Chemistry behind Ray’s pressure test survival
Following his heart: Ray (left) at the restaurant he works in two days of the week
And so it finally happened. As local fans of the hit Australian TV show Masterchef’s ninth season watched with some trepidation, Ray Silva, the Sri Lankan contestant who had survived many nerve-wracking trials bowed out.
The 42-year-old doctor’s clinical demeanour at the Masterchef kitchen earned him much praise, his ability to remain calm during the toughest challenges (including pressure tests) allowing him to perform much better than most. This was no surprise for Ray. “The one thing I knew was that I would always be good at the pressure tests because the pressure tests were always essentially following a recipe and I knew I could do that. I took comfort in the fact that even if I didn’t do that well in a challenge or the invention tests, I always knew I’d do well in the pressure tests,” he says, citing his chemistry degree as another reason why he was able to follow recipes right down to every minute detail and avoid getting eliminated at the early stages of the competition.
Unfortunately, Ray bid the Masterchef kitchen adieu in the episode (aired locally on November 23 on Starworld), the fryer and oven at his bench doing little to compensate for the lack of a stove during an elimination round.
Still there were memorable times. His native elements ice cream sandwich comprising quandong jam, fresh quandong, lemon aspen ice cream and wattleseed biscuit that impressed the judges and guest judge Ben Shewry, was one of Ray’s favourite moments. “I’ve always admired his food and I’ve eaten at his restaurants so it was nice to be able to shake hands with him. I won the mystery box (with the ice cream sandwich) the week he was judging so it was nice to do that as well – bit of a feather in the cap,” he says.
Ray also feels that he always had a hunch about how well he had performed at any given challenge. “You tend to know when you’ve done a good cook and when you’ve done a bad cook so when you’ve done a good cook you know it and you’re happy and other times when you haven’t quite nailed it you know that and that’s when you don’t look as happy,” laughs Ray speaking to the Sunday Times on Skype.
The team challenges were a great experience he feels, an opportunity to take collective responsibility for their performance and bounce ideas on each other and grow together. Ray became closest to the ‘two Bens’ on the show – contestants Benjamin Bullock and Ben Ungermann as well as his roommates Trent Devincenzo and Lee Behan, and keeps in touch with them constantly.
Being on the sets of Masterchef with the camera following your every move can be stressful, but Ray feels that it was made easier by the professionalism of the cameramen, who would record everything subtly, often making them forget that they were on set in the rush to cook everything in time or anticipate the judges’ reactions. “They don’t tend to get in your face so you don’t really notice it as much,” he says.
Ray watched the show with his two daughters (Maya, 6 and Lana, 3) when it started airing. “My eldest daughter used to get stressed out every time I was in an elimination and she would be like ‘Dad, are you gonna be ok? Are you gonna be ok?’ and I’d have to sort of say, ‘Well just watch and see’ but sometimes she’d get so nervous for me that I’d have to say ‘It’s ok sweetie I’m gonna be fine’,” he explains, adding that he didn’t let her watch the episode where he gets eliminated .
After the show aired, there were a lot of proud and supportive family members and he gained a lot of Instagram followers from South Asia after the show started airing in the subcontinent. His Sri Lankan fans are in for a treat as he will be visiting the island in early February next year and looks forward to meeting them.
For Ray, life has almost gone back to normal, working as a GP from Friday to Wednesday and taking to the kitchen at Ruby’s Mount Kembla on Thursday and Friday. He is currently looking for a space to open up his own restaurant – a small one which will serve a simple degustation menu without the frills of fine dining – good food which is more affordable than usual. He feels that he has got just the right amount of recognition on Masterchef (“Enough, but not heaps”), and looks forward to his future in the food industry.
You can catch glimpses of Ray’s food journey and contact him by following him on Instagram at raysilva_au