Karim Waheed

Kishwar Chowdhury, the Aussie home cook of Bangladeshi origin, didn’t win the MasterChef Australia title. She placed third. But for us, Bangladeshis who have been closely following her rise and rise on arguably the most popular reality show on food, Kishwar has already won.

At the risk of making a hyperbole, it can be said that up until now, no one had the courage to put everyday Bangladeshi home-cooked food in a pride of place on a global stage. Food that we eat every day at home unceremoniously. Food we don’t consider “special” enough to serve to guests, let alone to foreigners.

For us, Kishwar has won because she has shown the world that Bangladeshi food isn’t another subcategory under Indian food. She strongly believes in the integrity of our unpretentious food where the ingredients are few, the bold flavours speak for themselves, and the cook cannot hide behind razzle dazzle.

When this season of MasterChef started and Kishwar was introduced, viewers in Bangladesh were naturally delighted. When she said she had a “small dream” of highlighting Bangladeshi food on the show, perhaps most of us took it casually.