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Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Nat Thaipun. The 30-year-old winner of MasterChef Australia 2024 beat 23 other contestants to win $250,000 in prize money and a restaurant residency. Her cookbook is Thai: Anywhere and Everywhere.
Nat Thaipun: “You have to back yourself in the decisions you make, otherwise you’ll never be happy or satisfied.”Credit: Peter Tarasiuk
BODIES
Is it true you’ve got more than 90 tattoos? Actually, it’s over 100 now. I got my first one at 18 – an outline of a mountain on my foot. I wanted to hide it from my parents.
What’s tattooed on the palm of your hands? It says [shows one palm] “Goodbye …” [shows other palm] “… for now.” So dramatic [laughs].
Any tattoos you regret? I’m not a regretful person. I’m the total opposite – very much a back-myself-in-decisions type of person, so I don’t really get FOMO, either. You have to back yourself in the decisions you make, otherwise you’ll never be happy or satisfied.
What do tattoos give you? This sounds really witchy, but when I started getting them, they made me feel like I was connecting to my ancestors. It also felt empowering. Growing up [in Sunbury], part of me found it uncomfortable going to Thailand or other Asian countries with my parents, getting stared at all the time. I feel like I was sexualised from such a young age. I don’t want to look typically feminine: I want to be liked for who I am – for my skills and for my talent. So I started dressing a certain way, then it became about tattoos. I love that people can be, like, [makes face], “Ugh, tattoos …“, then they get to know me and then they’re like, “Oh, she’s actually nice!”
What is a skill you’re grateful to have? Being able to work under pressure. I love it. People say pressure makes diamonds. Pressure makes my world magical.
What’s a skill that you wish you had? I wish I had the ability to recognise the hard work I’ve done so that I could be kinder to myself.
MONEY
You’re the eldest of three kids of Thai parents who ran restaurants in regional Victoria. How was money growing up? My parents migrated to Australia when they had nothing. They didn’t trust banks, so they used to keep cash in the house and were really good at not wasting anything.
I have traits like that now. Especially with food. I can turn anything – even waste – into something.
What did you always have access to – and what did you go without? I was so blessed to have really good food all the time, even when we didn’t have that much money. Some of the dishes were, technically, “poor people” dishes in Thailand, but I was like, “This is the best dish ever.”
You won $250,000 from MasterChef. What did you do with it? I bought July suitcases because I didn’t own a suitcase. Then I gave each member of my family $5000. Then I funded my own series on YouTube and I’m now living in my own apartment.
What’s your favourite cheap thing to eat? Ooh, just plain white rice and broccoli. I also eat a lot of fruit. Whatever’s in season and the cheapest.
What’s your favourite expensive thing to eat? Contentiously, I f---ing hate caviar and truffles, so it’s probably cheese. But, to be fair, I’m not super-bougie. Even if I have cheese, I’ll probably eat it with a really simple, good baguette. And that’s it.
We’re in a cost-of-living crisis at the moment. Can you offer us some money-saving kitchen hacks? Make your own coffee, obviously. Pickle things that are about to go into the bin. Turn things into a stew.
POLITICS
After you won MasterChef, you wrote about how your victory was a collective triumph. Why did you want to highlight the collective? The only reason I got on MasterChef was because of a collective of people who supported me. These people helped me fill in my MasterChef application. Then, when I got accepted, I was like, “I’m not going.” They were like, “Nah, you have to go.” This community, which includes my parents, believed in me more than I did.
You also acknowledged elders past and present – Australian, Thai and beyond. There’s been a backlash against such acknowledgments as well as welcomes to Country. Why did you want to highlight them? Without elders, we would never have the stories, the recipes and belief systems that they’ve passed down. There’s not enough acknowledgement of them, actually.
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Where’s the line between ensuring cultural authenticity and allowing a cuisine to evolve? When you work in certain kitchens, everything’s French, French, French. I say, “If this is what’s always been done, then what do you expect the future to look like? What if this [ingredient] isn’t available any more?” There needs to be room for improvement and adaptation. On MasterChef, a lot of people would be like, “That’s not even proper Thai food: that’s Chinese.” But I grew up with a lot of Chinese-Thai food: we have a huge population of Chinese people in Bangkok. So when people are like, “Oh, this is more of a Chinese dish”? No shit! My mum’s side is all Chinese-Thai. I get annoyed because people think that I’m not “proper Thai”. Even if my mannerisms and dress aren’t stereotypical, I still have the right to make my own food.
Can a meal bring together people who have different politics – or is that a recipe for disaster? I truly believe that you can bring people together by making food and inviting them to sit down together. In the act of eating and experiencing other cultures, you realise that we – and our stories – are all deeply rooted in food.
To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
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