Two Nova Scotia chefs featured on CTV’s MasterChef Canada are heading back to the kitchen for a second chance to put their culinary skills to the test.
Beginning on Sunday, Feb. 14 at 9 p.m., MasterChef Canada: Back to Win will welcome 12 former competitors for another opportunity to win the title, the first time in the show’s six-season history that the challenge has matched up past contenders.
Among the 12 contenders are Halifax restauranteur Andrew Al-Khouri from Lower Water Street’s aFrite Restaurant, who placed 10th in Season Two, and Season Five’s second-place finisher Andy Hay of Andy’s East Coast Kitchen.
Because all 12 chefs have taken the MasterChef Canada challenge before, the producers promise that they will be under even closer scrutiny and held to a higher standard by the show’s experienced judges, Michael Bonacini (Ontario’s Oliver & Bonacini restaurants), Alvin Leung (Hong Kong’s Bo Innovation) and Claudio Aprile (Toronto’s Xango).
Besides earning the title of MasterChef, which was won by Nova Scotia’s Jennifer Crawford in 2019, the last chef standing also picks up a $100,000 cash prize and a Chef’s Culinary Package from Miele.
The judges from the popular culinary contest were nominated for a 2020 Canadian Screen Award for best host or presenter, factual or reality/competition, and return to the role of mentor/critic as they oversee the chefs’ painstaking skills tests and creative kitchen challenges involving a wide array of dishes and ingredients. Competitors will also undergo taste tests by celebrity guests and world-renowned chefs who come by the kitchen to add a little extra spice to the proceedings as the list of contenders is slowly melted away, week-by-week.
Along with Al-Khouri and Hay, returning MasterChef participants for Season Seven include:
- Andre Bhagwandat – Season 6, 2nd place (Whitby, Ont.)
- April Lee Baker – Season 3, 5th place(Calgary, Alta.)
- Barrie McConachie – Season 4, 3rd place (Vancouver, B.C.)
- Christopher Siu – Season 2, 5th place (Markham, Ont.)
- Dora Cote – Season 1, 11th place (Wainwright, Alta.)
- Jen Jenkins – Season 5, 8th place (Niagara Falls, Ont.)
- Jeremy Senaris – Season 3, 2nd place (Winnipeg, Man.)
- Mai Nguyen – Season 4, 4th place (Edmonton, Alta.)
- Marissa Leon-John – Season 5, 7th place (Montréal, Qué.)
- Thea Vanherwaarden – Season 4, 2nd place (Vancouver, B.C)
Fans of the show can revisit the MasterChef: Back to Win competitors’ past seasons on Crave, which is streaming Seasons Four to Six, or go to the CTV.ca website or the CTV app for the complete run of the show as well as exclusive interviews, judges’ tips and tricks, recipes and other bonus content.
MasterChef Canada is one of over 60 local adaptations of the popular cooking competition broadcast in more than 200 countries. Named the world’s most successful television cookery format, the original MasterChef was launched by U.K. filmmaker Franc Roddam on the BBC in 1990.
