Gregg Wallace has clarified his position on how chicken should be cooked after a row involving a Masterchef contestant’s elimination escalated to involve the Malaysian Prime Minister.
Show host Gregg admitted during an appearance on Good Morning Britain he used the wrong phrasing to criticise Zaleha Nadir Olphin’s Nasi Lemak when he suggested the chicken in her rendang should be “crispy”.
“The skin isn’t crispy. It can’t be eaten but all the sauce is on the skin I can’t eat,” he complained while tasting the rendang during an episode of the BBC One show last week.
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However, while Gregg owned up to describing the traditional approach to the dish rice cooked in coconut milk that includes peanuts, spicy prawns and rendang inaccurately, he insisted Ms Olphin was the right pick to go.
He explained on GMB earlier today: “What happened was, part of her dish was a rendang, and I said that the skin wasn’t crispy.
“I didn’t mean it should be fried, like fried chicken. What I meant was, it wasn’t cooked and it simply wasn’t cooked.
“But rest assured, the best cooks will always go through [to the next round of the competition].”
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Fellow host John Torode added: “That’s the point, the best cooks go through. And if you look at the final eight, the food that they’re producing is unbelievable.
“I did a whole series on Malaysia. Malaysian food is fantastic. I absolutely love it. I said to [Zaleha]: ‘It wasn’t cooked enough’. That’s what I said. I exactly did say that.”
Admitting he used the wrong word, Gregg said once again the skin wasn’t cooked properly.
“She didn’t go out because her skin wasn’t crispy,” Gregg said. “She went out because the other cooks were better.
“If you look at it, you can tell the skin just wasn’t cooked. It’s white and flappy. ‘Crispy’ was the wrong word. But the skin wasn’t cooked.”
Critics on social media, however, have accused the Masterchef stars of being mistaken and ‘ignorant’ about Malaysian cuisine.
Hey Master Chef UK Judge, this is how we slow cook our Chicken Rendang. Tell us if u have any magical way to make it crispy.
Don’t be a snob and it is about time for you to admit your ignorance and mistake and respect our traditional cuisine. pic.twitter.com/0syRY4Fkih— Kamil Noordin (@SuperAnfield) April 3, 2018
Ask me how to made crispy rendang master ignorant chef !1!1! U must not be masterchef jury bcouse U not have more literation about food around the world, shame on you chef. And salam rare crispy chicken KFC in your country
— Fikri Habibie (@FikriHabibie) April 3, 2018
I have never in my life eaten a chicken rendang which is crispy and sauce not stuck to the skin. Either judges at masterchef UK had wrong rendang in UK or theybare just plain ignorant on how to cook certain dishes. Have they mistaken rendang with KFC dipped in chilli sauce?
— funnlim (@funnlim) April 3, 2018
this master chef crispy chicken rendang debacle is giving me high blood pressure. CRISPY rendang?????? where in sweet hell has that ever been a thing
— eggspectations by hayley kiyoko (@inasnatasya) April 4, 2018
Did Masterchef UK seriously eliminate a contestant because her chicken rendang wasn’t “crispy”?
i am angery
— Ignideus (@ignideusLP) April 4, 2018
And even PM Mohammed Najib Tun Razak has inserted himself into the row, posting an image of rendang on his Twitter account with the question: ‘Does anyone eat chicken rendang ‘crispy’?”
Mana ada orang makan rendang ayam ‘crispy’? #MalaysianFood pic.twitter.com/nWBbaVN8HY
— Mohd Najib Tun Razak (@NajibRazak) April 3, 2018
Zaleha, however, has promised to continue cooking her favourite dish by her preferred method and “will not change it for the world”.
She wrote on Instagram: “I stand by my traditional way of cooking Nasi Lemak.”
Good Morning Britain is on ITV, weekdays, from 6am.
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