For the 13th episode of the MasterChef: Back to Win season, our chefs had to take on an interesting Grubhub inspired challenge. It was a chance to make it into the top 10 and reimagine classic dishes that get ordered (and delivered) across the country by thousands.
With a wide variety of dishes needing the be reimagined, there were many opportunities for our MasterChef cheftestants to either shine or stumble. And unfortunately for Fred Chang, this was his final challenge of the Back to Win season.
While Fred got perhaps one of our favorite dishes to reimagine – spaghetti and meatballs – the direction that he took with the dish just did not hit the way we would have hoped. Sadly, this meant that his Italian Meatball Potstickers were what sent him home in 11th place.
Following his elimination, we had the opportunity to chat with Fred about his time on MasterChef, what he hoped people got from his return, and what’s next.
Guilty Eats chats with Fred Chang of MasterChef after his Back to Win elimination
Guilty Eats: What was it like coming back to MasterChef so soon? (Fred was on Season 10 before returning for Season 12.)
Fred Chang: “It’s like taking a vacation from work, with MasterChef being the job and then you take like time off and you come back to it. So it’s kind of just like returning to a job or getting back on a bicycle after not riding it for like three years or so.”
GE: Well, that makes sense. But I have to ask, what was it like this time around because it wasn’t that long ago, but it’s got to be different?
FC: “I’d say for me during Season 10 I was very nervous and stressed out. Like I had stage fright, because you know, I’d never done a competition before. So it’s take a deep breath, calm down, try to actually get the experience and have fun with it because that was definitely a huge regret I had in season 10. I was so stressed out the whole time that I didn’t have any time to just like, soak in the experience and take it for what it is.”
GE: This time around, what was your favorite part of being back on MasterChef?
FC: “I’d say definitely, because I was a super fan before even being on the show the first time around that it was getting to meet and compete against so many contestants from all the seasons. It’s just really cool that you know, I’d be friends with Dara Yu or Felix Fang, after seeing them on TV over 10 years ago. So that was really cool.”
GE: Thinking of your elimination, it was interesting because when you went up you actually kind of second guessed yourself and you mentioned wishing you’d gone in a different direction. What would the direction have been if you had a second chance to do that all over?
FC: “Oh, my goodness. I definitely would have just done something more classically Italian. I was just trying to do fusion because I thought ‘oh, well that will be different.’ But yeah, I would have done something a lot more traditional. I would have probably done like an egg pasta. Probably do like a little polpettina, which is like an Italian meatball but it’s still done with the parmesan. So I would have stuck with it being actual spaghetti and meatballs and not trying to change it that much. I feel like the only reason why I did that was because I thought why not take a risk and well look where it got me.”
GE: What do you hope people took away from you coming back again?
FC: “I definitely would say the biggest reason why I came back was just to show America that you can go from being nervous and I guess not really self loathing is the right word. But you can go from not being fully confident in who you are, to learning to love yourself. That was definitely, I feel, like the biggest change in my personal growth between seasons 10 and 12. So it was more so just letting people see that you can be a better person and you can grow and that this competition can actually do that for you.”
GE: What’s next for you?
FC: “I’m still kind of just doing what I’ve been doing which is social media content creation for desserts. Well, I do have a whole manuscript for a cookbook. So you know if there’s any cookbook publishers out there who want to like you know, make that work, I have like literally 75 recipes waiting to go for that. So really just content creation and recipe development.
For now and in the immediate future, still saving up money for that bakery. So if that happens, it will happen. If not, who knows? But yeah, right now just content creation, saving up money for the bakery. And if anyone wants to make a cookbook with me, I have a manuscript.”
GE: And a question I have to ask everyone…What is your guilty eat?
FC: “I would definitely say carne asada fries with an Horchata. That’s like what I literally, on a late night when I’m tired, that’s what I go for.”
To see more of Fred’s work and desserts, check out his Instagram account and see what’s next for the former MasterChef cheftestant.