KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Swedish home furnishing store Ikea became the latest to take a dig at the MasterChef UK judges’ remarks about rendang, which sparked an international gastronomy row.
In a Facebook post today, the Sweden-based firm said its wok “tolerates everything, except crispy rendang”.
“For cooking your meals to perfection, crispy or not,” said the accompanying post.
The advertisement showed its 12cm wok named “Tolerant”.
According to a 2008 Guardian report, Ikea’s kitchen products are given “grammatical terms”, therefore the wok was probably named for its high tolerance to heat.
The region has continued to seethe over Torode and fellow judge Gregg Wallace’s remarks about the quality of Malaysian contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin’s nasi lemak accompanied with a chicken rendang.
Among notable critics of the controversial remarks include Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Pakatan Harapan chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, British High Commissioner to Malaysia Vicki Treadall and Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.
Yesterday, the show’s judge John Torode sought to downplay his comment about the rendang that was not “crispy”, claiming the dish “was not cooked” instead.
