Macartney is the oldest contestant on Season 13 of The Taste and says it was a pretty grueling experience. — Photos: DOREEN MACARTNEY
Although Doreen Macartney is now in her 60s, the thriving artist is proof positive that age is nothing but a number.
Macartney is a Malaysian who moved to Germany in the 1980s upon her marriage to her first husband, a German national.
It was when she relocated that she began cooking in earnest, as she naturally missed the food of her homeland and her mother’s cooking, who by all accounts, was a fabulous cook.
“Being away from home back in the 1980s was not easy because Germany was not so global back then. Today, when you go to Germany or any part of the world, there are Asian restaurants and Asian supermarkets – stuff like that.
“But when I went to Berlin 40 years ago, it was totally different. There was nothing – all the spices were brought from home when my mum visited. And I was basically the only foreigner in town, so it was difficult.
“There was no YouTube, no social media, no TV shows that focused on Asian cooking. So you just had to wing it and learn by doing,” says Macartney.
And somehow along the way, she honed and finessed her cooking to a point where she started participating in German cooking shows like Das Perfekte Dinner and Koch Arena – both of which she won!
Macartney says she felt very privileged to have four judges choose her to be on their team. She eventually decided to go with celebrated German chef Tim Raue (pictured here).
“Actually, it started off with the very first cooking show – in German it’s called Das Perfekte Dinner, meaning ‘the perfect dinner’, but it’s also a spin-off of an English show which is still running in Britain called Come Dine With Me.
“And my friend secretly applied for me to go on the show. So I got called and obviously I felt like I had to do it. First of all, you get to eat at four strangers’ homes for free and if you win, you win. If not, it was just an experience,” she says.
Interestingly, Macartney’s youngest son (she has four children) also recently was a contestant on the same show – an episode where she made a cameo appearance.
Macartney’s success on her first cooking show led to invites to appear on other shows, including the German version of MasterChef, which she eventually declined to appear on.
“The German version of MasterChef was a little bit different because they sort of combined the cooking with a Big Brother element.
“So it’s like you do the cooking and everything during the day, but after the cooking they were also wanting to film you and I didn’t like that at all. That’s not a straightforward thing. For me, it was only about cooking and I didn’t want all the gossip and the drama behind the scenes, so I didn’t do that show,” says Macartney.
Macartney is the first Malaysian to be a contestant on popular German cooking show The Taste. In Germany, she is known for emerging victorious in cooking shows. — DOREEN MACARTNEY
This year, Macartney was selected as a contestant on one of Germany’s most popular and long-running cooking shows called The Taste – the first Malaysian to make it on the show.
The cooking show has been running since 2013 and is a quirky cooking variation of popular American singing competition The Voice.
This year, 2,000 people in Germany applied to be on the show. Only 32 made it and this number was further reduced by process of elimination to 16. Macartney was one of these 16 contestants and also the oldest person on the show!
So how does The Taste work? Essentially, contestants are tasked with preparing a dish that highlights a main ingredient and also has different textural and taste components. The twist? Each complete “dish” has to be presented on a spoon. Yes, you read that right. A spoon.
“It is very challenging because your food has to look pretty, it has to have a sauce, the main ingredient and it also has to be salty, sweet and crunchy. And everything has to fit on a spoon!” says Macartney.
Contestants on The Taste have to put together a complete meal in a spoon!
Macartney’s initial appearance on the show was a smash hit. The judges that tasted her food (without looking at her) loved what she had made and all four judges selected her – sight unseen. Macartney said she was very overwhelmed by this but ultimately ended up choosing celebrated German chef Tim Raue (of the two Michelin-starred restaurant that bears his name) as her coach.
Curiously, the show allows both professional chefs as well as hobby cooks to participate and so Macartney’s contemporaries included five professional chefs.
One thing Macartney says about the experience is that she learnt to work under intense pressure and within very strict time limits, something she says was an uphill task, especially as the other contestants were significantly younger than her.
“On the show, you get the ingredients and then you have five minutes to decide what you are going to cook, so you have to make a decision very quickly. Then you have one hour to prepare, cook and serve.
“And you have to serve food that is pleasing to the eye and tastes good too – in order for you to go to the next round.
“So, yeah, it was a challenging experience especially for me because I’m not young. And you’re running back and forth to the pantry to get all the goods and cook. And then they’re interviewing you while you’re cooking, and then you’re running to the coach if you’re not so sure about certain things.
“So that was a whole experience because I usually cook and serve on a plate, but here, a whole dish is served on a spoon, so it’s not easy,” she says.
The show is still running in Germany, so Macartney cannot reveal whether she went the distance or not. But judging from her previous runs on cooking shows in the country, there’s a very high likelihood that she made it to the very last episode.
One thing she will say though is that she has learnt so much from the experience, and now that she is retired, this has motivated her to perhaps chart a new path as a private chef.
“It was an experience. It was definitely a journey. I picked up a lot of tips and ideas and I see food now in a whole different perspective. It’s not just eating something and stuffing yourself just to get full. You have to have all these different aromas and flavours in one bite.
“Would I do it again? No, I wouldn’t. But maybe something else – who knows? I am already retired so I actually enjoy the idea of being a private chef – that would be nice,” she says.
