Looks can be deceiving. Roxi Wardman, a tattooed train driver assistant from Durban, has proved to be quite the Mary Berry in the third season of M-Net’s MasterChef SA. Debashine Thangevelo caught up with the hopeful to find out more about her journey and winning a recent visit to Dublin...
WHEN you first meet Roxi Wardman, you would sooner believe her to belong to some punk rock band than a Top 12 contestant in the third instalment of MasterChef SA.
Her funky stockings, only partially concealing her numerous tattoos, piercings and unmistakable fondness for animal print outfits, certainly gives that impression.
Only when you get to know her and her passions, do you get the full gravitas of her love for cooking – and baking in particular.
However, she first sheds light on her obsession with ink.
Wardman laughs, “I have actually lost count (of my tattoos). I started with four little butterflies on my back. Then I added five more… a rosary around my ankle, more butterflies, Thai Buddhist faces on my back, koi fish, a geisha and Marilyn Monroe.”
Many of them have special significance. She expands, “The rosary is basically for my gran, who was Portuguese and a heavy Catholic. She passed away and it was in remembrance of her. Marilyn Monroe? I just have an obsession with her. The Geisha is for my mum, koi fish is just a beautiful thing…”
Moving to her rather unusual current profession, she explains, “I was a waitress but I wasn’t happy. One of my friends at work printed out all these jobs at Transnet and I knew I ‘needed to try to get in there’, so I applied for a job. I had no idea what it was for. I just sent in my CV. They called me back for interviews and aptitude tests. I have been four years in the job now. It’s really long hours and involves shift work.”
As for working in such a male-dominated environment, she reveals, “It’s actually quite fun. The male train drivers respect you as a female.
“Some of them have been with the company for 27 years. They also look out for you and ensure you are okay.”
Wardman says her interest in cooking has been inherent since she was a little girl.
She notes, “I grew up around food. My mum is Portuguese and we used to always have family get-togethers, which meant food was everywhere. And my mum never held me back in the kitchen. If I wanted to bake biscuits when I was much younger, she didn’t care about the mess. She let me go wild and that also helped.”
So why did she not enter the first two seasons?
She shares, “I wasn’t in the right space. I lost a very special person in my life. I don’t think I would have coped with the pressure. I was surrounded by negative people and my self-confidence took a knock.”
It was on the encouragement of her parents and friends that she entered this year – but she almost pulled out at the last minute. Thanks to her boyfriend, she hung in there.
“I made a deconstructed red velvet cupcake for the cold auditions,” she announces, with unmistakable pride.
Making the Top 12 was obviously a big deal for her.
And she was most prepared for the fish filleting boot camp challenge in Cape Town.
She recalls, “I am not a big fan of cooking seafood. I like eating it but not preparing it. When I heard the boot camp was in Cape Town, which is like the seafood capital, I suspected it would have something to do with filleting fish. So I practised.”
Although she is fond of all the judges, her favourite is Pete Goffe-Wood. Wardman smiles, “They all bring something different to the table. But I love Pete. He is really out there and awesome.”
To date, she has continued to surprise. In fact, she won the mystery box challenge (made up of ingredients that are distinctly home-grown), which was a trip to Dublin to lunch with world famous Irish chef Kevin Thornton in his Michelin star restaurant.
With Cape Town being a big deal for her – she has never travelled outside of Durban – the excitement levels boiled over with her visit to Ireland.
And the dish that got her there was a butternut and peanut butter tart with a chocolate pinotage syrup.
If anything, she has now learnt that timing and a game plan are crucial.
She adds: “When you go into a challenge, you have to have a plan of action in mind. If you kind of wing it, it might not work because there is a list of things – depending on what takes the longest – that you have to work on. And that’s my strategy going forward. My time keeping is quite good. I have definitely surprised myself at boot camp and in the kitchen. In the back of your mind, you’re constantly thinking about making it through to the end because you don’t want to go home.”
So far it looks like her sweet tooth crusade has been a hit with both the judges and viewers.
• MasterChef SA airs on M-Net at 7.30pm on Thursdays.