Editor’s note: Hilo’s Felix Fang is a contestant on the Fox TV show “MasterChef,” which airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Oceanic Time Warner Cable channels 3 and 83. Her weekly blog about her experiences on the program will run each Friday in the Tribune-Herald until she either wins or gets voted off by the judges. Unless otherwise noted, the first names of those mentioned in this blog are other contestants on the show.
Editor’s note: Hilo’s Felix Fang is a contestant on the Fox TV show “MasterChef,” which airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Oceanic Time Warner Cable channels 3 and 83. Her weekly blog about her experiences on the program will run each Friday in the Tribune-Herald until she either wins or gets voted off by the judges. Unless otherwise noted, the first names of those mentioned in this blog are other contestants on the show.
I have to admit that the last two episodes of MasterChef were extremely difficult for me to watch. Getting negative airtime does not feel good! I will keep this plain and simple without getting too defensive.
The Radisson Hotel breakfast service team challenge was such a fright! Believe it or not, some of us were naïve enough to believe that we were flying to Hawaii that morning. I thought I was going home! Then Joe knocked on my door at 3:30 a.m. It was time for a reality check. The team challenge was breakfast service for 130 guests at the Radisson Hotel.
As captain of the red team Christine chose me to be the expediter. What an honor to be chosen first by Christine, and it seemed only natural as I run and expedite food for a living. We were up against Josh’s blue team with Monti as his expediter.
Christine was right when she said that I was trying to do everything myself and not communicating well with my team. I was overwhelmed by all the various items and questions directed at me. Then (judge) Gordon (Ramsay) came over and yelled at me for two minutes, “FELIX! FELIX! LOOK AT ME! STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND LISTEN! YOU NEED TO SPEAK UP!”
All right, you don’t have to tell me twice. I realized the importance to step up as a co-captain in a way to order my team tasks because Christine can’t know how to help me unless I tell her. If we were to break this service time into thirds: first was disaster, second much better, and third was smooth sailing.
Meanwhile, from the blue team, all I could hear was yelling and lots of drama. They were praised for how well they communicated but yelling at everyone and each other with negative energy isn’t my definition of good communication. Sorry Gordon, this is not Hell’s Kitchen. My concern was that they might have put out more food during the first half of service.
Our team spirit and unity paid off. We finished strong and won the challenge. What a relief to not have to cook in the elimination test. Especially when the dish was something as temperamental as a molten chocolate lava cake. The MasterChef kitchen was filled with the mouth-watering aroma of butter, melted chocolate and sugar, all strangely infused with the scent of fear.
I reckon most people weren’t too sad to see Ryan leave. He doesn’t have a bad heart or mean spirit, really. He is simply immature and hams up in front of the camera. I think he enjoyed the attention as the a—hole guy. He did, however spew out a few words of wisdom on his way out the door, “Remember, you’re only as good as your last dish.” How silly, I thought at the time.
In the mystery box challenge, I learned you can purchase a great selection of healthy, fresh and beautiful ingredients for dinner tonight all for under $15 at your local Walmart! Tanya can cook a mean steak! I hated my plating of the roulade. Frankie is not a one-trick pony. Becky loves to make desserts. That pretty much sums up the mystery box challenge for me.
In the next pressure test we all made one of the three judges’ favorite desserts.
Joe (Bastianich’s) is the classic Italian tiramisu, Graham (Elliott) loves the all-American strawberry shortcake and Gordon was repping the tacky-looking British trifle. As the winner, Tanya chose, in the sweetest way possible, who would make what.
I was happy with my tiramisu, but the judges thought differently. It didn’t seem difficult although I’ve never made it before. I took the judges helpful hint of “soak the ladyfingers” in brandy a bit too literally. They should merely be dipped. By the time I had realized my mistake, it was too late and there was no going back.
What an embarrassment to be in the bottom two! In the middle of typing this, I ran to two grocery stores to procure ladyfingers, mascarpone cheese and brandy.
There was only one way to truly put this shame behind me: I must make a delicious and gorgeous tiramisu. It was done at 2 a.m. Mission accomplished!