Darsh Clarke has impressed the judges of MasterChef Australia with his culinary talent. His journey through the kitchen has won both hearts and taste buds. In an exclusive chat with IndiaToday.in, Darsh reveals what draws him to cooking, reflects on his Sri Lankan heritage and passion for inventive cooking.

Excerpts from the conversation:

Q: How was your journey on MasterChef Australia?

A: Oh, it’s been amazing. It’s been everything I expected and more. Yeah, it’s been really incredible.

Q: You’ve mentioned that your Sri Lankan heritage has had a huge influence on your cooking. Can you share a specific childhood food memory that sparked your passion for food?

AI don’t think there’s one memory because food was always around me. Being of Indian and Sri Lankan heritage, food is always with me. The house always smells so good. I think the biggest thing for me was going to my grandmother’s house every Sunday, and she would always make a variety of curries – rice, dal and everything. Probably the biggest memory that sticks with me is how much food there was and how delicious it all was.

Q: What was it like growing up as the child of a Sri Lankan immigrant in Australia? How did that shape your culinary perspective?

AIt was challenging. Viewers of the show would have seen how I talked about my heritage. And for a long time, growing up in Australia with Sri Lankan heritage, you try to fit in. You have to be something you’re not. And when you get older, that’s when you realise, ‘Actually I have such an amazing heritage, amazing family, amazing culture that I should be really proud of, and I should share it with everyone’. And it’s funny because as I grew up, my Australian friends were more excited about Indian and Sri Lankan food than me because it was something I always ate. So, that was a point of pride for me growing up.

Q: You have previously worked as a management consultant. Why did you decide to pursue a career in the food sector?

AI’ve always tried to be creative. I love having an office job. It’s good for financial stability and things like that. But I’ve always wanted to express myself creatively. And for me, I’ve tried singing. I can’t sing, I’ve tried playing the guitar. I can’t play the guitar, but I can cook. So, for me to express myself creatively, I think cooking is amazing because you can do so much with ingredients. So many different flavors you can play with. Something the audience might have noticed. I made a chicken and mushroom dessert. Um, so you know, you can do something crazy. And for me, I think cooking and the food industry was a part of my expression of creativity.

Q: You mentioned that you have a passion for sweets. So what attracts you to them?

AI have a sweet tooth. I was quite overweight as a child. I was fed a lot of sweets as a child. My grandmother would always make really great cakes with lots of icing. And I would go to the freezer and eat the icing straight from the freezer. So, that’s probably where my sweet tooth started. And there’s a lot to baking – you take all these different ingredients like flour, eggs, sugar, butter. And you put it in the oven, and it comes out totally different. It’s like magic. It falls apart. It’s like science. That’s the thing I really like.

Q: How do you balance your love for Sri Lankan cuisine and your interest in fusion cooking?

AThe thing that’s special about Sri Lankan and Indian cuisine is the spices. No other cuisine in the world really uses the same spices and condiments as Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine – whether it’s turmeric, cardamom or chillies. So, it’s my job to blend that, especially in desserts. When you talk about cardamom, turmeric, saffron – they all go amazing in desserts. So I think that’s probably the biggest thing. I think it’s a little bit harder to blend with savoury, but you can definitely do it.

Q: Would you like to open your own restaurant or food show in the future?

AWhy not both? Well, owning a restaurant would be really cool. But being able to share my passion for food, whether it’s on TV or on social media. I think people can make a huge impact through food by sharing all their experiences. There was an episode on MasterChef this season where I made a brinjal curry and talked about my heritage. And I got so many messages from Sri Lankans and Indians living in Australia saying thank you so much for sharing that, because I felt the same way. That really made it worthwhile. And I think having a platform to share the amazing food of Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine that we grew up with. That would be the dream.

Q: How difficult is it to create your own identity as a person from the Asian community in a foreign land?

A: It’s hard to stand out. I think you’re your own worst enemy. So if you want to stand out, you can do that. I look at the contestants on this season’s show – Sumeet is Indian, and Savi is Sri Lankan. I really respect them because they’re proud women standing up for their heritage and showing their heritage to the world. And that’s something I’m starting to do more and more. And I think if you’re proud of yourself, Australians can feel that, and then they want to be a part of it too.

Q: MasterChef is known for its mystery box challenges. So what is the most unique ingredient you would love to cook with?

A: It would be blue cheese. Because it’s very intense. It smells kind of bad, but I think it would be nice to make something dessert-like with blue cheese. Um, because, you know, people eat blue cheese for dessert sometimes. It would be great to do something like that – like take a really intense flavor and turn it into something that people just want to keep eating and keep eating.

Q: Your favourite moment on MasterChef so far…

A: The best moment was when I made baingan ki sabji. While cooking, you often feel pressure in the kitchen, but this was probably one of the few times when I wasn’t even thinking about what I was doing. It was almost like second nature. I was very calm and at ease while cooking, and they rarely show me cooking on TV because I think there was no drama because I knew what I was doing, and I was very confident. That was my favorite moment.