I’m Going To Tell You The Biggest Secret About Competing On MasterChef

You’ve probably suspected it all along.

Elizabeth Cauvel
4 min readAug 3, 2020
The top 3 competitors of MasterChef season 5, from left: Courtney Lapresi, Leslie Gilliams, and the author.

It’s been almost six years since my season of MasterChef aired (season five, 2014). My post-show non-compete contract expired three years ago. While I’m not supposed to talk about certain aspects of what goes on behind the scenes, I’m under no legal obligation *not to.*

And, after spending the past 6 years reflecting on what it feels like to have strangers on the internet discuss my “resting middle aged bitch face,” I’m finally *emotionally prepared* to write about the show. So here goes.

If you ever decide to go on reality TV, know that people you’ll never meet will discuss your face.

Have you ever watched an episode of MasterChef and thought to yourself, “How do all these amateur cooks just know how to make a [highly specific and frequently obscure dish unfamiliar to most non-professional chefs]?” Like doughnuts. Or shrimp tempura. Or a croquembouche (even the most ambitious home cook would likely never attempt a multi-tiered cone of cream puffs encased in cobwebs of spun sugar).

The answer is: they teach us.

That’s it. That was the big reveal.

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Elizabeth Cauvel

I’m a freelance creative director and writer and the season 5 Masterchef runner-up. I love mayonnaise, yoga, cats, and pizza.