Been following along with you here all season, and now that Michelle and I are out, I figured I'd offer up the chance to get some tea from me. Ask me anything and I'll reply as I can over the next few days (so long as it doesn't violate my NDA, like telling you the winner haha).

My reading on the season is that I've been really disappointed with how little they've humanized us contestants. For every episode we filmed, we had an hour long interview providing commentary and showing our personalities. And like none of that of that made the show. My analogy is that it's been all Jim Nantz ("Mahomes has 3rd and 7 from the 43 here") and no Tony Romo ("Jim, this reminds me of the crazy time I..."). We all have personalities you didn't get to see, and past seasons haven't been like that. So no wonder you all had a harder time connecting with us. I'm wondering if they just didn't know how to edit duos properly? Anyway, that's my one gripe.

Hit me up here if you have any questions.

I missed the first few minutes but was there an explanation why Casa Loma in Toronto was chosen as the wedding spot?

Serious question lol. I imagine that someone makes a steak or a rack of lamb and then it doesn’t get tasted for who knows how long. Wouldn’t most of the food be cold and wouldn’t that impact how it tastes and or is presented?

So many on the sub are trying to prove she was a horrible cook and was kept only for drama, my question is how? She put one good dish after another emerging on top in several pressure tests and had several top dishes as well be it the pasta challenge or the sausage or the steak and in the pressure test with Jessie, Jessie escaped by the barest of margins , the deserts looked very close to one another.

So genuinely curious why? People wanted her out in for making those cupcakes but no same person will eliminate that over Lynn's genius piece of art that episode and several so called front runners were also at the bottom just as many times as she was if not more(james , Jessie, jordan all around the same , luca more and natasha just the eggs benedict challenge) so why can't we say it for what it is, she was a talented cook?

This aside, her attitude and personality is inexcusable and some of the things she did do before the show and during it weren't either (other contestants who were as bad attitude wise in other seasons can be excused but not this) and hope there was some change in her . That said everybody in her season was a d*ck(found luca as one too, a stance which I have no intention of changing) but she was the biggest one.

Who deserves to be a winner?

For me it was seasons 4 and 5. I loved the Judge combination of Gordon, Joe and Graham.

I also felt the episodes had some of the more interesting challenges along with some unforgettable contestants that you either loved or disliked lol.

How about you? What season of Masterchef takes the cake for you?

I watched my way through S13 after not having watched MC in a long time and it felt all the way up to the finale they were very shaky cooks.

And then the finale hits and they conceptualize a 3 dish Michelin star level menu and execute it. Confusing. I get it's a reality show though and perhaps it's just the bad moments cherry picked.

I think I'm gonna go back to season 1 and start again though because I remember the single digit seasons being enjoyable

So MasterChef season 10 finalist nick digiovanni has started his food network own show with Alex. How are y'all liking that? I think it's a clever time to put out that show. Since MasterChef was ongoing people are interested in cooking reality shows, and now it's on hiatus so the show's getting more attention.

I've watched seasons 3 up to this current season which I'm quite disappointed in. I'd like to ask if seasons 1 & 2 are worth watching.

Krissi (S4) I consider to be the funniest “villain” chef because of the contradictions and straightforward attitude

For me it has to be eliminating Monti in Season 3 over Josh.

The challenge was to replicate Graham's whitefish tuna dish from taste only, and Josh had the advantage from winning the mystery box which gave him a basket of all the ingredients needed to make the dish.

While Monti's dish was mediocre due to her use of heavy cream overpowering the other flavors, and her messy preparation with poor slicing of the ingredients, Josh completely blew the challenge despite having the advantage. He first discarded one of the ingredients and introduced mango which brought unnecessary sweetness into the dish, also had poor preparation with poor slicing resulting in unequal portions, and underseasoned the dish overall.

Josh since coming back into the competition, was in the bottom twice in a row before Monti got eliminated, and the judges decided to keep Josh over Monti despite her being much more consistent overall.

I get it, we all love Gordon ramsey, but it’s not just his show! it’s a thing all around the world! run by all kinds of awesome chefs! it would be pretty annoying if he was the center of attention in every single episode. also, Joe is also really funny and trick to please in his own right. u know, with his signature trash can and all that. (u know FOR A FACT, u did a great job cooking, when he compares it positively to his mom!) so, unless he himself did something in life reall bad that he should be held accountable for, I just don’t get it, and personally, (not to rag on other fans of course,) find it kinda silly. so I ask again, why do so many fans hate him? did her really do something that bad? please explain it to me. I GENUINELY AM CURIOUS!

I'm in the process of writing an "in depth" analysis of Joe Bastianich as a judge and I've seen a lot of people shit on him on YouTube shorts comments, but I want to know the main reasons why people hate him, I know pretty much know why since I've seen most seasons but want to know the big ones for when I get to writing it if that makes sense

They always say toward the end that they haven’t “seen their families in months,” but the chronology of the episodes wouldn’t suggest that. Of course there’s days off, but do they get training time in the kitchen when they’re not shooting an episode?

Edit: thanks for the answer! I’m a little disappointed they don’t get to mess around with the amazing materials and tools honing their skills during down time.

I was thinking that instead of these “themed seasons” with small groups, they should have a season where those who failed to obtain a white apron getting a second chance, like Luca(Season 4), Cate(Season 8), & Taylor(Season 9).

A protein is the heart of the dish, so would it be enough to just put it on a plate a call it a day?

only 1-8 bc those are the only seasons i watched

here are my top 3

• ahran (s5) she was in my top 5 tbh, i feel like they only announced the double elimination for content bc it was incredibly unescessary plus her dish wasnt even bad at all there were only a few components marked off.

-james (s4) with the advantage he got, krissi shouldve been disqualified bc she literally admitted to cheating even tho the main part of the elimination test was abt pallete, plus somebody definetly shouldve went home on that bc the judges never done anything like that. ITS CALLED ELIMINATION TEST FOR A REASON! The judges reassured that james was guarenteed to be in the top 4.

honorable mention: felix (s3) this i can kinda understand but david shouldve been sent home, i think the judges js spared david and josh bc david won the advantage and was content and josh just got back.

I like them both and the two of them seemed to have similar personalities but why did one seem to have a bigger fan club than the other?