A 40-year-old stay-at-home-mum from Botany is one of the 27 record-breaking number of cooking hopefuls chosen to compete for a place in the MasterChef HQ in picturesque Queenstown.
Just 16 of them will make it into the MasterChef NZ kitchen at the Vingard winery. The popular TV cooking show returns to TV screens this Sunday night.
Baking is in Sieumuoi Hancock’s blood. The Botany mum was born in a refugee camp and grew up in and out of her parents’ French Cambodian bakeries. Her family was rescued by the New Zealand Red Cross and they settled in New Zealand in the hope of a better life. Hancock describes herself as kind and bubbly and even though she might be short in size, she has enough resilience to last a lifetime, the show’s promoters said.
Hancock talked to the Times about her connection to cooking and what inspires her.
“My biggest inspiration are my parents. Growing up in my parents’ bakeries I learnt how to bake at a very young age,” she said.
“I saw the joy it brought customers when they bit into buttery crispy croissants. In the evenings my mum will cook up a big feast of Chinese/ Cambodian or Vietnamese food so we also had many friends and family come over.
“Food was a way to show love in our family.”
Hancock also referred to cooking in front of cameras before the nation.
“I feel very privileged to be able to share my cultural cuisine and introduce people to food they may never have tried before, food that I love eating and find great joy in making too,” Hancock said.
“It is a very exciting but nerve-racking experience.
“My husband Dwayne encouraged me to enter the show and has been the best supporter.”
Judging the contestants in their quest to be crowned MasterChef NZ 2022 are three superstars of the Kiwi food scene, previous MasterChef NZ winner and entrepreneur Nadia Lim, world-renowned three Cuisine-hatted New Zealand chef Vaughan Mabee and multi-award-winning restaurateur Michael P Dearth.
Warner Bros Discovery has announced New World as the premiere sponsor and pantry provider on MasterChef New Zealand.
The show premieres straight after the Dancing With the Stars NZ finale on Sunday May 29 at 8:30pm on Three and ThreeNow and continues on Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm.
