MasterChef Canada Season 9: Amanda Baker, Dre Pao, Marshall Gu & Ral Onyeachonam Exit Interview

Amanda Baker, Dre Pao, Marshall Gu and Ral Onyeachonam were the first four home cooks eliminated from Season 9 of MasterChef Canada, but their time in the kitchen gave each of them a chance to bring their own personality and relationship with food to the competition. In this exit interview, the four home cooks look back on the pressure of taking on Gordon Ramsay’s signature Beef Wellington as their very first challenge, what it was like cooking alongside someone they had just met, and the dishes they wish they had gotten the chance to showcase. They also share the foods they love making for the people in their lives, the close bond they formed with their fellow home cooks, and what their short but memorable MasterChef Canada experience taught them about taking chances, staying true to themselves and continuing to pursue their passion for food

TEM (The Extra Mile): How did you guys feel especially the Beef Wellington being the first challenge, like, was that exciting or terrifying?

Dre: Yeah, I was terrified. You know, I come up from a Mediterranean background, so I would say, you know, British cuisine is something I rarely ate growing up. Of course, we know the famous Wellington from Ramsay, but I didn’t think I’d have to make it on the show, never mind with someone I just met. So, yeah, I was intimidated.

Marshall: I was definitely intimidated. It’s not something I would ever cook at home. My wife has anaphylaxis. So something like cooking with butter, cooking puff pastry, for example, is just not something that happens in our households. That being said, I was super excited. I know it’s like one of Gordon Ramsay’s signature dish. I know he brought it back, made it , made it modern, and I was really excited to try to tackle it.

Amanda:  So Beef Wellington is so technical that I was actually a little bit surprised that they started with something that involved so much skill. Like, you can’t just make a beef Wellington. Like, you have to have done it multiple times to really nail it. So I was surprised, and obviously that was intimidating, it being the first thing we do.

Ral:  Yeah, I was actually surprised as well. Just like Marshall said, like, you know, being there, it’s not really something I’d cook. I’ve never made a Wellington before. So it was definitely an interesting experience. And then now, of course, getting to Do it with someone that you literally just met two seconds ago, so that was also a little nerve-wracking, but I mean, fortunately, my teammate was game, so it went well.

TEM:  So would you say then working with a partner helped or added pressure?

Ral: Definitely added pressure, I would say that for sure, because you are coming into the kitchen with the mindset of going into a competition, right? Yes, we know that there are challenges, there are team challenges, right, but we don’t really think it’s going to be right away. So essentially, you’re putting your people hat on very early on, because now you have to navigate someone, you have to navigate communication skills, you have to navigate understanding this person while it’s having 60 minutes to execute this dish. So yeah, a lot going on, like a lot of thinking parts and moving pieces. So it definitely does add pressure, but I think also, we all love food, and food being the language. It just kind of like helped solidify the connection and the communication.

TEM:  Would the rest of you guys agree or is there like something you want to add? Would you say it’d kind of help more or just add more pressure?

Amanda: I think initially I was like, Jesus Christ, why is this the first thing we’re doing? Kind of with the producers, I said that’s going to be the hardest thing if I have to work with a partner because I’m a little bit bossy. Luckily, though, for me, I said to Harley as we were going into the challenge, said I’m a little bit bossy. Are you okay with that? Because I didn’t know Harley at all. And he was like, yeah, like, let’s go for it. And he ended up fixing the sauce. So in the end, it was good. But like, at first, I was definitely like, something technical. And with this guy that I don’t know.

Dre: What was I going to say? Yeah. I feel like in addition to having to cook now I’m having to balance personalities when we had the team challenge sort of thing right and you guys saw the episode we didn’t have the most chemistry right off the bat in my challenge so it was interesting but at the same time I think you know it’s a lot of firsts for us happening at once for the both of us and balancing each other’s personalities plus a dish that’s very technical even for a very experienced Jeff was like yeah a little bit uh intimidating in that moment for sure yeah I was um I was super super stoked to get a partner to be honest because something like a Beef Wellington having never done it it’s actually easier I think to start with a partner because you can focus on different things all at once unfortunately obviously as as everyone know here knows there were a little couple of challenges that arose because of my partner um more more to the point uh like and that was not shown on the show he was also like because

Marshall:  For his religious reasons, he couldn’t taste a lot of the components of the dish. He can’t eat beef or pork, and then so the sauce, which is beef-based, he couldn’t test. The mashed potatoes, which we infused with some pork fat, he couldn’t taste either, so there was a lot of challenges to navigate there.But I want to be clear, I was super stoked to have somebody, and especially him, he’s a really good guy, he’s a really good cook, as I found out later, be my partner and to help me with that.

TEM: What was your guises to go-to-dish to impress someone?

Amanda:  I really like to cook seasonally. I feel like I’m much more ingredient-focused than I am technique-focused, typically. So it changes with the seasons, but if I can make like a classic roasted chicken, and then the flavorings around that change with the season. That’s usually my go-to because it’s a lot of people’s comfort food so like in the winter if I can do like a pomegranate glazed roast chicken with like roasted carrots and a little bit of pistachios on that or something that’s usually what I go for so it kind of changes with the season but it’s usually a roasted meat.

Marshall: What I like to make for people is dumplings. It was my mom’s love language to us. Even now when she’s seven years old she’s still like and despite the pain in her hands and arthritis and all that she still tries her best to make dumplings for us every Chinese New Year. It’s a big part of our tradition. Dumplings represent good luck. So that’s what I’ve like carried forward as my own tradition for my friends. So like rolling that out and you could make it with different fillings inside so it can be different every time but that’s something I would like to make for people.

Dre:  Even though maybe it wasn’t the most famous dish on the episode, I will say I love making people rice. Various different types of rices. Maybe I wouldn’t make it for Chef Craig if he happened to come over. He seemed to think it was a bit bland. But in the end, I think it’s something I really enjoy because it’s so diverse. And yeah, I’m going to stick with that

Ral: And for me, anything that is braised, slow cooked, a slow like, let’s have some wine. Let’s chat while we wait for the dish to finish. No rush. Literally the opposite of the kitchen. But yeah, so my favorite thing to make for people, to impress them, people I love, just like braised short ribs with some nice garlicky mash and any seasonal veggie that I want to pair with it. But top notch.

TEM: Which home cook would you invite over for dinner?

Ral:  Everyone.

Dre : Not everyone.

Amanda:  Manka might be declining that invite, Dre. I don’t know.

Dre: Manka unfortunately has lost her invites to my next paella cook-off.

Ral:  But no, I feel like, you know, we need food and love. Everyone, really.

Marshall:  I think I speak for all of us. We really bonded together, the various people in Season 9. I call them my MasterChef family. I truly mean that. regard some people as, like, Alyon as my little brother, for example. Dre is my wacky cousin that no one likes to talk to.It just depends, really. But I would love to have everyone over, for sure.

Amanda: Yeah, we kind of created, like, a shorthand when we’re talking about food. I think we all realized that we were the most foodie person out of anybody we knew until we met each other. So it was easy to click.

TEM:  If you had a dish that you wish you got to make, would it be the same, or is there anything particular that you wish you got to showcase?

Ral :  For me, more so, I had a lot of, like, I’m Nigerian-Canadian, so my angle was going to be a lot of, like, my Nigerian flavors, bringing the West African flavors into the limelight.Not that it hasn’t been, it has been, especially by MasterChef U.S. that just concluded, and Nigerian was, like, top three, and he killed it. So just basically continuing that storyline of bringing the West African flavors into, like, you know, general cuisine and finding ways to, you know, merge that into, like, French techniques and all of that good stuff. So that was what I was looking forward to doing this season. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but that’s not the end of me, baby. You’re going to catch that online.

Marshall:  I’ve been working for a while, ever since I got accepted to MasterChef on a duck breast dish. I’ve perfected different variations of it, but I would have loved to have served something like that. And, you know, I had that in my back pocket after episode one, but obviously we didn’t make it that far, but that’s okay. I feel like there’s going to be more opportunities in the future.

Amanda: Similarly, I was working on something too. I was working on a rye beur blanc sauce that I was thinking would be nice with like a pork or like something kind of smoky to complement the rye. And also a miso cremeau. Those were two things that I was like, I really wanted to get something in there, but those will still exist in dinner parties.

Dre : For me, because I started off a little bit outside of the box with adding some chocolate to the paella, my goal was to transition to more traditional. So I was excited. I’m to make things I grew up with my grandma, like making some traditional pasta, some Zeppole di San Giuseppe, which is like a very specific Calabrian dessert, so transition from that to a little bit wackier side to something more traditional, but on what Ral said, think there will be some opportunities to do that online as well.

TEM: if you guys could describe your MasterChef Canada experience in three words, what would those three words be?

Dre:  I mean, chaos for sure. Chaos is definitely, I mean, maybe this is just for me. Chaos is number one for me. Adrenaline, and then family. Because in the end, I feel like I did find a family that, like, we’re going to kind of keep this this thing going so it’s it’s been awesome to meet these people along the way

Ral: I would bounce off of that say the same family self discovery is not one word but I’m going to use it as one word self discovery and yeah adrenaline because

Amanda: yeah I would echo those words something that I feel is the word like unfinished or incomplete like I feel like there’s something still more there out of his experience that’s going to click with me or or something but it doesn’t feel like I have the full scope of how this is going to affect me yet

Marshall: yeah I definitely echo family I feel like I gained a big family I was I growing up I always had a small family now I have this big one but something I would add is dream It’s been a food dream of mine to be on MasterChef for 10 years, I think, and even though I’m only there for one episode, just seeing myself on the TV, like, I had an immense feeling of pride yesterday because that’s another dream of mine that I accomplished, right? I’ve been accomplishing all my dreams systemically, and I couldn’t even believe that this was going to be one of them, so I’m very proud of myself.

TEM: We’re all about going the extra mile. So what does the extra mile mean to you guys, whether that be in, you know, cooking or whatever that, or how do you take that?

Dre : I think going the extra mile is through all this. think we learned that things are unpredictable in the kitchen, in life in general, and I think going the extra mile is pushing through that. Even though people are going to put you down, people are going to question you, it’s just doing it anyway and seeing it through, and I think, you know, MasterChef taught me. That’s for sure is like, you don’t know what’s going to happen, but if you’re feeling it inside and you’re passionate about it, move forward and, hey, people are going to judge it the way they judge it. But in the end, if you believe in it, you got to push it.

Amanda: I like Dre’s answer a lot. I think I was struggling a lot with, if you do something correctly, then there should be a guaranteed results. And that’s a really hard way to live. And I think MasterChef and actually Dre, getting eliminated at the same time as Dre, some conversations we had after, I was like, yeah, like sometimes you just got to do your best, do that extra mile, regardless of what the result’s going to be, because the extra mile becomes who you are, regardless of the results. So Dre’s very wise. Maybe he doesn’t always seem it on the surface, but Dre’s a very wise man.

Ral: Um, yeah, I’m just going to echo the same. Um, just. Going the extra mile, essentially staying true to who you are, for me this might be a little like the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve here, but sometimes like remembering that simplicity is the best sometimes because when you overthink things, then you overdo and then that’s when you get further away from who you are and who you are to your core, so just reminding yourself to stay grounded and deliver and produce what you are proud of.

Marshall: Love that. Yeah, I agree with everyone here. The extra mile for me, I think, is just putting yourself out there, right? Every opportunity that comes your way, no matter how challenging it might be, or just being on MasterChef, right? Who could have thunk it? That takes guts. It takes courage, and I’m proud of everyone here for showing up and being ready for it. I think that’s huge, because not everyone would have rose to the occasion.

Catch the next episode of MasterChef Canada on Sept 29 on CTV and Sept 30 on Crave