MasterChef Canada Season 1
(January-April 2014)
Catch me on MasterChef Canada Season 1! All of the episodes are available on my YouTube Channel.
Here is a little bit about me and my experience.
Julie’s Bio
Occupation: Senior Analyst
Signature Dishes: Italian Doughnuts (Zeppole) with Espresso and Lemon Crème Anglaise
Julie is a bankruptcy analyst from Woodbridge, Ont. She met her husband in high school and warmly reflects that her son is her proudest accomplishment. After the tragic passing of her mother when Julie was just a teenager, she took on the responsibility of cooking for her entire family. Now, cooking is more than a proud inheritance – it’s a stress release and a wonderful escape from her desk job. Julie loves working with desserts, specifically fresh pastries and cakes. You can usually hear The Beatles in the background while Julie cooks, but she also loves to have her son play his mini-guitar.
Julie sees “MasterChef Canada” as the pivotal next step in her cooking story. She spent a lot of time in the kitchen throughout her life, and wants that commitment to build into something special. Taking the top prize would mean realizing her dream of attending culinary school. Julie hopes to open her own dessert café, focusing on speciality coffees and ice cream. She’s also very excited to keep a promise she made in person to “MasterChef” judge Gordon Ramsay four years ago; if “MasterChef” ever came to Canada, she’d be the first to sign up, and the first to win.
Julie’s Feature Article
1/28/2014 8:00:00 AM
Favoured flavour profile:
“I stick to Italian flavours, but even if I’m not cooking Italian, I know when things taste good. I won’t just add in fancy spices just to make myself look good. I stick to what I know works and things that I like to eat.
“Oh, and anytime I make dessert, I put espresso into it because I drink a lot of espresso and I want people to experience the caffeine and flavour in it.”
“I always attach an experience with my food. My audition dish was donuts with dipping sauces and the experience I associated with the donuts was being at my grandmother’s house on a special occasion, or being at a fair when you were a kid.”
Ultimate Mystery Box:
“It would be the ingredients to make pasta. I can make so many different types of pasta with so many different types of ingredients. My favourite is probably a pappardelle paired with seafood or mushrooms. The noodles are really thick and hearty. They’re my favourite noodle.”
Why will Canada love her?
“Audiences will love me because I’m pretty typical – I’m a young mom (her son, Dean, is two and a half) and a lot of people can relate to me. I work nine to five and got married four years ago. People will see me and say, ‘I can do that, too.’ There are a lot of young moms out there who could do this, too.”
Strategy:
“I am super nice, it’s not fake. I like people, but I will also use as much information as I can about people to work my way through the competition.”
First dish ever cooked:
“The first thing I ever cooked was probably a mushroom risotto when I was about 15. I remember eating it at a restaurant and thinking, I really like this. It’s the first dish I remember cooking, where I looked up a recipe and made it.”
When does MasterChef Canada air on TV? MasterChef Canada airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on CTV.
Where can I watch full episodes of MasterChef Canada online for free? Watch MasterChef Canada online at
http://www.ctv.ca/masterchefcanada. Episodes generally go up the day after they air on broadcast.
Elimination Article
By Lindsay Zier-Voge
l4/1/2014 7:00:20 AM
Though dim sum translates to “touch the heart,” for eliminated home cook, Julie Miguel, dim sum translates into “disaster.”
“I’ve never made a spring roll in my life,” admits Julie about the tag team dim sum Elimination Challenge where she was paired with Marida.
“When I threw (the spring roll) in (the fryer), I’m like, ‘It’s opening,’ and Marida’s like, ‘Oh you’re supposed to put egg on it,’ and I’m like, ‘OK, that would have been great information like 10 seconds ago.’”
And that was just the tip of the iceberg. The pair didn’t have the best dynamic.
“I felt that Marida had written me off in the very beginning of the challenge,” she says. “And because we are so different, me and Marida, it really made it difficult to work together.”
And it didn’t help that Julie didn’t know how to use the mandolin.
“I haven’t used one, so when (Marida) was telling me to use one and to fit the pieces in I was like, ‘OK, well we don’t really have time to do a mandolin tutorial, so I’m just going to start cutting stuff by hand,’ and if she was a lot quicker with it then she should have done that part but she didn’t want me touching anything else so she wanted me to continue with the stupid mandolin.”
And that wasn’t the only team challenge Julie struggled with. She cites the air force challenge as another tricky cook. “I’ve never worked for someone like Kaila – someone who basically talks at people a lot, but what they were saying had no substance whatsoever. She had no idea how to run a team,” Julie says. “She had no plan of action.”
She admits being a team leader would only have added additional pressure to the already heightened stakes, and she says, “(It was hard for me to) find my stride and find what I’m good at. I was constantly trying to take on too much and learn things that I couldn’t cook and it took my focus.
“If I had just stayed focused on the food that I know how to make, I think I would have done a lot better.”
She was, however, proud of the donuts she served the judges, and the monkfish with quinoa dish she served. And she’s excited to make Episode 8’s Salmon Wellington and Episode 10’s Baked Alaska for her family.
But even though she wishes she was still in the competition, she is excited to be seeing her two-and-a-half year old son.
“His voice sounds different and he looks different,” she says. “I’m excited to cook for him again.”
Meet the Top 50:
Meet the Top 50 ‘MasterChef Canada’ home cooks:
Take a look at the Top 50 home cooks vying for the “MasterChef Canada” title.
Julie Miguel, Bankruptcy Analyst – Woodbridge, Ont.
CTV announced today the list of Top 50 “MasterChef Canada” home cooks, culled from the thousands of applicants from across the country. In this nail-biting audition process, home cooks from across Canada put their best dish forward for a chance to continue on the homegrown edition of one of the most successful primetime entertainment formats in the world. CTV also announced today the grand prize these home cooks are vying for: the MasterChef Canada title and a $100,000 cash prize to help make their culinary dreams come true. “MasterChef Canada” airs Mondays at 8 p.m./7 p.m. CT beginning Jan. 20 on CTV and CTV GO.
“We searched the country and are confident these Top 50 home cooks are the best this country has to offer,” said Phil King, President, CTV Programming and Sports. “The production team selected amateur chefs of all ages and vocations who are ready to showcase their passion, talent, and drive as they cook for the right to be the first-ever Canadian MasterChef.”
As home cooks enter the final phases of the audition process for a coveted white MasterChef apron, in the premiere episode (Monday, Jan. 20 at 8 p.m./7 p.m. CT), each home cook must present their signature dish to esteemed judges Michael Bonacini, Alvin Leung, and Claudio Aprile. As friends and family cheer on the amateur cooks, only those with the most impressive dishes will be given the opportunity to move forward in the competition. The Top 50 home cooks competing for the first-ever “MasterChef Canada” title and $100,000 cash prize are:
Videos
Watch Full Episodes: Watch MasterChef Canada online at http://www.ctv.ca/masterchefcanada
Julie’s Audition Extras
Julie’s Exit Interview
Behind the Scenes
Photo Gallery
Thank you for all the support!!!
With Love,
Julie