Larkin Cen on food
What is your first food memory?
One thing I will never forget is my grandfather's roast pork belly and crackling Cantonese-style. He would cook this in the traditional way. No one cooks pork and crackling like the Chinese. The finish, flavour and texture is just a different class. His recipe had subtle undertones of hoi sin running through it because he would marinade the rib cage with a blend of hoi sin and miso. Couple that with melt-in-the-mouth fatty pork and the crispest crackling and that would be food heaven!
I'm not a pretentious foodie by any stretch of the imagination. I will quite happily devour perfectly crispy fast food chicken any day.
Who was it that taught you how to cook?
I am self-taught but I grew up around food, so I suppose that helps. I was fascinated with everything to do with food. I would read about food, and watch food programmes, one after the other, for hours on end. When I was younger I was interested in western food as that was exotic for me given I grew up around Cantonese food. As I got older I went back to the classical Chinese recipes to learn about their history and now I’m fascinated by the blend of science with food.
What is your favourite food?
Cantonese, of course!
What is your worst food?
I love food. I'm not a pretentious foodie by any stretch of the imagination. I will quite happily devour perfectly crispy fast food chicken any day. However, some foods just wind me up and they epitomise greed and a lack of passion in food. For example, in uni my old housemate would always go out for a very particular pizza on a Friday night called the "City Road special" which would basically be a mighty meaty pizza with fresh doner kebab meat scraped on top of it. Winds me up.
If you had to impress someone what would you cook them?
I would do classical Peking roast duck with all the trimmings. It's highly technical and when done right it is simply beautiful.
If you could invite three people to a dinner party, who would they be?
Barack Obama, Richard Branson and Will Smith.
What was your Masterchef highlight?
Finishing it, because I knew it was the start of the next chapter in my life. I applied for Masterchef to give me the platform to launch my Asian takeaway business. I felt my parents finally understood what I was trying to achieve and how passionate I was about food. My dad said after the show that he had no idea I could cook like that. That and meeting Dale of course!
What would be your last meal on earth
Sunday roast beef with all the trimmings. Perfectly pink beef with golden roast potatoes. Love having some Kale or Cavolo Nero with my beef and a rich beef jus. Beautiful.
Is there anything you can’t cook?
I've just started my food career I suppose so there's a lot I can't cook (yet).
What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten?
There are not many things I will not eat but when we were filming in Hong Kong and we went to the amazing two Michelin-starred restaurant and we were treated to sea cucumber with a fois gras sauce. Sea cucumber is a delicacy because it is believed to be good for the skin but it does look like something from the film Alien. We all had a portion of this each and I felt incredibly guilty because we had to leave it, because we couldn't stomach it.
What is your favourite ingredient to cook with?
I don't really have a favourite ingredient but I love vegetables. I'm using an Asian vegetable called Kai Lan a lot. It’s from the broccoli family. But my favourite ingredient will change.
