Sharnee Q&A
Fast facts
1. Favourite chef: Philip Johnson, Kylie
Kwong.
2. Favourite restaurant: The Gunshop Cafe or
E'cco.
3. Favourite cuisine: Japanese.
4. Favourite place to travel: South East Asia but
dreaming of the Greek Islands one day.
5. Favourite dish to cook: Chocolate Self Saucing
Pudding with Ginger Custard.
6. Favourite vegetable: Avocado (even though it's
technically a fruit!).
7. Sweet or savoury: Both!
8. How do you like your eggs: Soft poached with
sea salt.
Q&A
Favourite ingredient and why?
I love cooking with lemons - I love sour, tangy flavours and they
always seem to bring a freshness to the dish. They are super
versatile because they work with both sweet and sour and all parts
can be used - zest, flesh, juice or even preserved whole.
What's your favourite meal of the day - breakfast, lunch or
dinner?
Definitely breakfast - it's the only meal where you can opt for
sweet or savory depending on your mood. Homemade toasted muesli
with Greek yoghurt and fresh berries or ricotta hot cakes with
honeycomb butter for sweetness. Savoury - poached eggs with garlic
mushrooms.
What dish would be the way to your heart?
Something that shows care has gone into it - simple, quality
seasonal foods, cooked well and served with something indulgent for
dessert.
What are your favourite tunes to cook to?
I like music - at the moment Florence and the Machine, Cassette
Kids, Belle & Sebastian, Metric and Architecture in Helsinki
are all on high rotation at my place.
What do you think you'll learn from being on
MasterChef?
Hopefully a whole lot more about food and the food industry - I
love the idea that we get a little bit of insight into so many
different facets of what is such a broad and varied industry.
Which judge makes you the most nervous?
All of them! I think Matt Preston is the most intimidating simply
because of his food knowledge - he can look at a dish and know its
strengths and weaknesses before even tasting it.
Tell us about how you got into cooking and how old were
you?
I loved cooking from a young age! I think I was about 6 when Mum
started teaching me the basics and letting me cook dishes on my
own. I used to love looking at pictures of food in cookbooks and
magazines and then trying to replicate them myself.
What's the first meal you remember cooking and was it a
success or a disaster?
Desserts were always my territory - I think for my parents it was
less of a risk than the main meal. Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
was always a family favourite as well as being a simple, cost
effect dish to make.
What three ingredients would you take with you to a desert
island and what would you cook with them?
Lemons so the acid could cook the fish I'd catch; coriander so I
could plant the root, and rice because it's such an easy staple -
I'd steam the fish in a banana leaf with lemon and coriander and
serve it with the rice.
If you were having any three people, alive or dead,
over for dinner, who would they be and what would you cook for
them?
Adriano Zumbo because I'd love to discover how he gets his wild
ideas, The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG as he is a truly inspirational
human being and Matt Preston because he's such good fun to be
around.
What inspired you to go on MasterChef?
My Mum inspires me a lot - she is always challenging herself but in
very intelligent, measured ways. There is always a solution for the
impossible with her. For me, Masterchef seemed like just that. A
way to explore a career path I've always dreamed of.
