MasterChef UK’s breakout star Sandy Tang on bringing Chinese cuisine to the masses – and dodging coronavirus-inspired racism
She may have not have lifted the MasterChef trophy, but Sandy Tang was the breakout star of this year’s UK series, which just concluded on BBC. With her clever combinations of ingredients and influences, as well as beautiful presentation, the 24-year-old originally from Macau won the viewers’ vote. “It was such an incredible experience,” she tells me. “I got to cook in a Michelin-starred restaurant, cook for the Royal Navy on the HMS Diamond, went to Mauritius and filleted a fish that’s longer than my arm…”
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When Tang auditioned for the show she says it was because, “I just wanted to cook better and learn from the best”. She says meeting the other contestants was also an enriching part of the experience, adding, “We learnt from each other’s cooking, and mistakes too.” Her day job – for now – is a tech consultant and her passion for cooking stemmed from studying chemistry at school, “Cooking is sort of similar, using the combination of heat, acid, fats and salt – but you can eat the experiment afterwards,” she says.
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Having moved to England when she was 13, being on the show reinforced her identity as Macanese. “I have never thought this hard about my cultural background because my cooking reflects all this,” she says. “Growing up in Macau I didn’t realise how special it is and took the East-meets-West culture for granted. Macau cuisine is a blend of Portuguese and Chinese cooking and is recognised as the world’s first fusion food.”
So how did she come up with the dishes? “Most of the ideas spontaneously spiralled from places that I have travelled to or a significant childhood memory. There was a time that I woke up in the middle of the night and had this image of the Lugu Lake in Yunnan in my head.”
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With the UK going into lockdown while MasterChef was screening, Tang became concerned about how viewers would respond to her appearance because of reported anti-Chinese sentiments in the West resulting from the global pandemic. She needn’t have worried, as fans took to Twitter to lament her not winning in the final, while Instagram followers have rocketed.
“I was very worried about how I would be perceived on TV [but] I’m really glad that people have recognised me as a creative and inspiring chef,” says Tang. “I like to imagine there’s a 13-year-old girl away from home that can hold her head high because of me.”
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As for the future, Tang has several food-related plans. Thoughts of running her own F&B business are of course in her sights, adding “I’m torn between a food truck and a restaurant”. But she has no illusions about the stress and long hours that would require. “I don’t personally have the full view of ‘kitchen culture’ but I think restaurateurs should spend as much time thinking about what they can do to keep their staff mentally and physically healthy as they put into bringing a new concept to the diner.”
Right now she’s making videos exploring recipes and insights into the Eight Great Traditions of Chinese cuisine. Then there’s thoughts of going into recipe development or private dining, “I wish some millionaire would hire me to cook for them on their Caribbean voyage,” she adds with a laugh.
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The Macau-born breakout star of the hit BBC cooking contest moved to the UK aged 13, and now hopes to inspire immigrant kids as a success story