MasterChef Canada Season 9 Exit Interview: Raiza Daniel & Linxi Mytkolli

TEM (The Extra Mile): How did you both get started with cooking and how did that lead you to apply for MasterChef Canada?

Raiza:  For me, being South American, we were always really involved in cooking at home. As an older sister, I was in charge of doing a lot at home, so that’s how it started. And being a mom, I just have a big passion for cooking.

Linxi : I definitely relate to food being integral to my culture. I’m Albanian, and in Albania, food is so much more than how you nourish yourself. It’s culture, it’s family. Food and cooking are some of the only ways we get multiple generations together in the same room. I grew up in and out of kitchens, helping out all the time, and I loved it. To be honest, it felt like this perfect mixture of art and science. I could express myself, but I could also try to figure out new techniques and how things worked, which was amazing for the curious kid version of me. I would say I fell in love with food and cooking again after I was diagnosed with diabetes because it makes you reimagine things. My motivation to apply was twofold. First, there’s never been an Albanian on the show before, and most people don’t even know where Albania is or that it’s a country. It was really important for me to have that representation. But also, there’s never been someone with Type 1 diabetes on the show. You cannot be what you do not see, so that was a huge part of my motivation, too.

TEM: Raiza, you led the blue team in the previous team challenge. How did that pressure affect you going into the elimination challenges, especially after injuring your finger?

Raiza : Yes, I was leading the blue team, and unfortunately, we lost. That led me to the Pressure Test. I was definitely under a lot of pressure. It sounds redundant, but you really want to stay in the competition. Regardless, I know it’s a team effort. As a leader, maybe I should have led my team better in a way, but it’s teamwork at the end of the day. It’s not just my fault. I definitely wanted to prove that I was deserving of being in the competition, and I gave it my all. That’s why, when it happened, I crumbled a little. I was trying to get everything done fast, and that’s when I had my accident and cut my thumb.

TEM: Do you think that injury also affected your Chicken Roulade?

Raiza : Yes, exactly, because I was working slower and I was in a lot of pain. Also, my first roulade didn’t work out properly, so I made a big, bold decision to make a new one. Maybe I should have worked with the one I had before and at least put something cooked on the plate. But I wanted my plate to be perfect. I wanted to show that I deserved to be there and that I could be in the competition. It’s bittersweet for me. It’s really, really hard, but it is what it is. You just have to roll with it.

TEM: Linxi, the red team won the challenge. Looking back how do you feel the way everyone worked together?

Linxi : I think one thing that cannot be underestimated is how hard a team challenge is. It’s not just the fact that we don’t know each other that well and we’re working together. The clock! I’ve never seen a faster clock than in that freaking kitchen. I don’t know how that witchcraft works, but time flies. I host dinner parties at my house for up to 25 people, but I prep for three days and cook at my own speed. It’s not under this crazy amount of pressure. Watching it back, if there’s anything I’m proud of, it’s using my voice to make sure I’m looking out for the team’s success. We had lots of great ideas that would have made delicious food, but the challenge was very specific. I host Super Bowl parties at my house often. It’s a tradition. My husband loves football, and I love food, so that’s naturally my role. For me, advocating that we should be more dramatic and over the top with our food was about making sure that, as a team, we were showing our best selves for the challenge. The other thing that can’t be underestimated is that everyone is an excellent cook. There is no weak link. All of us can make delicious food. It’s just a matter of what challenge you get that day and how the dice roll.

Raiza : Definitely. And being under pressure, like you said, you’re also dealing with different personalities. I really struggled with that because, as you could see, I was often quiet. I actually trusted the people I picked to work with.I trusted each person to deliver what we had planned, so I didn’t feel like I needed to constantly go around checking on people. I was focusing on my own task. Maybe I could have yelled more and gone around asking, “What are you doing?” But that’s really not my style. That’s not how I am. When I’m in my own kitchen, I also host parties for big groups. I work at my own speed and make my own decisions. But when you have everybody else there telling you not to do something a certain way, I tend to follow because I trust them. It was definitely tough. Very tough. I had a hard time. I said right from the beginning that I didn’t want to be the leader. It’s not that I lack leadership skills. I’m a mom, and I run a business. I just didn’t want to be on the chopping block because, at the end of the day, everything falls on the leader.

TEM: Do you feel like you got to showcase your cooking during your time on MasterChef Canada? Was there a dish you wish we had the chance to make for the judges?

Linxi : I appreciate this question because, while it was phenomenal to win the Beef Wellington challenge, I wanted to cook the Core Memory challenge so badly! I actually think it was a huge advantage for the people who cooked in that challenge because they got to get their nerves out in the kitchen earlier. One of my core memories is from travelling. I travel a lot, both for work and for pleasure. I remember eating aguachile for the first time in Mexico City. It’s a raw seafood preparation with a spicy but fresh sauce. I also grew up with a raspberry bush in my backyard, and we cook a lot with fruit and eat a lot of berries in Albania. I would have loved to make a scallop aguachile with raspberries and hibiscus. You’d have these beautiful white scallops in a pink broth. It really speaks to who I am. I love bright colours, I love culture, and I love experimenting. Also, from a diabetes perspective, raw seafood dishes are some of my favourites because they’re high technique but very easy to manage from a condition perspective. It would have been lovely to show that representation.

Raiza : For me, I was a little disappointed that they didn’t show my rice dish because I made a chicken Hainanese dish. I was really proud of it because it looked really good. Having lived in Southeast Asia, that’s something I eat and make at home, so I was sad it wasn’t shown. I definitely would have loved to cook more Southeast Asian dishes, like Malaysian dishes, if I had the opportunity. Even though I’m Colombian, there are things I could mix together and create fusion dishes with. But this was our journey until this point, and I guess now it’s about what we can do afterward and maybe showcase those dishes online.

Linxi: I don’t think you’ll find anyone from this show who would say they wouldn’t want to cook more. Any chance we would have gotten to cook more, we would have taken it!

TEM: How would you describe your MasterChef Canada experience in three words?

Linxi : I actually wrote about this in my journal the other day. I would describe it as grit, grace and gratitude. I think it takes a tremendous amount of grit to be on a competition like this. I don’t think people at home realize how difficult it is to be brave, to be vulnerable and to cook under that witchcraft clock. Gratitude is a huge one. I’m so grateful for the experience, grateful for the people, grateful for the chance to represent, but also grateful for what I learned. And grace. I’m proud of the way I carried myself despite tremendous pressure, and I’m proud of stepping into that kitchen and stepping out of it with a lot of grace.

Raiza: For me, resilience, because you absolutely need that. Being able to wing it, too! And strength. You really need to be strong to handle that amount of pressure. The other thing is the people I’ve met throughout the process. I don’t know how to put that into one word.

TEM:  Community?

Raiza : Yes! Community. You build a beautiful community.

TEM: How do you go The Extra Mile?

Linxi : I don’t know if I could boil it down to one word, but when I think about going the extra mile, I’m often the first one in a space or a room with my identities. For me, going the extra mile means making sure I’m not the only one and not the last one. In the MasterChef Canada kitchen, that meant educating people about my culture, my reality and my condition. But it also means making sure that other Albanians and other people with diabetes know that if they want to apply next year, I will personally help them apply. I think it makes my cooking and my life better when I’m able to share those parts of myself, along with that access and privilege. It’s a privilege to be on a show like this. So for me, going the extra mile is throwing the ladder back down and bringing other people up with me.

Raiza : For me, going the extra mile is about always keeping going. Not giving up. That’s definitely what it means to me. In life, in anything and everything I do, it’s about not giving up and just keeping going.

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