Hilo has very own master chef

By JOHN BURNETT

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Local viewers of Fox Television’s “MasterChef” might do a double-take tonight and blurt out “I know her!”

That’s because 25-year-old Felix Fang, who was raised in Hilo and graduated in 2005 from Waiakea High School, will appear on the popular program tonight, auditioning her signature dish before celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and the other judges, restaurateur Joe Bastianich and Chicago chef and restaurateur Graham Elliot. The show airs at 8 p.m. on Oceanic Time Warner Cable channels 3 and 83.

“I love to cook,” the 25-year-old Fang told the Tribune-Herald on Monday. “I’ve been doing it since I was little. My parents actually had a restaurant in Hilo called the Banyan Hibachi beside the Naniloa hotel. … After 9/11, everything kinda went down and they ended up closing it, but that was part of my life growing up.”

Fang, a 2010 graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is an aspiring actress who moved to Hollywood to chase auditions hoping for a big break.

“I came out here to do acting, but the thing about being on the show is that I really like to cook and I do it in my free time. And if I may say so myself, I’m pretty good at it,” she said and laughed.

All of the show’s contestants sign a confidentiality pact, so Fang’s not allowed to disclose how she did on the program, which she described as “a journey.”

“It’s definitely one of the best experiences of my life,” she said.

Fang described her culinary style as “very Asian influenced” and added that on “MasterChef,” it pays to be well rounded.

“I do everything,” she said. “I like to bake a lot. I can make French bread; I make desserts. So it’s definitely not limited.”

In the meantime, she pays the rent by working as a food runner at Katsuya in Hollywood, which she described as “a trendy Japanese restaurant.”

Fang was born in Taiwan and came to the U.S. when she was 5. She said Mandarin is her first language and that food played an important role in her upbringing.

“My parents do a lot of home-style cooking, different kinds of Asian foods,” she said. “My mom would make dumplings. My dad would make prime rib at home. … There were definitely three cooks who were very active in our house.”

Ramsay, a Brit whose culinary empire spans four continents, is known in America for his angry, screaming, often profane on-camera persona on “Hell’s Kitchen,” another Fox cheftestant show. He’s toned down his demeanor considerably for “MasterChef,” a show featuring home cooks, which started its third season on Monday evening.

“Gordon seems really intimidating on camera, but in person, he’s really awesome and friendly, and he’s not really that scary. He’s really personable,” Fang said.

As for the other judges, Fang described Bastianich as “a connoisseur” but added “he doesn’t really cook.” The third judge, Elliot, definitely cooks. With three successful Chicago eateries, the 35-year-old chef is one of the Windy City’s brightest culinary stars.

“He’s not really mean or critical about it, but what he says really matters. He’s really aware how things are put together,” Fang said.

Fang made it through 30,000 hopefuls just to audition her dish before the judges. The season’s champion will receive $250,000, which she said she would give to her parents “without a thought” if she were to win “MasterChef.”

“It’s not about the money,” she said. “If I were to win this, so many doors would open for me. I don’t need a quarter-million. They’ve always supported me. I moved out here without a plan except to be an actress and they’ve backed me the whole time. … They brought the family from Taiwan to America in hopes of a better future for all of us and I just want to make them proud.”