I was raised eating 5-6 home-cooked meals a week (thanks to my all Italian mother), so cooking was never a foreign concept. After college, I conceded that the takeout and ramen noodles days were over, so my mom sent me off to Boston with a hand-written recipe book – including all my favorite of her recipes. After a couple years when I finally had an apartment with a decent kitchen, I decided to start giving those family recipes a try. I wouldn’t say I was a natural, but after some practice mixed with a real passion to get better, I had found a new hobby.
Before I knew it I was cooking several nights a week and looking forward to football Sundays in the fall where I’d prepare soups, sauces and meals for the week ahead. My colleagues and friends began to recognize the excitement I had when I talked about food and the infatuation I had with not only making tasty, healthy food but sharing it with those around me.
Fast forward 4 years…
Thanks to some encouragement from Ryan and Cohen, on Sunday, January 10th, I tried out at a Master Chef casting audition in Newton along with 200 other Bostonians. I had to plate my signature dish (lettuce wraps) and serve it to the judges. From there I was asked back with about 20 other people to round 2 where I did an on-camera interview for nearly 30 minutes. I guess they liked me because I made it to the top 10 in Boston – round 3 baby!
So there I was… I had a few days to pull together raw footage that captured me and my life, so I took hours of video of my day-to-day life – friends, family, my kitchen and of course me cooking! To supplement my footage, and help me stand out, I created this blog to show to judges and producers that I SHOULD be on the show and have what it takes.
1 week, 75 comments, 6 countries, 23 states, and 150 viewers later, NicForMasterChef.com had garnered a following. Although I may not have secured a spot on the show, I did rediscover my interest in writing and have decided to continue to couple it with my growing fondness of food and cooking to create my recipe blog.