MY MASTERCHEF CANADA SEASON 3 AUDITION EXPERIENCE
You know what I did last summer? I did something brave. For the past couple of years, I have had several people suggest that I audition for MasterChef Canada. To the world at large, I am a PhD law student and legal researcher. However, those who have followed my journey over the past few years know that, putting it plainly, I love food (blogging, teaching, growing, rearing, buying, cooking and eating). My love for food is however not something I just stumbled upon. I come from a family of foodies and there are very few things which bring me as much pleasure as a well cooked home meal. Far from being a fix-it-in-30-mins kind of cook (which is a valid form of food relationship), I am one of those home cooks who believe that good food takes time and would spend hours cooking a classic French or Italian dish. Thus, I felt a cooking competition like MasterChef Canada was not for me. I was content with watching it on TV, screaming at the screen, analyzing the dishes, telling myself I could do better and criticizing the several home cooks.
When applications opened for season 3, I was met with the usual encouragements to apply which I initially ignored. On the last day of applications, I went on the CTV website and submitted an application. The whole process must have taken me about 15 minutes or less. I didn’t even have time to submit a video with my application. In my mind, I was never going to be called but at least I could tell my friends that I applied. The following day, I missed a call. The caller left a voice message. I could not believe my ears when I realized the call was from the producers of MasterChef Canada. I returned the call and had a lengthy chat with one of them. That was the beginning of the application and audition process for MasterChef Canada season 3 which this post chronicles.
At the end of the lengthy phone call, I got an email invitation to MasterChef Canada’s Edmonton auditions which was to hold in about a week on July 4th, 2015. I almost passed out. This was real! Feelings of excitement, confusion, joy, fear and anxiety flooded my mind. I immediately started thinking about what to make for the auditions. I consider myself to be an amazing baker and knew I had to bake something. In my mind, a dessert would make me stand out from everyone else (I later on found out how wrong I was about this). Also, I figured desserts would do well at room temperature. We were informed that there would be no heating/cooking facility at the venue and we might have to wait for a couple of hours before plating our dishes. I kept the audition information to myself. My thinking being that if I didn’t make it through, no one would ever know. It would just be another secret of mine.
On the audition day, I woke up wide eyed and bushy tailed and set about putting the final touches of my dessert together. I decided to make a 3 layered Pumpkin-Chocolate Cheesecake with an intricate web design on top. The cheesecake was accompanied by 3 sauces (Chocolate Sauce, Caramel-Maple Sauce and Raspberry Sauce) and a Chocolate Macaroon filled with Raspberry Buttercream. I must admit, the macaroon was not actually needed but hey, I figured not everyone could execute a perfect macaroon, complete with feet so why not? In my mind, this dish was bound to impress anyone. My major concern was my quiet disposition. I am a chronic introvert and bask in the euphoria of my privacy. I packed my desserts, a special wooden serving plate, hailed a cab and made my way to the audition venue.
When I got to the venue, I was quite early. There were only a couple of guys there waiting. I tend to be early for everything! I looked for a corner and sat down with my dessert in a plastic carrier, secluded from the noise around me. This was the beginning of a loooooong day. People started arriving, everyone filled with anticipation. We were about 50 home cooks in total who were invited to audition on that day. Some were old timers who had auditioned for previous seasons. Everyone had a different personality and story. Some were loud while some like myself were quiet. Although I knew everyone there was competition, it was great being among foodies: people who actually want to talk to you about food and listen to you talk without rolling their eyes. My friends (aka willing Guinea pigs) often want to eat in peace without being told where the dish originates from, how I cooked it and the special techniques involved. Bless them! Everyone had a different food ideology. I must confess that listening to what some home cooks brought made me feel somewhat inadequate.
After a few preliminary formalities, we were ushered into a room where we had 3 minutes to plate our dishes. This was the fastest 3 minutes of my life. When time was up, I looked up and the room had transformed. Everyone had something amazing. I was wrong about standing out with a dessert as there were other plated dessert dishes. I was in the middle of two amazing sermon and tuna dishes. Behind me were the most amazing Tres Leches Cupcakes and in front of me was a Mason Jar trio filled with different types of desserts. After the tasting which took quite some time, we each went through a couple of interviews and a mystery box test. I was one of the last to be interviewed and so went back home pretty late. One thing which impressed me a lot was the time they devoted to every single home cook that came for the audition. They really wanted to get to know us, our food dreams and ideologies. We were told we would be contacted in August to know whether or not we made it. I told no one.
I went home with a feeling of excitement and accomplishment. I had put myself out there and done something I would not naturally do. Though the waiting period was lengthy, I was not nervous or on the edge. The reason for this was that I felt there was no way I was gonna make it through. Yes, my dish showed skills, my interviews went well (I think), but still, I felt there were more interesting people at the auditions. So you can imagine my shock when I got the phone call that I was a finalist and had made the top 40. I again almost passed out (second time). Things got real all of a sudden. I was going to Toronto to meet with those 3 amazing judges and audition before them. I was not sure whether or not I would get into the top 14, and truly, that didn’t matter to me. I was going to do this one step at a time.
So, did I make the final cut? Did I get an apron? Well, we would all have to wait to find out. But whether or not I did does not matter. I count myself privileged to be among the top 40 home cooks in Canada. That is no small feet for a foodie and home cook like myself. Tune in to CTV on February 14 at 7 p.m. ET/PT for the Premiere of MasterChef Canada season 3.
Follow my journey on Instagram and Twitter @grated_nutmeg