'MasterChef' contestant from Houston wins white apron, brings Burmese recipes to spotlight

HOUSTON - A new season of FOX's ‘MasterChef’ premiered on Wednesday. One of the contestants competing for a white apron is from Houston.

31-year-old Suu Khin is a recent Houston transplant who was born and raised in Myanmar.

On Wednesday, she hosted a watch party at Bovine and Barley downtown. 

"I made this dish on MasterChef so I want to have my guests have a taste of what Gordon Ramsey tasted. This is Burmese coconut noodle soup called 'ohn-no-khao-swe.'"

"This is Burmese tea leaf salad. I think we are one of the very few cultures in the world to actually eat tea. After it's naturally fermented, we marinate it again with like garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, peanut oil. You can add some chilis on the side for a more spice or kick to it," Suu said. 

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Suu started cooking when she was just six years old, but it wasn't until business school in Massachusetts at 21, that she started a food blog. 

"The purpose of that food blog is to first celebrate my family culinary heritage and second is to promote and demystify Burmese cuisine, because it's been overshadowed and underrepresented for so long and I think the world is missing out. The first taste of a country and a culture is through a cuisine, and you reach people's minds and their hearts to their stomach," Suu said. 

On this season of ‘MasterChef: Legends,’ she'll be bringing her family's Burmese recipes to an international stage.

Suu's dedicating her TV debut in honor of her late grandmother who taught her how to cook growing up in the capitol city of Yangon.

"The coconut soup is a recipe my grandma personally taught me so this is to celebrate her life and pay tribute to her wonderful 100 years of life," Suu said. 

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As an avid activist, she's also bringing awareness to the civil unrest happening in her home country, after the military seized control.

"Burmese people are going through a lot of struggles right now and that's why their voices need to be heard more than ever. This might not be the answer to the problems that Burmese people are facing but you know, them knowing that the world is watching, that the world is listening and that people around the world care for them; that will really keep them going," Suu said. 

MasterChef: Legends airs every Wednesday at 7 p.m. on FOX.