MasterChef Singapore Top 12 Contestant “Embarrassed” By Finger Cut Injury In Season Premiere That Was Caught On Camera
People get hurt in the kitchen all the time. Nicks, burns, falls, you name it.
But how often do you get your injury captured on camera?
That’s what happened to MasterChef Singapore contestant Aretha Law in the Season 4 premiere — where the 24-year-old aerospace engineer cut through her fingernail in the first challenge.
We caught fleeting moments of her grimace as a medic attended to her injury. It wasn’t a pretty sight but it sure made one helluva first impression.
“I wasn’t the only one to cut their finger that day, quite a few of us cut our fingers,” Aretha tells 8days.sg via e-mail. “Watching that scene doesn’t trigger me in any sense but I do feel a bit embarrassed by it, seeing how dramatic it was on TV!”
The cut was really no big deal, she added.
“A chef at a restaurant I used to do waitressing at once told me, ‘Can't really call yourself a chef if you haven’t had the occasional burns and cuts.’”, she said. “So I'm not too bothered by kitchen injuries, minus the initial stinging pain.”
Battle wound: Aretha cut through her fingernail in the first challenge in the season premiere of MasterChef Singapore Season 4.
Sadly, Aretha failed to make the cut (pun unintended) on Sunday’s (Aug 20) show — she was the second Top 12 contestant to be booted out.
Her path to elimination began when Team Bjorn came in last in the ‘Hawker Food Challenge’ at the social enterprise Dignity Kitchen.
The defeat sent them alongside one rep from Team Audra and Team Damian off to the elimination round, a ‘Follow the Recipe’ challenge where they had to learn to temper chocolate from pastry chef Fiona Ting and incorporate it within a dessert.
“How hard can it be to bake a cake?” asked Aretha, who works at an American MNC. The problem is, she was a baking noob.
“My dish is called No Recipe because I have absolutely no idea how to make desserts,” a despondent Aretha said of her Hibiscus Sponge Cake (with lemongrass rice pudding on tempered chocolate).
Here, we check in on Aretha and ask her about that lacerated digit and if her teammates inadvertently sabotaged her MasterChef dreams by nominating her as the leader in the Dignity Kitchen challenge.
Cannot make it: Aretha Law's No Recipe: Hibiscus Sponge Cake (with lemongrass rice pudding on tempered chocolate) didn't win the judges over.
Your introduction in the season premiere was very memorable — you sliced your fingernail. Does watching that scene trigger you? How’s the finger now?
I wasn’t the only one to cut my finger that day, quite a few of us cut our fingers (laughs). Watching that scene doesn’t trigger me in any sense but I do feel a bit embarrassed by it, seeing how dramatic it was on TV!
The finger is fine; in fact, I couldn’t remember which finger it was until I saw the episode. Frankly, it was okay after a week, mainly due to how clean the cut was. I was able to find the original picture of the cut for when people asked me what happened to my finger after they watched the show.
We had high hopes for you. We thought you’d go into the Top 5, at least. How far did you think you would've gone?
Well, like the spirit of the show, everything and anything can be a surprise. So don’t try to predict. I was just happy I was able to get the white apron. That was my one goal on the show. I didn’t see myself winning nor did I see myself going that far mainly cause of the dessert challenge that would eventually come. It came early and therefore I left early. Regardless, I was just happy to participate in the show. However, I am a little sad that I may have disappointed my friends, colleagues, and in-laws that I was eliminated early.
In the Dignity Kitchen team challenge, you said you were more a follower than a leader, and yet your teammates, Divya and Jonathan, chose you as their leader. What do you think they saw in you that convinced them you can lead them?
I wasn’t sure either, but after the challenge, Divya and Jonathan shared that they hoped to boost my confidence through this, and wanted me to believe in myself as much as they did — to believe that I do belong on the show as much as everyone else. That really touched me, and I appreciate them so much for looking out for me even though we were in a competition. Honestly, it was a total bummer that we were the last-placed team, and it did the opposite of what they hoped to achieve.
Why didn’t you say no? I would’ve picked Divya simply because she is more vocal.
I did say no! In fact, off-camera I was still saying no. Even right before we started the cook, I was still saying no. Either Divya or Jonathan would have been perfect for the role of captain. Both of them have experience in leadership roles from their jobs and they are able to keep calm and stay confident. They have amazing ideas and they have cooked for big groups of people before. Divya has amazing flavour profiles, Jonathan has brilliant cooking techniques, and then there's me... a panic mess.
Do you think Divya and Jonathan sabo your MasterChef dreams? If you weren’t the leader, how differently would you have performed?
No way! Divya and Jonathan are lovely and kind people with beautiful souls, and would never do such a thing. When we are all in the holding/waiting room, there is nothing but encouragement and love for one another throughout my time there. If I wasn’t the leader, I think I wouldn’t be so anxious and feel more at ease. Once the panic and anxiety set in, it’s hard to maintain composure. I could hear my heart beating in my head, plus I was feeling exhausted and super drained.
Team effort: Judge and mentor Chef Bjorn Shen with his team — (from left), Aretha Law, Jonathan Ng and Divya Tolath — at the Dignity Kitchen.
Is there footage in the Dignity Kitchen challenge that we didn’t see on TV?
Yes, plenty. I mean, it was four hours of prep and I think an hour of service. There were also lots of times we were just going around wondering where the kitchen wares were. Lots of tasting each other's dishes, trying to make sure that we were properly seasoning the food and ensuring it was cooked properly. Oh, and a second injury where I burnt my arm from the deep fryer — I still have the scar — and emotional injury because the pressure was so intense and I was denied my emotional support, kopi o kosong, throughout the whole challenge.
The elimination round was painful to watch: the second it was revealed that it was a dessert challenge, your face dropped — it was as if you’d given up. What was the first reaction when you found out that it was cake making challenge?
I didn’t even need for the challenge to be revealed to know it was a dessert challenge. One look at the marble slab and I instantly thought “Welp, it’s been nice, guess it's my turn to leave”. Small hope that it was a ‘Follow the Recipe’ challenge since tempering chocolate was involved. But that was quickly extinguished when they said what the challenge actually was. However, during the cook, I was kind of happy, in a sense. Because I knew my teammates had great ideas and would be able to successfully pull the challenge off. I also didn’t want Inderpal [from Team Audra] or Amanda [from Tean Damian] to be eliminated because both of them and their teams did amazingly during the previous challenge. It was rude that they were sent for elimination as well. So, I guess you could say I was trying to accept my fate halfway through the cook.
Your elimination served as a teachable moment for future MasterChef contestants: Practice your baking! Did you regret not taking your baking more seriously?
Hard to practice baking when you do not have an oven at home. Like, yeah, I did memorise a few recipes, but theory without practical? It was always a disaster in the making. Like my “rubbery” sponge cake, I vaguely remember the ingredient ratios to pull it off, but I definitely over- or under-mix the whole thing, which ended up making the cake “rubbery”. Perhaps when I move to my own place and have my own kitchen space with an oven, maybe my dessert skills would be better. Right now, I'll just continue ‘baking’ with an air fryer.
What’s next for you?
I don't know. Continue with engineering. Will I still be cooking after this elimination? For sure. I stopped for a while because I was in such a wreck but cooking for my friends, colleagues, and my husband makes me happy because they are truly enjoying my food. Will I do something in the food industry? Not sure, I don’t feel like I am good enough to enter the culinary world just yet. Will I make food content? Maybe if I have the time. Will I continue to have kitchen injuries? Definitely.
Watch Episode 3 of MasterChef Singapore here:
MasterChef Singapore is on meWATCH & Channel 5, Sun, 9.30pm; all episodes available on-demand, on the same night via meWATCH and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube Channel.
