Exploring any place through adventure is fun. Along the way, if there’s an opportunity to taste, cook and learn about the destination’s local food, it is an added incentive. That’s what Fox Life intends to do with Serve It Like Sarah , a 10-episode series which sees the former MasterChef Australia contestant explore Goa: her second home where she runs the restaurant Antares.
The show premieres on Monday and each episode will see Todd begin a new adventure. The former model will explore the State’s Portuguese heritage, knit fishing nets and examine street food.
The show amalgamates adventure, food and fashion exploring a new facet of Goa while showcasing its offbeat side. The show’s culmination coincides with the Indian launch of her book The Healthy Model Cookbook , a compilation of 100 recipes that are wholesome and healthy without compromising on taste. Excerpts from an interaction:
Will the show present a different face of Goa?
There is so much to Goa than just beaches. There are lots of people embracing food and culture. In fact, 10 episodes were hardly enough. This series showcases something different from what is usually perceived. I think it will promote tourism in Goa.
How does the show combine adventure and cuisine?
While going for crab catching, climbing coconut trees to get toddy, learning surfing, moving around Goa in a private transport vehicle, visiting woods in the outskirts of the city, we explore Goa’s street food, learn to prepare crab xacuti, prawn balchao and learn of the Portuguese influence on local food. For me, it all worked well together. I went surfing and worked up a great appetite to enjoy some fantastic food at an organic café. So there was fun and taking care of health as well.
What is your takeaway?
The biggest thing I learnt is that to make a dish that people love, you have to actually understand the people who are eating it.
Basically, I realised how much passion people have for food and the most unique thing I found that they all use their local ingredients like coconut and fresh seafood. It is something I really believe in and subscribe to, using fresh local produce and cooking it simply.
Tell us about your journey
As a model you travel so much and you get to learn a lot about different cultures, that is what inspired me. But to be honest, when I had my son, probably that was the turning point for me. I realised that you have to feed yourself and your child and make the food tasty. In fact, it made me look at food in a very different way.
Has MasterChef Australia honed your skills?
It definitely has. I have got used to facing and managing stress. I have learnt to play around with flavours. In Masterchef, when you get the mystery box, which has eight or nine ingredients to choose from and you have to create a dish, it makes you see things from a different perspective.
So now I can look at a dish or a box of ingredients or go to the market and really envision what I want to make out of it. It has taught me to trust my intuition and be quite creative.
Serve It Like Sarahpremieres tonight. The show will air on Mondays and Tuesdays at 10 p.m.
