#17: The Potluck Chats With: Nor Hadayah Mohamad, Top 5 MasterChef Singapore Finalist
Soulful cook Nor shares her delicious MasterChef journey with us, how her interest in food started and how she plans to open the possibilities of Halal food.
Welcome to The Potluck newsletter. This week, I dive into my love for nail-biting MasterChef shows and feature one of this season’s most creative cooks. Let’s tuck in. Subscribe here:
Stepping into the cavernous MasterChef kitchen studio felt like “entering a wrestling ring where you would question your life choices”, recalled Nor Hadayah Mohamad with a chuckle. The affable homemaker, who is fondly known as Nor, is a Top 5 finalist of the recently-concluded second season of cooking competition MasterChef Singapore. A firm favourite on the show, Nor stole the hearts of many with her food which is a mastery of deft flavour combinations and distilled the essence of cooking with soul.
Not surprisingly, she has been hailed as “Soul Woman'' by judge chef Audra Morrice when she tucked into her Gambas Al Ajllio. Her tropical concoction of Kek Pisang Nanas - a banana-pineapple-coconut dessert - earned high praise that it could very well be “Singapore’s next national dish”.
Nor shares: “The experience has been intense, but also humbling and educational. It is not so much about winning the title, I just want to showcase my passion for food and ensure that dishes are packed with many flavours when cooked in a short amount of time.”
Listen to Nor’s food story on The Potluck Podcast
“Cooking on MasterChef was like entering a wrestling ring”
Toss in the high-octane pressure of cooking on television - and for judges and chefs Morrice, Bjorn Shen and Damian D'Silva with time limits, and getting riddled with surprises, from mystery box challenges and team pair-ups.
Nor still remembers her first time entering the MasterChef arena for a preliminary cooking round - “It was quite nerve-wracking - my heartbeat was racing and it reminded me of taking part in running competitions during my schooling days.” She adds that the atmosphere was serious and competitive. Like what viewers saw on TV, cooking time was measured down to the wire. Besides a cool head, quick thinking and improvisation were also key ingredients for success in the tall-walled MasterChef kitchen
Looking back, one of her biggest takeaways was the Chinese technique of wok-smoking that she gleaned from fellow contestant, Michelle.
“I have been using the technique to cook Daging salai masak lemak cili padi (spicy smoked beef in coconut broth). Instead of tea leaves, I smoke the meat with aromatics such as lemongrass and banana leaves.”
This method is also an easier alternative to the traditional way of cooking - hanging the meat over burnt coconut husks to infuse the meat with smoke.
Now that she has gone through the MasterChef rite of passage, what would she have told herself at the start: “Do not be too stressed over nothing and be fluid and flexible as you cook, so do not be too fixated on something.”
Rising Out of Her Mother’s Shadows in the Kitchen
From as early as 5, Nor remembers being “mesmerized by the act of preparing food” so much so that she was “my mother’s shadow in the kitchen”. Besides being glued to observing how her mum cooked in the kitchen, young Nor also looked forward to early morning trips to the wet market in Taman Jurong.
“I was amazed that all the ingredients were so fresh and liked watching my mum banter with the vendors - and it was back then when chickens were slaughtered at the markets,” she recounts. “I thought it was quite cool to watch the uncle slaughter the chicken - it would be traumatic for other kids, but not me,” she says with a laugh.
One of her early tasks in the kitchen was helping her mum crimp epok epoks (Malay curry puff) that were stuffed with both sardine and potatoes, instead of playing with her neighbours.
Although her mum ignited her interest in food and cooking, she was rather territorial when it came to cooking in the home kitchen. So, it was only 11, when Nor couldn’t contain her urge for some kitchen action and finally cooked her first dish - telur dadar (omelette with onions and chillies) - and the rest was history.
Some of her notable dishes include whipping up her rendition of KFC fried chicken (KFC was Halal-certified in Singapore in 1994). “I craved for the chicken whenever I watched the KFC advertisements or walked past the shops, so I made my version of it.” She also picked up Chinese cooking techniques like steaming fish from watching Yan Can Cook.
Similarities between Malay and Mexican Food
Her love for Latin American cuisine, which was displayed in Masterchef through dishes like Gambas Al Ajillo and empanadas, was sparked when she worked as a waitress at a Mexican restaurant during her schooling years. The staff meals opened her palate to new flavours - some of them had parallels with Malay cooking.
“I found spicy and acidic flavours of Mexican cuisine quite comforting - they would also use banana leaf to grill meats and infused chillies into many of the dishes.”
One of her favourite Mexican dishes is Veracruz-style fish stew, which features red snapper cookies in tomatoes, capers and olives. These days, she cooks up all sorts of food from pandan madeleines, intricately designed Uzbek bread (non) that are stamped with intricate designs to her riff on the Japanese hotplate concept, Pepper Lunch, complete with hand-drawn plate trimmings.
What’s Next on her Plate?
It is little surprise that she plans to open a Halal Mexican eatery, and she hopes to have her baking and cooking show on Netflix on how to infuse artistry in the kitchen - from cooking to plating the dish.
She also hopes to write a series of illustrated cookbooks on savoury dishes and desserts from both Malay and other cuisines. She also wants to open up the possibilities of Halal food by coming up with a glossary of Halal ingredient substitutes (not everything can be replaced with apple cider vinegar) that can be used to cook dishes from a globe-trotting range of cuisines. And we can hardly wait.
Listen to Nor’s food story on The Potluck Podcast
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