MasterChef star hits back at 'incredibly ignorant' accusation in rogue tweet

MasterChef 2024 contestant Savindri Perera has divided fans on social media with her response to accusations that she’s been cooking the same cuisine throughout the competition. The 30-year-old banking consultant, who lived in Sri Lanka before moving to Australia when she was 18, has prepared a variety of dishes across the season that tie in with her Sri Lankan roots, from curries to galettes.

While judge Andy Allen and his mum told her not to move away from her Sri Lankan identity “for the sake of proving a point”, viewers have expressed their disappointment that she rarely prepares dishes of different cuisines.

This is certainly not the first time a participant has been ‘called out’ online for serving the judges similar dishes each week, with season 10 winner Sashi Cheliah having a strong focus on curries, season 12 runner-up Laura Sharrad regularly cooking pasta, and last year’s champion Brent Draper consistently using the hibachi.

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In a since-deleted tweet from Sunday, Sav clapped back at fans who had an issue with the fact that she has served mostly Sri Lankan food so far on MasterChef.

“All the people accusing me of only cooking Sri Lankan food. 1. Yes, and? 2. Are you saying cultural cuisine isn’t skilful and masterful as European cuisine? That’s incredibly ignorant,” she wrote.

Viewers divided over Sav's clapback

Sav’s tweet has sparked a mixed response from fans, with some people arguing that it’s important for contestants to step out of their comfort zone on the reality show.

“The entire point of going on MasterChef is to learn how to push your boundaries and become skilled at multiple things,” one person wrote on Reddit, while another added, “I do understand that she's trying to showcase her cuisine, but I feel like she could showcase it differently each week”.

“Other contestants have been criticised for cooking only Italian food for example. No matter how well you can do pasta you can't only do pasta,” a third shared.

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Meanwhile, others said it’s fine for contestants to cook dishes they know they will execute well if they have the skill set to pull off other cuisines when needed, like in pressure tests or group challenges.

“There's nothing wrong with sticking to your comfort zone,” a fan wrote, followed by someone else who said, “I’m totally on the do what you do best wagon. The pressure tests will test her on non-Sri Lankan anyway”.

“I don't blame her. I mostly blame the show or whoever's in charge of not coming up with more creative ideas so that contestants are actually encouraged to do something different, but of course through reasonable challenges,” another viewer responded.

“I feel like Sav has still done really well in cooking different things or showcasing some creativity in the way she approaches her cuisine, which is honestly great. We always see her showcase a LOT of different techniques and flavours and use this expertise to try different things as well,” a different user replied, with someone else writing, “I completely understand we want to see how diverse dishes they can cook, but I don't mind see someone like Sav who knows what they want to be as a chef”.

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