Depinder Chhibber, whose ghevar and raj kachori won hearts on MasterChef Australia, shares her New Delhi to Newcastle story

Her culinary career began modestly — helping her mother, cooking Indo-Chinese to satisfy cravings and making ends meet as a pharmacy student in Sydney. Later, baking became her stressbuster while working as a pharmacist. “It started with brownies and cupcakes, then cakes, then decorating them and that’s the foundation of the desserts I make now.” On MasterChef, her desserts ranged from Gochujang choux buns to masala chai ice cream sandwiches.
Chhibber first competed on MasterChef Australia in 2021 (Season 13), finishing seventh. This year, she was invited back for Season 17’s ‘Back to Win’, joining other past contenders. Between the two seasons, she says her ‘life had changed dramatically.’ She had become a mother of two daughters.

“When you go from being independent and on television to being a mum, you kind of forget yourself. In the last four years, there were very few things I did purely for my own growth. The invitation came at the right time,” she says. Initially, she declined; her younger daughter had just turned one and being six months away seemed impossible. But the idea of a “second chance” to reconnect with food and herself made her say yes.

Competing against professional chefs was daunting. “I’m still a home cook. It was important to prove I deserved to be there,” she says. That proof came in the form of a fourth-place finish, with dishes such as raj kachori, aloo tikki chole chaat, Onam sadya, ghevar and even laal maas tortellini, earning praise from judges as well as people who made the reels go viral.

Championing regional Indian food

Her cooking also celebrates India’s famous but less globally known dishes. “India is very diverse when it comes to food and people often fail to see that in the Western world,” she says. “The judges had never experienced an Onam sadya — their minds were blown.”

She is conscious of the risks in presenting regional dishes: “You have to do justice to it. My sadya had thoran pachadi, beetroot curd rice, fish curry and uttapam. I wanted to give them a flavour-packed version so that if they go to Kerala and eat the real deal, they wouldn’t think mine fell short. Same goes for Mangalorean banana bun with prawn sukka, ghevar and other dishes. Representing regional food proved not just to Australia but also to the world that there is so much more food in India because there are so many people who restrict the Indian food to butter chicken, biryani, bhuna gosht, shahi paneer and dal makhani.”

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For Chhibber, street food is a passion. “People reduce it to pani puri, which is why I chose to make raj kachori — it’s highly technical, with many elements and hard to pull off in 75 minutes.” Her love for it goes back to her childhood in Delhi. “There was a guy named Chandu, and we would have golgappas from his cart every week. I was only five and I would polish off one entire plate. We would go to Sagar Ratna, Nirula’s, Pindi for butter chicken and KitKat in Nizamuddin for Indo-Chinese, which is my favourite cuisine.” Visits to Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk always ended with raj kachori at Haldiram’s, dahi bhalle from Natraj and jalebis from a street-side vendor.

Elevation, not bastardisation

On the show, contestants are expected to elevate dishes but does one draw a line between amplifying a dish vs bastardisation, a term that is often thrown by purists? “I don’t do much fusion because I value authentic flavours,” Chhibber says. “Turning a curry into foam feels like bastardisation. Elevation, for me, is amplifying flavours without losing the soul of a dish. A sadya belongs on a banana leaf, not as pineapple pachadi foam. Indian food is meant to
be rustic, communal and generous — that’s its beauty.”

Though she never trained formally, Chhibber credits her success to passion, research and persistence. “If I’m tasting something, I close my eyes and try to identify every ingredient so I can recreate it. If it’s a dish from somewhere I haven’t been, say Mangalore, I study it deeply and practise until I can do it justice.”

Last year, she launched ‘Ghar by Depinder’, a fortnightly supper club hosted in her home. The intimate thali-style meals showcase regional and home-style dishes rarely found on restaurant menus. “I want people to taste Gujarati kadhi, baingan ka bharta and other regional dishes, served not in a fine-dining style but in a manner that reflects our culture of generosity and communal eating,” she says.

Chhibber is now working on her long-held dream: a cookbook. “I feel responsible to share the dishes I’ve cooked and the knowledge I’ve gained,” she says. The first recipe? “Probably street food or a snack which is my favourite meal that’s fading in the West. Pav bhaji, chicken 65, bread pakoda, chilli paneer… these are my comfort foods.”