‘It’s not good to be Chinese’: How MasterChef New Zealand 2022 winner overcame being ‘othered’ to proudly showcase his southern Chinese roots
- Sam Low, whose parents are from Zhongshan in southern China, was born in Fiji and grew up in Auckland, where being Chinese wasn’t always celebrated
- Through MasterChef New Zealand, the 30-year-old chef has found his voice, and impressed the judges with his individualistic takes on southern Chinese dishes
“I don’t know how you did it,” said chef Vaughan Mabee, executive chef of Amisfield, often called New Zealand’s top restaurant, with a self-deprecating laugh. “I sometimes think I could learn from people.”
He was a judge on the 2022 edition of MasterChef New Zealand, and he was speaking to 30-year-old competitor Sam Low, who had just presented him with a dish of steamed blue cod fillet Mabee said was “cooked so perfectly” he couldn’t help but hold up a slice with his chopsticks and admire it.
Low’s dish of blue cod with ginger and spring onion will sound familiar to Cantonese diners, as steamed fish is ubiquitous in southern Chinese cuisine.
Low, however, had put his own, modern spin on it, serving it with radish braised in dashi (Japanese fish stock), sea lettuce and soy milk emulsion; instead of plain rice, he paired it with grains cooked in oolong tea and dashi, making it worthy of a MasterChef finale.
MasterChef, the reality television franchise in which home cooks compete in various culinary challenges, has not been screened in New Zealand for the past seven years. It came back with a bang in May 2022, with local culinary celebrities including restaurateur Michael Dearth, MasterChef 2011 champion and food entrepreneur Nadia Lim, and Mabee as its judges.
