The girl who wants to eat the world
Masterchef SA 2013 winner Kamini Pather recently returned home to Cape Town after an intense nine weeks of travelling and shooting for her new show, Girl Eat World.
Since winning the title of MasterChef 2013, life for Kamini Pather has stayed the same in some ways; she still blogs and is the host of a lifestyle radio show.
But in other ways, her life has changed enormously.
“My world is a place of living my dream. It is a dream of being a 'Cooking Superhero' – pun intended; one that’s on fire and cooks beyond this world,” she says.
Since scooping the MasterChef title, Kamini has partnered with producers, Lucky Bean Media, who’ve helped make her cooking superhero dream – and her own cooking show - a reality.
“I want to tell the story of food and the people that live in the southern hemisphere. I want to inspire the nomads and tourists of the world to visit and experience the different story of this half of the world!” says Kamini.
Girl Eat World takes the viewer to cities like Johannesburg, Tokyo, Bangkok, Lima, Sydney, Milan, Berlin, Copenhagen and Dubai. It documents Kamini’s food journey and the magic of the connections that are made along the way. It’s also about the foodies and travel bloggers who host Kamini; showing her the cities from their perspective. And of course, it results in crazy adventures that include interesting taste experiences!
Kamini says her most memorable eating experience happened in Milan at a 100-year-old restaurant. The chef, who is a third generation owner, showed her how to make risotto milanese, which is risotto with saffron.
“He didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Italian but we spoke the language of food. Somehow we chuckled because we understood each other,” she says.
And it seems Kamini doesn’t say ‘no’ when it comes to food. She revealed that while shooting in Lima, a place that has a lot of Vietnamese culinary influence, she ate ‘balut’ – a developing 17-day-old embryo duck egg.
The thing is, one never knows quite how far along the embryo has developed.
“I cracked the egg open and took a bite, it looked like plastic,” she said. Her host later informed her that she was in fact eating the placenta.
Girl Eat World is still in its production phase, with the editing and voiceovers yet to be completed.
We'll likely be able to taste its sights and flavours on our local food or travel channel sometime next year - and we're looking forward to it!
(Thumbnail image: Preyen Moodley)