As a little girl growing up in a small village on the Fiji island of Viti Levu, Mohini Singh knew innately that cooking would be a large part of her life.
“I always wanted to cook,” said Singh, a foods and culinary arts instructor at Pitman High for the past eight years. “I was always in the kitchen, lurking about. I had a natural instinct for it. There was something within my heart that always led me to food.”
Singh remembers the first time she made dinner for her family.
“It was outside under a mango tree, in a brick oven,” said Singh. “I made black-eyed-pea curry with roti (Indian flat bread). I picked the tomatoes and cilantro from our garden. I remember the sun shimmering and the smell of the food. It’s such a vivid memory.
“My dad was the first to eat and he told me it was the best curry he’d ever had. I thought, ‘Really? At 8 or 9 years old, I make the best curry?’ It was just one of those amazing moments.”
Singh hopes another amazing culinary moment is in store as she aims for the top prize in the Food Network’s Favorite Chef competition, presented by star chef Carla Hall. First prize is a check for $25,000, an appearance in Taste of Home Magazine, and getting to cook with Hall on television.
“I’ve been talking about being on the Food Network for 30-plus years,” said Singh, whose husband, LeRoy Walker, owns eateries First & Main and Bistro 234 in downtown Turlock. “It would literally be a dream come true for me. And I always tell my kids on the first day of school to dream big, because however close you get to achieving your dream, it will be a blessing in your life.”
Past and current students feel Singh has been a blessing in their lives.
“She is the sweetest and best person I’ve ever met, and I still go to her for regular life advice, not just advice that’s school or food related,” said 2023 Pitman graduate Hailey Ware, who now attends Merced College. “We learned how to create different dishes from scratch, but it’s also a lot of life and friendship skills. The first time I walked into her class I knew I was going to love it, and I knew that I was going to take it again the following year.”
Pitman High junior Preston Ware echoed those sentiments.
“I’ve been in the culinary program for two years and I definitely will be again next year,” said Ware. “Her classes feel like a family. It’s a great environment. She makes it really, really fun. You don’t feel like you have to go to her class; you want to go to her class. And it’s always kind of a bummer when you have to leave.”
Singh, who has also developed her own line of spices, said she would use the $25,000 grand prize to take her children (Jacinda, who’s a Cal-Poly graduate; and Elias, a junior at UC Berkeley who helped start Kitchens for Change, a food-insecurity program that was featured on “The Kelly Clarkson Show”) to visit her village in Fiji.
“I’ve never been back,” said Singh, who was just 12 when her grandmother spearheaded the family’s move to the U.S. “I love the roots I have in Fiji, and I thank my grandmother for the sacrifices she made. She sold everything she had for pennies, basically, just to bring us here. She was fiery, tenacious, and didn’t fear anything. I wish I was half the woman she was.”
To cast a vote for Singh, visit https://favchef.com/2025/mohini-singh. The first round up cuts in the contest is April 10.
“I’m just going to leave it up to the universe,” Singh said about her chances of winning. “If it’s meant to be, then it will happen. If not, hey, the entire process was a lot of fun.”
