WHEN Kamini Pather won season two of M-Net’s MasterChef SA in 2013, she was clear about one thing – she didn’t want to go the conventional route of a restaurateur. Nor did she want to pen a book.
No, she wanted to do something that inspired people but, at the same time, stay true to her love affair with food.
And the 31-year-old food blogger, who is also a savvy businesswoman, got to fulfil her wish with Food Network’s Girl Eat World.
The germination of this 10-part series was due to her maintaining relations with Lucky Bean Media post MasterChef SA.
She notes: “I kept going into the Lucky Bean offices. We kept chatting, lots of Skype calls and e-mails. Then we decided to do this – a show that was internationally viable.
“The concept is a bit self-indulgent. The guys at Lucky Bean are really inclusive: they wanted the show to be based on some truth. I was a blogger before MasterChef SA. I remember saying to Donald Clarke, one of the directors, that I wanted to create this digital food portal. We took bits and pieces of myself and that’s how the show originated – it was a collaborative effort… like harmony.”
Girl Eat World follows Pather while in 10 locations (Tokyo, Sydney, Bangkok, Lima, Dubai, Copenhagen, Berlin, Milan and Philadelphia) – including Joburg – to take in the sights and cuisine, via the help of a food blogger from each city.
Prior to the shoot, however, she had to first find bloggers with whom she gelled, which is an important component of the show.
Pather continues: “I needed to see if they were tele-genic. I Skyped with a number of people to see whether we have that vibe. As much as the show is about food and travel, it is also about forging relationships. You are making these connections and sharing so much of yourself.”
And so, within the time frame of nine weeks, she covered nine countries: “It was crazy. Anyone who thinks it is relaxed and glamorous has no idea. There was a moment in Dubai, we were shooting in a place that we didn’t have a permit for. I could see a cop coming along… but I got the link.”
Aside from taking in the sights, getting a sense of the myriad cultures and history that comes with a city, Pather’s adventurous palate sampled some heavenly dishes – and a few unpalatable ones, too.
“The story of food is a story of people. When they move from place to place, they bring the food and culture to whichever country they are in. We went to Lima and I ate something which is a Peruvian street speciality called anticuchos. It was slices of beef done on a grill with garlic and a few other spices. In Tokyo, which was one of my favourite places, it is so Western and so Japanese at the same time. The people are immaculately dressed. Their fashion is edgy and clean-cut. That effortless energy is in their food. In sushi, you don’t find avo and cheese. There is none of that Western bastardisation. It takes between five and 10 years to make the rice properly. There, you pick one thing to do in your life and you do it properly,” she reveals.
Interestingly, she chose Billy Law, a former MasterChef Australia contestant, to show her around. They have been friends for a few years and, given his Malaysian heritage, Billy introduced her to the diverse cuisine of the city, from sampling Vietnamese kangaroo to a south east Asia-inspired fertilised duck egg. The latter didn’t go down too well with Pather. She recalls, “I took a bite and apparently bit into the placenta. It was very gnarly.”
One of her travel highlights was visiting Berlin, where she sampled a smoked fish dish in Markthalle and visited the famous Street Food Thursday market.
Now based in Joburg, she also explored the city’s food culture on the show, sampling an African delicacy – sheep’s head – and the delights at the Neighbourhood Goods Market in Braamfontein.
By the way, there will be a Food Network pop-up restaurant in Jozi where Pather will give fans an introduction to the cuisine she sampled in themed sit-down dinners. Now that should whet the palates!
• Girl Eat World debuts on Food Network (DStv channel 175) on May 15 at 8pm.