker 2: grooming someone to be a winner. Sashi.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, mate, you're.
Speaker 2: Going on and already if everyone ne won Master show, Hi, Sashi,
Speaker 2: I'm good, it's good good.
Speaker 1: Your elimination was one of the most brutal so far
Speaker 1: on MASTERSHEF Australia Fans versus Favorites. I honestly thought that
Speaker 1: you would win for a second time around, because I
Speaker 1: absolutely adore your food.
Speaker 2: I went in with a bit of an expectation. Also,
Speaker 2: like because I've win one time so winning second time
Speaker 2: would have been very nice, But the main reason for
Speaker 2: going back into the show was to really challenge myself.
Speaker 2: I needed a bit more competitiveness in me because the
Speaker 2: two years of COVID is just keeps you at home
Speaker 2: doing the basic stuff, just surviving through the whole pandemic.
Speaker 2: Nothing was there to really push you. And Master Chef
Speaker 2: gave me that push. Just make me go there and
Speaker 2: smash out some amazing dishes, put me under the palm,
Speaker 2: get me perspiring a little. So, yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1: You know what I loved. I love your perspective on
Speaker 1: now having the full Master Chef experience because you know what,
Speaker 1: you had never been eliminated before, Sashi.
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, mate, you're going on, I've never been eliminated, so
Speaker 4: I've got a taste of everything in Master Chef.
Speaker 2: Now this is family for me. Master Chef is family.
Speaker 2: I love coming back again and again. So I'm I'm upset,
Speaker 2: but it's okay. It happens.
Speaker 1: Was that always in the back of your mind when
Speaker 1: you returned, that you would try and see it from
Speaker 1: a positive perspective.
Speaker 2: Because when I go into the competition back, there can
Speaker 2: be only one winner, and already so the changes of
Speaker 2: you going back is obviously very high. So I went
Speaker 2: in with the mindset that definitely there might be something elimination,
Speaker 2: I might get illuminated. So going there with that mindset
Speaker 2: actually helped me. Actually, when I got eliminated, I know
Speaker 2: that that's only even one winner. Not everybody's going to
Speaker 2: everybody's a winner in terms of going into the competition,
Speaker 2: but and l a day, there can be only one
Speaker 2: master chef.
Speaker 1: Do you know or do you think that some of
Speaker 1: these favorites took some more convincing than others to return
Speaker 1: to the competition.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm not sure. Like everybody has a reason why
Speaker 2: they came back, so like I have a reason why
Speaker 2: I come back. It's pretty much to push myself to
Speaker 2: get my creativity back and all that there were other
Speaker 2: contestants have their own reasons. And as long as they're
Speaker 2: happy with the reason they're coming back and they're achieving
Speaker 2: what they want to achieve, that's what is the most
Speaker 2: important thing.
Speaker 1: I just expected that some people would cost more money
Speaker 1: than others, and I worried to get you back into
Speaker 1: the competition, that you might have bankrupted Channel.
Speaker 2: Ten is good. They would take me back anytime.
Speaker 1: You know it's actually when you cook on television, I
Speaker 1: honestly can smell your food. I mean it's just such
Speaker 1: a visceral experience. Obviously with a huge cultural influence. Who
Speaker 1: has been your biggest inspirations with food?
Speaker 2: You know when you're cooking, Obviously it starts from family.
Speaker 2: My biggest inspiration is my Auntie, is my mom, everybody
Speaker 2: who I seen cooking as a kid, and my howkers
Speaker 2: centers the food that I add growing up as a
Speaker 2: kid and a young adult in Singapore. They were my
Speaker 2: biggest inspiration also because you can see that they're putting
Speaker 2: so much of love and passion. They might do one
Speaker 2: or two dishes, but that one or two dishes they
Speaker 2: make sure is perfect. So the commitment, the kind of
Speaker 2: love they put into the food to deliver to their
Speaker 2: customers really inspire me to do what I'm doing at
Speaker 2: the moment. I want to make sure my customers who
Speaker 2: come through my dog in the restaurant are happy, so
Speaker 2: every single detail is taken into consideration, which I also
Speaker 2: do in the competition. I like to go into pretty
Speaker 2: much a lot of details. That's why even that dosas
Speaker 2: was not coming out perfectly last night, I was just
Speaker 2: pushing and pushing and making sure I didn't give up.
Speaker 2: So India, I managed to get a good dison dosa
Speaker 2: on the plate, but I just neglected a little bit
Speaker 2: on curry. I should have paid a bit more attention.
Speaker 3: I bet you're wondering what went wrong, and you probably
Speaker 3: think it was a doso mix. But we think because
Speaker 3: you were so worried about that, your attention probably wasn't
Speaker 3: where it needed to be. Your fish curry. It was
Speaker 3: burnt on the bottom of the pot, and that flavor
Speaker 3: actually permeated throughout the entire dish.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that the curry had burnt and that
Speaker 1: when the judges were giving their rationale that they're been
Speaker 1: a burn layer down the bottom, and that that had
Speaker 1: seeped through into the to the rest of the dish.
Speaker 1: Did you know that that had happened at the.
Speaker 2: Time, I didn't notice that. Also, because I finished the sauce,
Speaker 2: I taste everything because the curry was done one day ahead,
Speaker 2: so the curry sauce was done. The only thing I
Speaker 2: did was I blitzed it up into a nice thick
Speaker 2: pace and poached a fish in the curry. So I
Speaker 2: was letting the curry do his work cooking the fish,
Speaker 2: and I was focusing a lot on the dosa. But
Speaker 2: during that period, not thing's meant to happen.
Speaker 1: So yeah, what do they say? What's the saying? Shit happens.
Speaker 2: And even when I'm plating, I didn't go right deep
Speaker 2: into the pot. I just scoop up the fish nicely
Speaker 2: from the top with a bit of gravy, so I
Speaker 2: did not even realize it was even filled. Now I
Speaker 2: don't know whether it is burnt at a bottom or not.
Speaker 1: You know what, also was delicious with those chutneys. So
Speaker 1: I'm not the best of cook in the world, but
Speaker 1: I'm definitely going to try and make some of those chutneys.
Speaker 1: You can give me the recipe.
Speaker 2: I had a very big vision of plaiting the whole
Speaker 2: dish with banana leave and all those frenzy stuff, but
Speaker 2: in the end there was not enough time. I quickly
Speaker 2: could grab whatever I could put them together. They will
Speaker 2: make it look a little decent, not so bad.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, Matt, It look good. What was the biggest
Speaker 1: difference between this season and the season that you won
Speaker 1: Season ten? When it comes to how you approached the competition, the.
Speaker 2: Biggest difference is the last season, I don't know anything
Speaker 2: pretty much. I'm new into the season. At the same time,
Speaker 2: after a couple of weeks, there is more like a format.
Speaker 2: You know, Sunday is elimination, Monday mystery box. There is
Speaker 2: a format every day for five days of cooking, whereas
Speaker 2: now you don't know. They mix and match everything, So
Speaker 2: you're going in thinking that it might be a mystery box.
Speaker 2: It will not to be a service challenge. So you
Speaker 2: can't predict anything a moment, and even if you predict,
Speaker 2: most of the time you will be wrong. So you
Speaker 2: will be surprised with a lot of the changes that
Speaker 2: is happening.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to know with Master Chef whether or
Speaker 1: not you feel like you're getting a winner's edit, like
Speaker 1: you know you won season ten. Did you feel like
Speaker 1: you were getting a winner's edit then? And then when
Speaker 1: you came back did you feel like you weren't getting that?
Speaker 1: I guess the question I'm trying to ask you is
Speaker 1: or does it come down to luck, chance and circumstance
Speaker 1: on the food that you're cooking on this particular episode, I.
Speaker 2: Think Marthaschev is never about grooming someone to be a winner.
Speaker 2: It's always about the dish on that day. So you
Speaker 2: could have done some amazing dishes throughout your journey, but
Speaker 2: that one dish, if it's not perfect, you're home that night.
Speaker 2: So for me personally, is absorbing the brief and working
Speaker 2: towards the brief and putting a best dish possible gives
Speaker 2: you the chance to win the same time. Sometimes team
Speaker 2: challengers and all that, like for example, Round one, even
Speaker 2: though I did a very good dish, but only the
Speaker 2: best dish saves the whole team. Just imagine it was
Speaker 2: the bottom two dishes go for elimination, so the whole
Speaker 2: scenario would have changed. So sometimes these kind of things
Speaker 2: do take a bit of an effect on the final outcome.
Speaker 2: So anyladay, you have to cook your best every single time.
Speaker 1: Sashi, one of the things that I really like about
Speaker 1: you is you always try and push yourself a little
Speaker 1: bit harder. Do you think that there was more pressure
Speaker 1: on you this time around, being that you are one
Speaker 1: of the most celebrated winners in Master Chef history.
Speaker 2: The last time I was a bit culculative in terms
Speaker 2: of taking risk because I have a vision to achieve,
Speaker 2: a dream to achieve, Whereas this time around, my vision
Speaker 2: and my future plan was to push myself. So every
Speaker 2: time I got a brief, I will challenge myself. I'll
Speaker 2: push myself to make sure that I how to say it,
Speaker 2: make something better than my last one. So there was
Speaker 2: I was challenging myself.
Speaker 3: I'm a competitive person, so I want it pretty badly.
Speaker 3: I'm sure everybody else in the room is going to
Speaker 3: feel the same way, so bring it on.
Speaker 1: If Julie Goodwin doesn't win, what sort of advice do
Speaker 1: you have for her? Now that you kind of have
Speaker 1: some sort of understanding how it feels now to be eliminated,
Speaker 1: do you have any words of wisdom for Julie?
Speaker 2: Not really, I'm not going to give any advice to
Speaker 2: anyone because they are experts in their own field. I
Speaker 2: will sorongly say, cook what you believe in. So I
Speaker 2: believe that I want to challenge myself. I want to
Speaker 2: do dishes that cannot be done easily. So that was
Speaker 2: my vision. Julie might have her own vision what she
Speaker 2: wanted to cook. Michael or Billy can be anyone, So
Speaker 2: just follow with your guts and do what you think
Speaker 2: is best for yourself.
Speaker 1: Mastership Australia has changed your life and I love your
Speaker 1: food in and out of the show. I often buy
Speaker 1: your home kids the Sashi Secrets.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: What can we expect to see now? Has this return
Speaker 1: to the show set up new goals for you?
Speaker 2: So obviously the restaurant Gaja by Sashi is doing well
Speaker 2: at a moment. We are constantly changing our menu trying
Speaker 2: to give our customers the best experience possible. I launched
Speaker 2: a new platform within Gaja called Gaja Express. That is
Speaker 2: I'll be going to relaunch the brand again with some
Speaker 2: changes that is happening within the week or so. The
Speaker 2: biggest one is coming up is my restaurant in India,
Speaker 2: So we are starting a new restaurant called Pandan Club
Speaker 2: that is launching end of June early July. And cookbook.
Speaker 2: I just finished my cookbook, so that will be coming
Speaker 2: out in August. So I'll be traveling around in Australia
Speaker 2: in August doing some book launchers and uh yeah, book signing,
Speaker 2: seeing some fans. Yeah, it's going to be some interesting time.
Speaker 1: So Hit, do they know in India how well you
Speaker 1: were celebrated here in Australia, Yes.
Speaker 2: They do. India is also one of the biggest market
Speaker 2: for my fan base So India, South Africa, Europe. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's been a pretty big fan following in these countries.
Speaker 1: In those really short cooks. Is it a little unfair
Speaker 1: of the judges to be talking to you because I
Speaker 1: feel like they need to back away from the benches
Speaker 1: like watching you. In particular, I'm like, Sashi needs to cook,
Speaker 1: like leave him alone.
Speaker 2: I did that in my first season. I think first
Speaker 2: one or two weeks. When anybody who comes ask questions,
Speaker 2: I'll see not now, let me finish this. I'll come
Speaker 2: back to you shortly.
Speaker 1: Sashi.
Speaker 2: Yes, Hippie's good choice.
Speaker 3: What are you gonna do?
Speaker 2: I'm doing like an oyster sauce pepee with lemon grass
Speaker 2: capea lime chili and a bit of Vietnamese wrint, not
Speaker 2: ten minutes. Ten minutes. Over the years, I have learned
Speaker 2: to cook and talk at the same time. If you
Speaker 2: ask me this question bag in season ten, yes, I
Speaker 2: would say it's unfair because I wasn't able to juggle
Speaker 2: dead back then, But now with so much of experienced
Speaker 2: at talking and cooking is something that I'm able to do.
Speaker 1: One thing I noticed this week was when the ads
Speaker 1: revealed something as big as a spoiler last night that
Speaker 1: a favorite is going home? Is that giving away too
Speaker 1: much and ruining the first part of the episode for
Speaker 1: the viewers. I mean, we already knew that Favorite would
Speaker 1: be on the chopping block for the sake of promoting drama.
Speaker 1: Are the producers eating into the viewers enjoyment of each episode?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what was the whole idea behind it,
Speaker 2: but I was a little surprised because the first round
Speaker 2: fans and Favorite both were there. So by advertising favorites
Speaker 2: going into elimination, Yeah, you're right, maybe they have given
Speaker 2: away some for the first round, but an already it's
Speaker 2: good fun watching everything on social media and TV.
Speaker 1: Do you also think that we got like a really
Speaker 1: emotional story from Aldo last night? I mean, to make
Speaker 1: sure that viewers didn't absolutely spew when you were eliminated.
Speaker 1: It felt like we were given a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a reason to be okay with your exit by
Speaker 1: getting this beautiful and amazing backstory for Aldo.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what, but ELDO's story was very touching.
Speaker 2: I was personally very because I know Eldo very well
Speaker 2: and that story of his was very emotional.
Speaker 5: My last time that I was back home really was
Speaker 5: for my wedding actually to my husband, and that is
Speaker 5: when my father decided to not show up to the
Speaker 5: wedding because he thought there was a circus.
Speaker 2: But I'm not sure about the other anger because I
Speaker 2: had to keep things very simple and just think about
Speaker 2: what's happening with my cooking and my at time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how that been transplied.
Speaker 1: How much of those challenge twists affect you in person
Speaker 1: in the kitchen. I mean, some of those challenges harder
Speaker 1: on others because they are purposefully not leaning into their
Speaker 1: skill set. I mean, how much of last night's pressure
Speaker 1: tesch was a burden on you.
Speaker 2: I'm not a big fan of too much of time
Speaker 2: in cooking because that is how I cook at home.
Speaker 2: For me, time is very crucial, if anything more in
Speaker 2: nineteen minutes, I don't even bother looking at a recipe,
Speaker 2: So that is me. So I like to keep everything fast,
Speaker 2: simple and flavorful. So I guess having a lot of
Speaker 2: things to juggle at home, kids, family, business, restaurants. I
Speaker 2: don't do long cooks unless i'm you know, my longest.
Speaker 2: Also not eighteen hours. I've never done anything for eighteen hours.
Speaker 2: I hardly do smoking and all that, So yeah, it
Speaker 2: was a bit of a hard job for me. But
Speaker 2: the fermenting the better is something that I do regularly
Speaker 2: at home, so there was something I don't mind doing it.
Speaker 2: That's why I choose okay when they say long cook, okay,
Speaker 2: let's do those as because you will not be able
Speaker 2: to do it thosa in the kitchen, and I thought, yeah,
Speaker 2: why not, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Well. The great thing to ask you at this point
Speaker 1: is what has been your highlight coming back to Mastership Australia.
Speaker 2: That's a few The moment when I walk into the kitchen,
Speaker 2: that jaw dropping movement from the fence, that was really
Speaker 2: very nice to see. Then the egg plant when the
Speaker 2: fans thought that they choose a very difficult vegetable and
Speaker 2: it turned out to be my favorite vegetable, so that
Speaker 2: was an interesting episode. Then me, Michael and Tommy being
Speaker 2: a team calling Funk Brothers and we were creating some
Speaker 2: amazing tim dishes pretty much all the dishes that we
Speaker 2: whipped up during the team challenges worn so that was
Speaker 2: very interesting. I think I can go on and on this.
Speaker 1: I'm just really happy that you have had such a
Speaker 1: good time going back. I mean there's so many fans
Speaker 1: out there that you know, celebrate you and have been
Speaker 1: following your experience now for quite some time.
Speaker 2: There wasn't a bad cook at all throughout these last
Speaker 2: four weeks until yesterday. Other than that, everything us pretty
Speaker 2: good cooks.
Speaker 1: Who do you think who do you think is going
Speaker 1: to win the competition? Not what you know now, but
Speaker 1: who did you think was going to win the competition
Speaker 1: at this point?
Speaker 2: I think Michael got a very good chance based on
Speaker 2: his experience, the way he's looking into food. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: got a soft spot for Michael, So yeah, maybe Michael.
Speaker 1: Maybe Michael. What is something This is something I ask
Speaker 1: everyone who joins the podcast. What is something from behind
Speaker 1: the scenes that where as an audience didn't see but
Speaker 1: we and we won't say that you can share with
Speaker 1: us from your experience of making Master Share for Australia
Speaker 1: fans versus favorites.
Speaker 2: Is the production team? How much did it take care
Speaker 2: of us? Not many people know. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: time and effort put into the show and behind the scene.
Speaker 2: There's so many people that are putting in such long
Speaker 2: hours in making sure the kitchen looks beautiful. We are
Speaker 2: taking care so the production team, your lovely production team
Speaker 2: they have over there, which not many people see or
Speaker 2: know about them, which I personally feel you need to
Speaker 2: be highlighted.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I've talked about well, I just loved you
Speaker 1: on the show and I just want to say a
Speaker 1: funny little story about me. When I grew up, My
Speaker 1: mum used to ask us what we wanted for takeaway,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure the rest of Australia was saying that
Speaker 1: they wanted McDonald's o KFC, and my brother and I
Speaker 1: would be like Indian Food, we want to have the
Speaker 1: spicy Indian.
Speaker 2: Food Mega trip. Now the words are open negative. Better
Speaker 2: late you. We will treat you with some amazing dishes.
Speaker 2: You won't get your traditional carriages in mar restaurant, but
Speaker 2: you will be blown away with some of the creations
Speaker 2: we have.
Speaker 1: I'm on my way. I'm on my way. I've bought
Speaker 1: my ticket. I'm on my way to Adelaide. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us on the podcast. Congratulations on
Speaker 1: your time in Mastership Australia and I will continue to
Speaker 1: follow you on in your career.
Speaker 2: No pro Thank you so much for having me. Lovely