Christine Ha, Masterchef winner, hosts accessibility cooking show in Toronto
CBC Toronto news anchor Dwight Drummond to be featured in 2017 episode
You may recognize Christine Ha as the first ever blind contestant to be named a winner on celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's TV contest Masterchef, but since then she has started co-hosting a cooking show based in Toronto called Four Senses.
The show focuses on cooking segments that provide tips and tools for independence in the kitchen.
"It's rewarding to know what we're doing for the community, for vision impaired and the blind people just to inspire them to start cooking again or to start cooking at all," Ha said.
Ha said she was able to see when she was growing up, but lost her sight while she was in her twenties - a time when she also started teaching herself how to cook.
"Really, after losing my vision, I've learned to become more fearless about life," Ha said.
Her husband, a big fan of Gordon Ramsay, encouraged her to audition for the third season of Masterchef. Ha was also studying creative writing at the time and thought the experience would help inspire her.
"I decided I'm always up for a challenge. I'm very competitive and decided to get that experience to feed into my writing," said Ha.
Ha used her writing skills to launch her first cookbook in 2013 called Recipes from My Home Kitchen.
Ha's Four Senses co-host Chef Carl Heinrich, also the co-owner and chef of Toronto restaurant Richmond Station, describes her as "adventurous" in the kitchen.
"For somebody who can't see, she challenges me everyday to try to come up with new dishes, new techniques and new flavours," Heinrich said.
Ha says she's appreciates her experience on the show.
"I think to be able to know that I've touched other people, inspired them to do things that they maybe didn't think to try before," Ha said.
"I think it's really about having that will power. I think you definitely have to have a good attitude and the will to keep going no matter what your obstacles are," Ha said.
The celebrity chef is now working on a second cookbook, which she says will include an accessibility twist. She's also been filming episodes from the fourth season of Four Senses.
CBC Toronto's news anchor Dwight Drummond got a cooking lesson from both Ha and her co-host and he will be featured on an episode of Four Senses that is set to air in January on the Accessible Media Inc. TV channel.
