GRAINS OF WISDOM

Chef, cookery writer and teacher Ping Coombes shares her advice on making perfect rice with LAUREN TAYLOR

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IT'S been a decade since MasterChef winner Ping Coombes published her debut cookbook and now she’s back with her second - celebrating an unsung hero in your kitchen cupboards.

As the first Malaysian-born winner of the BBC1 show, she was keen to introduce Malaysian food to homes across the country. She had only entered the competition in 2014 because she was made redundant from her job in hospitality in a private hospital and “had nothing else to do”.

These days, the mum-of-two runs Ping’s Masak Club cookery school and Ping’s Makan Club, a supper club.

Her principles in the kitchen remain the same. “I only have one very simple rule - I only cook what I love to eat,’ says the 44-year-old.

And she loves rice, which is the subject of her new book, simply titled, Rice.

“In the West, rice is an afterthought. Cook something, and you would say, ‘Should I have pasta or potatoes, or rice, microwavable rice and just bang it on,” says Ping. “Whereas in the East, we do it every day.

Growing up in Ipoh, she remembers being four and her grandmother chasing her and her brother around the house trying to feed them before school.

“We would have rice for at least two meals a day. She's running around scooping this communal bowl of rice with meat and veggies. Rice is precious and growing up I'd see paddy fields and how people grow rice. It’s backbreaking work.

“A few years ago, I showed my children the work that goes into planting it and harvesting it.