MasterChef 2023 Contestants Week 4 Interviews: Nikka
Find out who is preparing their best dishes for MasterChef 2023’s fourth week of heats in the hopes of impressing John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
Nikka, a neonatal nurse, is 27 years old. She was born and raised in the Philippines, but she now lives with her husband in London.
How would you describe your style of cooking?
I love to cook different types of food but I always come back to my Filipino roots. My dishes tend to be a mixture of the traditional dishes I grew up eating with my own twist inspired by travels and living in the UK.
What is your earliest cooking memory?
I spent a lot of time observing my mum, Abuela and aunts in the kitchen back home and I was always fascinated by what they would cook and the way they’d put so much love into their cooking no matter how tired they were. I would often help roll out the spring rolls and loved seeing everyone gather round to eat them.
Why did you enter MasterChef?
I think Filipino food is largely underrepresented in the UK and I want to show how delicious it can be.
What is your food dream?
I have a cook book I have been working on for a while now from my own developments in the kitchen. To be able to finish this and publish it would be a dream come true. I love helping people in my role as a nurse and I love making people happy with food – continuing to do both these things in the future is what I hope for.
MasterChef Season 19 is currently airing weeknights on BBC One.
