MasterChef Singapore Season 4: Here are the Top 12 contestants competing for the title
This year's competition has the contestants split into groups, each led by a different judge.
MasterChef Singapore's fourth season has finally started and if the remaining episodes can match the excitement in the first episode, we're in for a wild ride. The cooking competition kicked off with 18 home cooks discovering they had been split into three teams, led by chefs Audra Morrice, Bjorn Shen and Damian D'Silva. It turns out the judges will also be competing this year, each hoping that one of their contestants will be the MasterChef.
The contestants were then thrown into a baptism of fire as they had to prepare their signature dishes within 60 minutes, using only ingredients curated by their respective judges. This exhilarating first round saw two members from each team winning an immediate spot in the MasterChef kitchen and one from each team sent home.
In the second and final challenge, the cooks battled for the remaining six spots in the Top 12. However, the road to getting a white apron wasn't easy as each cook had to prepare a dish using the pantry’s “least celebrated items”: Tofu, drumstick and cincalok.
After a whirlwind battle, here are the Top 12 contestants of MasterChef Singapore Season 4, split into their respective groups.
1. TEAM AUDRA
Louise Yan, 43: Born and raised in Taiwan, Louise quit her role of almost 20 years in a multinational company to pursue her dream of starting a healthy snack business. Besides running her start-up, Louise also teaches cooking classes, boasting a cooking style that is a fusion of different cuisines from around the world.
Tina Amin, 42: A serial cooking show competitor, Tina was previously the runner-up in Kek Champion, a baking competition. Her culinary journey started when she was a child who helped her parents run a shop at Raffles Place.
Inderpal Singh, 33: Formerly an escalation officer, Inderpal quit his job and started a home-based food business, selling butter chicken and chapati. His love for cooking started at the age of five when he helped out in the kitchens of Sikh temples.
Mandy Kee, 41: A cervical cancer survivor, Mandy knows the importance of surrounding yourself with positivity. Her love for cooking led her to dream of opening a cafe-slash-cooking studio where she can teach cooking classes.
2. TEAM BJORN
Saza Faradilla, 27: Saza's cooking style focuses on Southeast Asian cuisine, which she is currently studying as part of a Master's degree in Southeast Asian studies. Her experience with food rescue organisations has given her the ability to innovate and use a wide variety of ingredients. She dreams of training as a chef and opening a combined diner and pole dance studio.
Aretha Law, 24: An aerospace engineer, Aretha taught herself to cook her own dinners whenever her parents worked late. Her mother also had a hawker stall for about 10 years which also fuelled her love for food. Her dream is to combine her two passions, engineering and food, by creating new cooking equipment.
Divya Tolath, 31: Divya developed her skills to create delicious and inventive dishes inspired by her travels around the world. Her ultimate goal is to turn her passion for cooking into a full-time career, hoping to host pop-up supper clubs and dinner parties.
Jonathan Ng, 37: Although he's a ship broker, Jonathan's real passion lies in cooking. This self-taught cook regularly cooks for a family of 10 and up to 60 people during the festive season. He draws inspiration from his mother's Peranakan cuisine and his wife's Eurasian dishes to create his unique recipes and hopes to open his own private dining business someday.
3. TEAM DAMIAN
Amanda Chia, 23: This law trainee has taken internships at a Michelin Guide restaurant and a hawker pop-up. She even went on an exchange programme in Italy where she learned to make pasta from Italian nuns. In her free time, she volunteers, tutors and participates in various charitable activities. Her dream is to use her F&B skills to do good and become a philanthropist.
Aameer Ailmchandani, 24: Aameer's passion for spices and his family's style of cooking from his ancestral region of India are the skills he hopes will impress the judges and help forge a career in the culinary arts. In his personal life, this spice-mixer holds a black belt in taekwondo and has even conquered Everest Base Camp alone without a guide.
Aizat Haikal, 33: A former flight attendant, Aizat lost both his parents in recent years and has used cooking as a way to reconnect with his memories of his late mother. His home-based halal food business is a tribute to her and his goal on MasterChef is to make his mother proud and take his business to another level.
Reuben Wong, 30: For this newlywed, his journey as a cook began when he lived in motels in Sydney. He brought his own meals to potlucks in church and even started an Instagram to showcase his food while in Australia. Reuben tends to lean towards European and Western ingredients but also hopes to promote more appreciation for local ingredients in Singaporean cuisine.
Subsequent episodes of MasterChef Singapore Season 4 will air from Aug 13, every Sunday at 9.30pm. All episodes will be available on-demand, on the same night via meWATCH and Mediacorp's YouTube channel.
