For most people, spending 15 minutes just trying to peel an onion might be a sign that a ready meal is the safer option — not a cue to enter Celebrity MasterChef.
Amar Latif, however, sees things differently. The travel presenter is making history as the first blind contestant to take part in the BBC’s celebrity cooking competition, and he believes his sharpened senses of taste, touch, sound and smell could work in his favour.
Latif, who lost his sight at 18, admits he has done very little cooking over the years. Reflecting on his decision to join the series, he said: ‘I kept asking myself what I had signed up for.’ He added that he had not cooked much before the show and joked that producers ‘wouldn’t even let me have any extra time’, which he thought was ‘a bit harsh’.
The 45-year-old had been invited to take part once before. Last year, friends persuaded him to turn down the opportunity, worried that the demands of the competition might prove too difficult.
Travel presenter Amar Latif (pictured), the first blind contestant to compete on the BBC’s all-star cookery series, says his heightened senses of taste, touch, sound and smell may give him an edge over the other contestants.
This time, the BBC returned with another offer. ‘They came back this year and there was a bit of persistence on their part and they asked how they could support me, they asked me what I needed,’ Latif said.
He was allowed to use adapted equipment, though the time limits remained the same as everyone else’s. That challenge, he said, has changed the way he thinks about cooking. ‘Now I have realised that us blind chefs can be better than sighted ones. I can’t wing it so I have to have everything ready and organised. I have got it timed and planned down to a T.’
Next week, viewers will see Latif, a Scottish entrepreneur who has travelled the world despite losing his sight to the genetic eye condition retinitis pigmentosa, prepare food for paying diners at London restaurant Mortimer House.
His culinary skills are assisted by a few adapted accessories, including talking scales and special measuring spoons. But Amar swiftly discovered that the biggest advantage he held over his sighted rivals, including former footballer John Barnes and TV presenter Gethin Jones, were his four other senses.
‘What I realised is that, when you’re cooking, you have lots of non-visual signals,’ he says.
‘You’ve got the smell and the sound, for example. If my fish is not happy and needs attention, it will make a spitting sound.
‘And the onions, if they are well past brown they too will start making a noise, saying, “Come over here and help me.” It starts with a sizzling sound when they are happy but when they start crackling loudly, you know you need to start moving them around.
‘And when you’re cooking a lamb chop, it’s about the feel. I will touch the food and feel the texture. When you’re making a chicken curry and the chicken is ready, you’ll pick up a piece in your hand, it kind of crumbles, it breaks apart easily and that’s how you know it’s OK.
‘You have to keep tasting stuff, I totally rely on that. I know if it is missing salt, pepper or butter. I wouldn’t say my other senses are stronger but I use them a lot. I realise that sighted people don’t use their other four so much.’
Amar pictured in an episode of his 2020 BBC 2 travel programme Pilgrimage: The Road to Istanbul
Amar had just two weeks to properly prepare for MasterChef. But before that, he visited restaurants and asked friends to describe how plates of food looked so he could visualise them.
He went to celebrity haunt The Ivy in London’s West End and The Foundry in Leeds, while staff at a hotel in Gran Canaria took him through their à la carte menus.
Despite his preparation, he admits to begging MasterChef hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode to be kind about his presentation. ‘I said to them, “I want you to taste it before you take too much notice of what it looks like, so if you need to close your eyes, then please do,” ’ he says.
Amar feels his blindness can also be an advantage when he dines with friends. ‘We blind people can go into a restaurant and taste the food for what it is,’ he says.
‘I think you guys get a bit ripped off, for you it’s all about how the food looks. I think that sighted people pay too much attention to that detail, so they don’t taste things properly.’
Amar, who was hospitalised in April with coronavirus after filming the show, has praised MasterChef for enabling him to develop the skills that helped him survive the health crisis.
‘Thanks to the show, I have become self-sufficient during the lockdown,’ he says.
‘It has enabled me to be so independent. And people needn’t worry about me cutting onions. I’ve got my time down to one minute.’
Celebrity MasterChef continues on BBC1 on Wednesday and is available on BBC iPlayer.
