MasterChef’s Brendan Pang weighs in on what your spice rack organisation says about you as a cook

What does your kitchen spice rack say about you?

Are you super organised to the point of alphabetically arranging your spices or are you a chaotic cook and forever hunting for randomly placed herbs inside your pantry?

Whatever your style, Perth’s dumpling aficionado Brendan Pang weighs in on what Aussie psychologist Sabina Read has identified as personality traits associated with a person’s pantry or spice cupboard style.

On behalf of Masterfoods, Read broke down three sorting types and personality traits:

Spice Straight Shooter (Most Aussies are this one!)

A basic spice rack set-up that gets the job done.

Logic and practicality make sense to you. And for good reason. You tread the well-worn path of using either familiar spices or those specified in a recipe to cook your trademark dishes, which means you cook with surety and mitigate failure.

Rack Rebel

Messy and muddled, your spice rack may be chaotic but it makes cooking fun.

No one puts “baby in the corner” and this Rack Rebel doesn’t want to feel controlled or constrained by anyone or anything. You maintain that a chaotic spice rack makes you feel free, and lets your creativity run wild.

Aesthetic Angel

Everything is alphabetised and aesthetically pleasing.

It’s easy to believe that order and a picture-perfect spice collection mean others will see you as a guiding light who knows their boundaries and can cook with confidence. While you never fear anyone looking inside your perfectly curated cupboards, you may resist those who dig deeper into your psyche.

So now that you’ve identified which spice sorting type you are, what does our former MasterChef star Pang think?

Pang’s spice rack is “quite bold and adventurous” as he likes to experiment in the kitchen and cook recipes from across the globe.

“My family is also Mauritian where the food is heavily influenced by Indian cooking, so I have lots of Indian spices,” he said.

The chef confessed his spice rack isn’t the neatest when it comes to organisation but he prioritises being “practical”.

“All the spices are easily accessible when I open up my spice rack so I can easily cook on the go,” he said.

“I think a spice rack can tell a lot about someone’s kitchen personality.

“If someone’s spice rack is organised to perfection I think they are more likely to think things through when it comes to recipes and measurements and menu planning.

“If someone’s spice rack is not as organised but practical (like mine) I think they are more likely to enjoy cooking on the go, developing flavours of intuition (tasting, smelling, etc) and adding spices as they cook.

“This person might not be as planned but the outcome is equally as tasty!”

When it comes to knowing what go-to spices a home cook needs, Pang advised having black pepper, crushed chilli flakes, cumin, coriander, fennel and turmeric on hand.

If you need some tips on cooking with spices, the owner of Bumplings Perth has got your back: “Add spices at the beginning so they have time to develop flavour but be careful not to burn them if cooking in oil otherwise they will become bitter. If a recipe asks for you to grind your own spices, toast them first to bring out an extra layer of depth. A good way to understand spice and balance flavours is by cooking the same recipe a few times — a curry is a good one to start on.”

If you prefer to let an expert introduce you into the world of spice then Pang recommends hitting up Perth venues Sauma, Topi Perth and Lions and Tigers.

“(They’re) all amazing restaurants that showcase spice well through regional Indian cooking. Long Chim is another that does a great job but tends to lean to punchier fiery flavours, especially for those that love chilli,” he said.

MasterFoods and Pang are celebrating all spice racks this year.

To celebrate Australia’s love for their racks, MasterFoods are calling on Spice Straight Shooters, Rack Rebels and Aesthetic Angels to join the #ShowUsYourSpice movement by revealing why you love your spice rack.