On a chilli night in Farnham guests at Birdies were treated to lots of giggles and MasterChef secrets.
Alton’s culinary queen and 2023 Masterchef winner Chariya Khattiyot joined forces with hilarious comedy duo Luke Bateman and Elliott Williams on Wednesday, August 21, for a treat of show.
The trio dipped their fingers into what happens behind the scenes at Masterchef, offered culinary tips and tricks and shared a few surprises with the audience.
Chariya fell in love with cooking through touring food markets with her grandad in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. She wanted her own kitchen from a young age and got jealous of children when she saw the plastic toy kitchens in IKEA.
She was introduced to a lot of spices and flavours from northern Thailand at this time, prompting a determination to bring the cuisine and flavours to the UK.
Her Alton restaurant Khao Soi is the embodiment of this name, taking the name of a northern Thai noodle dish.
Some of Chariya’s Masterchef stories were hilarious as forgot to put dozens of eggs in a cake for hungry firemen, but somehow got away with it.
Another great story was the reasoning in using liquid nitrogen in one of the challenges. A bottle was £300, but she thought “why not?”.
“It’s there, so why not use it? I’ve seen loads of people use it on YouTube,” she said to a laughing crowd.
Chariya also spoke of the secrets of Masterchef from the ten second warnings to how hot the dishes are when presented to the judges.
After the interval, Luke and Elliot presented the guest with their attempt at a Chariya recipe with the not-quite-perfect offering being dished out to brave audience members.
The dish was Chariya’s toffee and pear upside down frangipane cake - a recipe which, reported the duo, surprisingly did not include pears.
Chariya’s rise over the last few years from her coffee shop Coffee Cherry to winning Masterchef and now opening her restaurant Khao Soi just down the road in Alton has been massive.
She spoke of how waiting for them to announce the winner was the longest minute ever and they looked at each contestant for a prolonged period to add to the suspense.
But she said at that point everyone was happy to simply be there and tried their best.
The audience got involved once again but this time prizes were up for grabs with the comedy duo putting volunteers to the test after signing a waiver for their safety.
Volunteers were required to battle each other in a chilli-eating competition which saw eight rounds of chilli eating with each round increasing Scoville levels.
Alex, Ian and Becca stepped up to take on the challenge most of them were volunteered by their friends rather than having the courage to step up themselves.
It was a close battle but the ultimate winner was Alex who respectfully shared the prizes with the other two competitors. These included a Masterchef apron, oven gloves and a tea towel.