Kishwar declared second runner-up

The three-month-long cooking competition MasterChef Australia reached the finish line on Tuesday, July 13. The 38-year old Bangladeshi from Melbourne, Kishwar Chowdhury was declared the second runner-up of 2021.

After sailing through weeks of culinary challenges, nerve-wrecking tasks and enormous pressure of honouring her Bangladeshi heritage, Kishwar reached the very top of the competition and won everyone’s hearts both in Australia and the Indian subcontinent.

Justine Narayan, a youth Pastor of Fijian and Indian descent, was crowned the winner of MasterChef Australia 2021. 

Kishwar served smoked rice water with Aloo Bhorta and fried sardines at the grand finale of MasterChef Australia and wowed the judges with the simplicity of her dish.

“This is the type of food you wouldn’t see anywhere. It feels scary, but it also feels extremely rewarding to do this as my finale dish,” she said to the judges.

Judges called her finale dish “unbelievable.” Jock Zonfrillo said, “My mouth is still watering. It is such a beautiful contrast. Mellissa Leong said that Kishwar’s dish was “powerful with flavor and powerful with history.”

She competed against Pete Campbell and Justin Narayan on July 12-13 in a two part grand finale. During the grand finale Pressure Test, all three of the final contestants had to recreate a dessert item, which tested their resilience.

Pete and Kishwar were declared the first and second runner-ups, respectively.

Kishwar recounted that her best memory in the kitchen was meeting the Malaysian-born Australian cook Poh Ling Yeow.

“My best memory in MasterChef Australia has to be meeting Poh. I used to sit at home watching Poh and she is such an inspiration to me. So cooking for her was the absolute best day in this kitchen.”

The 38-year old Bangladeshi from Victoria, Australia, Kishwar brought classic local dishes -- including “Kala Bhuna,” “ KhashirRezala,” “Fuchka-Chotpoti,” “Macher-Jhol,” “Bhapa Mach,” and other delicacies, all the way to MasterChef kitchen on previous episodes.

The mother of two wants to write a Bangladeshi cookbook to keep the legacy of her family alive.

“A lot of the food that we cook has been passed down from my ancestors,” the talented cook said in an interview to a media. “It’s the way we’ve kept our heritage alive. I love the unspoken secrecy we have in our culture to protect our special recipes.”

Born and raised in Melbourne, Kishwar is married to her high-school sweetheart, Ehtesham, with whom she has two children. Prior to her MasterChef stint, she worker in her family’s printing business.

She completed a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University before obtaining her  post-graduate degree in Graphic Design from the University of the Arts in London.