‘In the West, rice is an afterthought’: Ping Coombes’ guide to getting it right every time

Rice may be one of the world’s most basic ingredients, yet few home cooks treat it with much respect. Ping Coombes disagrees. The Malaysian-born chef and MasterChef winner talks texture, technique and why badly cooked rice undermines even the best dishes LifestyleFood and DrinkRecipes‘In the West, rice is an afterthought’: Ping Coombes’ guide to getting it right every timeRice may be one of the world’s most basic ingredients, yet few home cooks treat it with much respect. Ping Coombes disagrees. The Malaysian-born chef and MasterChef winner talks texture, technique and why badly cooked rice undermines even the best dishesLauren Taylor Friday 20 February 2026 01:00 ESTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoveropen image in galleryPing Coombes has built an entire cookbook around rice, a reminder that the simplest dishes often demand the most care (Sam Folan)Your support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreIt’s been a decade since MasterChef 2014 winner Ping Coombes published her debut cookbook – and now she’s back with her long-awaited second.As the first Malaysian-born winner of the prestigious BBC One cooking show, she planned to introduce Malaysian food to home cooks, a cuisine that was much less well known at the time.She had only entered the competition because she was made redundant and “had nothing else to do”. These days, the mum-of-two runs Ping’s Masak Club cookery school and Ping’s Makan Club, a supper club, and collaborates with chefs in restaurants around the country, but aside from improved recipe writing skills, she says she’s the same cook we watched on TV some 12 years ago.“I always cook the same way as I did 10 years before, I only have one very simple rule – I only cook what I love to eat,” says the 44-year-old.This time it’s rice – with her latest book simply titled Rice – something that might sound simple but really is an art form, as well as being an integral part of many cultural traditions.“In the West, rice is an afterthought. Cook something, and you would say, ‘Should I have pasta or potatoes, or rice, microwavable rice and just bang it on,” says Coombes. “Whereas in the East, we do it every day.“I also have rice withdrawal symptoms,” she laughs, if she doesn’t eat enough, or if she’s on holiday. “Don’t get me wrong, I love other food other than rice. But we went to Spain for 10 days and five days in, I started to feel like I can’t deal with another jamon, or another plate of patatas bravas. So in Seville, I had to run into a Chinese restaurant to order rice. And it was the best bowl of fried rice and prawns I remember that I ever, ever tasted.”Growing up in Ipoh, Malaysia, she remembers being four or five and her grandmother chasing her and her brother around the house trying to feed them before school, while her mum and dad were at work. “We would have rice for at least two meals a day.”“She’s running around scooping this communal bowl of rice with meat and veggies or whatever, because it’s easier to just have one bowl of rice and feed both of us.”She grew up with an understanding of how important rice is.open image in gallery‘Rice’, Coombes’ latest book, turns a supposedly humble staple into the centrepiece of the meal (Murdoch Books)“Rice is precious and growing up I’d see paddy fields and how people grow rice – it’s back-breaking work.“A few years ago, I showed my children the work that goes into implanting it and harvesting it. Of course, there are machines now, but there are still many parts in Malaysia up in the mountains where the machines can’t go, and are still being planted by hand. And you think that so fleetingly you would throw away a bowl – it takes so much work to have that bowl of rice.“I see rice as holding everything together. You think that your main dish is important, of course. If you’re cooking an amazing stir of rice with some expensive beef, and you cook the most incredible dish ever, if your rice is undercooked and all mushy, you will ruin your entire meal.”So how do we do justice to this simple grain, the backbone of so many Asian cuisines?Master the absorption methodCoombes’ latest book is full of helpful tips and tricks but she always starts by washing the rice.“I’ve always cooked rice on the hop with the absorption method. And my go-to rice is jasmine rice, because I grew u