The third episode of MasterChef Singapore Season Three saw delivery rider Ilya Nur Fadhly shining as he became the star of the day winning the “scrap” food challenge and walking away with SGD3,000.
The challenge was centered around raising awareness on food wastage and each cook was given an hour to whip up treats with the inventive use of discarded food.
In order to make sure that they don’t cheat they were each given food scrap bins on their bench top. They were only allowed to dispose of items that they absolutely could not use.
Ilya’s dish consisting of Chwee Kueh earned a host of compliments from the judge with Chef Bjorn stating that the food delivery rider was definitely ready to represent Singapore on the world stage. Ilya clinched the DBS cash prize where SGD3,000 was transferred directly through the DBS Digi Banking app. This gave him the strategic advantage- out of five other cooks whose dishes were tasted by the judges, he could select three to be safe from elimination.
Ilya who is 36 years old and a father of two said that his dream was to to open his own food establishment one day with a secret menu that changes weekly. Employing a cooking style that uses flavorful combinations and fusion for comfort food he said that being a food delivery rider wasn’t necessarily a bad thing and isn’t always because a person is not educated enough to do something else.
“Sometimes it is merely a choice of occupation,” he said. Some of his favourite activities include making TikTok videos depicting humorous moments in his daily life.
“I was an education consultant providing enrichment courses for school and started doing delivery during the pandemic,” he added.
Curiously, Ilya joined MasterChef to prove to his wife that he could do it as she felt that he wasn’t ready.
Meanwhile in an interesting twist in this latest instalment of MasterChef as contestants braced themselves for another double elimination, Chef Bjorn informed two contestants who thought they are definitely out of the race that there would be no eliminations in this round. So Raj Shagaran Mahalingam and Gooi Jin Yi were saved. Ten contestants still remain to face the heat in the kitchen for another day.
