Indian-origin chef Floyd Cardoz
NEW YORK: Indian-origin chef Floyd Cardoz has been crowned the winner of America’s much-watched “Top Chef Masters” contest and took home a whopping USD 100,000 prize after wowing the judges with a humble upma.
Mumbai-born Cardoz whipped up an upma of semolina and mushroom to beat favorites Mary Sue Milliken of Los Angeles’s Border Grill and Traci Des Jardins of San Francisco’s Jardiniere, despite never winning a quickfire challenge.
Cardoz often came in second place to Milliken, who won four elimination challenges during the course of the Top Chef Masters Season 3 finale contest in Los Angeles.
“I was totally shocked and surprised,” Cardoz told Bravo channel, after being declared the winner.
New York-based Cardoz said that as a chef he was used to be in control but entering the competition took control away from him. “That was the hardest part of me,” he said.
Cardoz, who used to work for Danny Meyer Indian restaurant Tabla which closed in 2010, said that good food is about “how you feel and how your guest feels.”
The finale began with the chefs being tasked to create a three-course meal of a lifetime based around food memories.
The first course had to be inspired by their first taste memory, while the second was to represent what inspired them to become a chef. For the third course, each chef was paired with one of the judges, who tasked them with recreating a memorable dish from their past, the Examiner.com reported.
Judges James Oseland chose an Indonesian dish, rendang, for Cardoz, Ruth Reichl assigned Mary Sue with a lemon soufflé and Gael Greene wanted a fried duck from Traci.
Things started out rough for Cardoz, who got stuck in LA traffic during a rainstorm after a trip to the market, and got a later start than his competitors.
After the deliberation, the judges ultimately awarded the title to Cardoz.
“You cooked a meal that was deeply skilled and very, very memorable,” said judge James Oseland, the editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine.
“Mary Sue and Traci it was an honor and a pleasure to cook with you,” Cardoz wrote on Twitter.
Cardoz told E News that he deserved to win. “I think I deserved to win because I stayed true to who I really am. I didn’t change my personality or my cooking style,” he said.
“I think the food I executed every single time was spot on. And I was in the top more times than I was in the bottom.”
The chef plans to donate his winnings to Young Scientist Cancer Research Fund. His father died of cancer. -PTI
