Connoisseurs of reality television may recognise Khanh Ong from MasterChef and Survivor. But this month the cook and former DJ is launching his first standalone TV series, Khanh Ong’s Wild Food. The show will see Ong diving for abalone and tracking wild deer – then cooking the produce he’s foraged or hunted.
“Wild Food is literally what I’ve wanted to do since leaving MasterChef,” Ong says. “Growing up, I watched a lot of TV shows where chefs travel around and show one side of Australia. This is my side of Australia. So this is really exciting that I get to incorporate being out in the wild, but also cooking those ingredients with my Vietnamese heritage flared into it.”
In his home kitchen, Ong relies on his knives above all other utensils. Here he shares where he got those expensive handcrafted tools – and lets us in on a great $3 alternative.
What I’d save from my house in a fire
My watches. I started collecting about five or six years ago – Dad used to love watches. I buy a watch every time I have a milestone – when I did MasterChef for the first time, I bought a beautiful green- and black-faced Rolex that I am just obsessed with. I bought a pink one for my second season of MasterChef, and then a black Omega once I came off Survivor.
There’s also a classic black Casio that I think my dad had when he was younger, and so I bought pretty much the exact same one because I had no idea where his has gone. And then I’ve got a second Casio just because I am in love with the mechanics inside it.
My most useful object
I think this one’s going to be quite obvious – my knives. My knives are my babies. I love them to pieces. I get some of them custom-made by an Adelaide small business called Koi Knives; they’re really beautiful. All my knives have names of divas on them – everyone calls their knives something super masculine but mine are Kylie and Naomi and Britney. My knives are fun!
They have the right weight for me and the handle fits perfectly in my palm. A lot of times people are like, ‘Oh, what brand do I go for?’ And I don’t ever want to recommend a brand that’s $300 for a single knife if you’re not going to be using them as much as I do. But if you find a knife that works for your hand and the way that you like to chop, it makes your life a lot easier – and it’s safer.
My Koi Knives are custom, expensive knives. But I’ve also got knives that I bought for like $12 and they’re phenomenal. You get them from a lot of the Asian supermarkets – they’re called Kiwi knives. They come in all different sizes; some are $3, some are $4, but the most expensive one I have is $12. They seem to not blunt as easily as other knives, I think because they’re so thin. And there’s nothing worse than a blunt knife.
The item I most regret losing
In Vietnamese culture, for a lot of our birthdays we get given pieces of jewellery or gold or something that retains value. I think that’s because it’s a failsafe gift – something you can always sell if something in your life isn’t going well.
When I was younger, I got given a gold bracelet by my father, who has now passed away. And it was his – he didn’t get it made, he was passing it on to me.
I lost it about 10 years ago when I was in my late teens. I actually don’t think many things in my life are sentimental right now – I think most stuff is replaceable. But things that get given to you by a family member who is no longer around are special, so I wish I still had that bracelet.
