“Prior to being a contestant of MC (MasterChef), each and every one of us have to sign a contract with the BBC and Shine TV, the producer,” Zaleha said in an Instagram post today, days after she was eliminated from the popular cooking competition.

“I am not ignoring you or being ungrateful. I simply cannot respond to the ‘rendang’ posts,” she said.

Zaleha, who made it to the quarter final of the show, had prepared nasi lemak with chicken rendang, but her rendang was snubbed by judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace who said the chicken skin was “not crispy”.

Their comments stirred fury on social media, with many saying they had never heard of chicken rendang being crispy.

“Saying chicken rendang should be crispy is like saying that hamburgers should be boiled,” Asian food street expert KF Seetoh told Reuters.

The incident even saw Prime Minister Najib Razak and opposition leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad laying aside their differences and uniting in support of Zaleha.

Zaleha said she was touched by the “overwhelming suppport”, and thanked leading Malaysian chefs Chef Wan and Norman Musa.

“You guys are legend,” she wrote.

Southeast Asians unite as beef over ‘chicken rendang’ rages on