Ecrin (31) from Eindhoven participates in MasterChef UK: ‘That girl can cook!’ | RTL News

The Brabant woman moved to London in 2019, where she now lives with her husband and is expecting their first child. In daily life, Caglayan works as a customer success manager in cyber security and creates content on Instagram as a food blogger. The latter will also put her on the radar of the makers of MasterChef UK in the summer of 2023.

Super nervous

It all starts on Instagram, where she is tipped off by a follower about MasterChef UK, with a link to the registration form. “I hesitated for a moment, because it had never occurred to me to register for this before. But I have such a passion for food and cooking that I decided to challenge myself,” she tells Editie NL. In the form she answers questions about her passion for cooking and why she would like to participate in MasterChef UK. Not much later she is told that she has been selected to participate in the first episode.

In preparation for the recordings – which took place last year but the episodes are now being broadcast – she practices cooking under time pressure at home. “During MasterChef you have to make your dish within one hour, so what I did was test the recipe I had come up with with a timer on. And I asked my husband to ask me questions in between, because it also happens during the recordings. Like this I practiced a bit not to get too distracted while cooking.”

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Her passion for cooking started at an early age. As a teenager of no more than 13 years old, Caglayan cooks her first meal when her parents have to leave unexpectedly. “My mother was busy washing the green beans when my parents suddenly had to leave because of an emergency with my grandmother. I was left home alone and thought: what now?”

She has seen her mother prepare the dish of stewed Turkish green beans before and decides that she is going to finish it as best as she can remember. When her parents return home, dinner is on the table. The meal turns out to be a success and the cooking leaves you wanting more.

Food blog

In the years that followed, her interest in food developed and in 2018 Caglayan started the food blog @medusa.eats on Instagram. First to review dishes, but later also to post cooking videos. “During my studies, I often cooked if I came home before my parents,” explains the young thirty-something. “I often had that too cravings for foreign dishes that my parents did not know. Then I figured out how to make it myself.”

After her studies, she moved to London in 2019, where she continues to share her passion for food through her blog. “I started with food reviews of restaurants and I did that until the corona pandemic. During the lockdown I decided to switch from reviewing to making cooking videos and I turned out to enjoy that even more.” And as the first two episodes of MasterChef UK show, she’s very good at it too.

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In the first episode, the jury praised her Turkish lamb stew with rice, onion salsa and a fresh yoghurt salad. “They loved it,” says Caglayan proudly. “John (Torode, Australian-British chef and jury member in MasterChef UK ed.) even asked for the recipe for the onion salsa. I thought: oh my god, this is really happening!””

She continues: “I was super nervous at that moment and I think I was completely shaking. But luckily they left some of that out of the editing. In any case, I was really very happy.”

Lentil soup with a twist

In the second part of the first episode she presents a two-course dinner. “I made Turkish lentil soup with a twist and used coconut milk, spicy brown butter and croutons.” She only discovers what the guests think of her dish when the episode is broadcast. “They absolutely loved the soup. One of the chefs even said: ‘Damn, this girl can cook!’“

But the jury is also critical. For the main course, Caglayan prepares a variant of the Portuguese cod dish ‘bacalhau à brás’, replacing the dried and salted cod with prawns. “They actually thought that dish was a bit too wet.”

And in the second episode, which was broadcast last Tuesday, the fragmented cheesecake that Caglayan prepares – including ricotta, cream cheese and pomegranate caviar on a nest of spun string dough – is well received and the plate is beautifully laid out. But according to the jury, something is missing. “They would have liked to see more cooking technique in the dish.”

Nothing to lose

It shouldn’t spoil the fun, because at the end of the episode it turns out that Caglayan can prove herself again next week: she will move on to the next round. “It was quite an experience, but I liked it. And I thought: if I get kicked out, at least I experienced it and I can tell my children about it later.” How she copes can be seen next week in the third episode.

In any case, she receives a lot of support from family and friends, with her husband as her biggest fan. “He was the first one to tell me I should get involved.”Go for it, you have nothing to lose.’ Even now he sits in front of the TV like a little child during every episode, because he was not at the recording. And every time I get compliments, like with the stewed lamb dish, he shouts: ‘I knew it, I knew it! That dish is amazing!’”

MasterChef UK can be seen every week on BBC 1. In the Netherlands, it can be found on channel 26 at KPN.

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