Meet the MasterChef Season 8 contestants from Mass

READ our feature interview with contestant Daniel Pontes-Macedo HERE

JASON WANG

As a high school music teacher in Newton, what’s it like to go back to the classroom after being in the spotlight? If you haven’t seen your students yet since it’s the summer, what do you think their reaction will be when you see them in September?

Many of the music students were able to watch the May 31 MasterChef season 8 premiere along with me since school was still in session! We had an amazing watch event at Newton South High School in the auditorium. The amount of energy and screaming and cheering was incredible! I think it is so fun for the students to be able to see me in another light and I hope it is a good example to them that they can pursue multiple interests and still achieve excellence. At school, I continue to want to keep the focus on the students and to respect their learning environment, so despite all the nutzo excitement going on beyond the classroom with the show, I try my best to keep the rehearsing and learning experience for them on track. They do, however, crack quite a few Gordon Ramsay jokes at me!

How did being a teacher help you, if at all, in the competition?

I’ve developed a good instinct for reading how people learn in and respond to different situations. On MasterChef, when you are competing individually against other home cooks in one challenge, and then suddenly they are your teammates in another challenge, I would keep track of how each person functioned in the kitchen. By leveraging what I perceived to be strengths and weaknesses and how they learned and functioned, I could either help someone work through a tough situation, or try to use that knowledge for strategy. I do think that being a teacher gave me a soft spot for when people were struggling though, and I tried my best to help others; yes it is a competition, but at the end of the day, we are all home cooks trying to do our best. We ended up being a very close knit group! I’m never one to see someone having difficulty without trying to help.

What are some similarities between playing music and cooking?

The skills from being a conductor and professional musician translate wonderfully into cooking.  Musicians routinely multi-task at an incredible level. For example, when I’m conducting an ensemble, at any given moment I may simultaneously be keeping time with my right hand, cueing with my left hand, referencing the printed music score on my stand, hearing notes out of tune from a third row cello, hearing an overly loud entrance from a 2nd trumpet, seeing a flautist’s incorrect hand position, and all the while thinking about whom I need to cue next and what I need to give for verbal feedback when I stop. The list goes on and on; all your senses are in hyper gear.  So, when it comes to cooking a dish or meal, I can usually have multiple components going at the same time and have a good sense of when I need to attend to each and how the timing all fits together. Great musicians see, notice, and hear everything and I think the same could be said for great chefs, only instead of hearing, the sense is taste.  

Similarly, the pursuit of perfection in music translates so well into presenting amazing food. An orchestra may play 98 percent of the notes correctly in a piece, but the audience will certainly remember the 2 percent of mistakes they heard. I take the same approach to my food, so to me flavors, temperatures, textures, and especially plating and presentation must be as perfect as possible for me to consider a dish successful. Lastly, musicians are trained to adapt and push through stressful situations—especially when things don’t go as planned. Other contestants who maybe have not been in this sort of situation may end up shutting down once things start to derail. But in my experience, you can’t just stop in the middle of a concert because something goes awry, and I certainly had the same approach in the MasterChef kitchen when cooking during any of the challenges.

Why do you think Boston has such a strong presence in this season of MasterChef?

Ha! I think that since this year was the first time in a while that casting calls were held in Boston, all of us hiding in the woodwork finally came out to give it a shot. Seriously though, I could not be more proud to represent the Boston area and Massachusetts on MasterChef this season. I’m so grateful to have grown up here at the intersection of New England and so many cultures and to have been influenced by all the different cuisines that make their home in the area.

What/who are some of your favorite Boston area restaurants and/or chefs?

I think that on a whole, the people of Boston have really sophisticated palates. From corner café to fine dining and everything in between, the mixture of cultures and flavors available in Boston is truly world class. Even if folks are having simple meals at a neighborhood place, they know their flavors and what tastes good. That level of discernment at all price points makes eating in the Boston area really wonderful. I like variety so I have a bunch of different places on my favorites list. For authentic Vietnamese the Pho Le’s in Dorchester is where to go—I will drive all the way there any day for one of their delicious noodle soups! A Chinese go-to gem is Jean & Lee’s Kitchen in Newton; great Taiwanese stir-fries and dim sum-type foods. For Japanese I will go to either Oishii in Chestnut Hill, Oga’s in Natick, or Toraya in Arlington—amazing. I have also enjoyed the consistently solid dishes at Eastern Standard and Island Creek Oyster Bar in the Kenmore area, as well as at Bergamot in Somerville, and EVOO in Kendall Square, and a shout out to Loyal Nine in Cambridge for its insanely creative dishes.  And of course, there are the delicious and innovative offerings of Chefs Jamie Bissonnette and Ken Oringer at Toro and Little Donkey—yum.

What’s your next move? Back to normal or pursuing some things as a result of the show?

I’ve always had an intense love for all things food-related and have found tremendous pleasure and satisfaction being able to create unique things for people to eat and exposing people to new foods and ingredients. Instead of going to the movies or going out, truly I’d much rather be browsing the aisles of a grocery store or tramping through a park or forest looking for wild edibles to use in my next meal! Making it this far in the competition has validated that I do have a unique skill set and a unique creative point of view in the kitchen. Incidentally, my school schedule is freeing up a bit in the fall due to budget cuts, so this whole MasterChef experience thus far and life in general seem to be pushing me in a food-related direction.

As a teacher, I would love to travel and offer cooking classes that educate people on how to use strange or unusual ingredients, continue to demystify authentic Asian cuisines, and as a New Englander, teach about how to use seasonal and local products. Though you haven’t seen me cook any desserts on the show, I have a real love for baking, making chocolates, and especially making frozen desserts; I’ve gotten plenty of mileage out of my trusty Italian gelato maker over the years! So, a sweet venture might not be out of the question if the right opportunity comes up. I think that desserts are just an ultimate playground for a creative mind with all the different possible flavors, temperatures, and textures to compose into a stunning mouthful!

Lastly, I’d love to work with CSA organizations to promote local food and products and put my New England Asian spin on things. Incidentally, I’m going to be the visiting guest chef at a farm-to-table class and upcoming dinner when I’m traveling to Iowa to visit relatives. This event at the Three Pines Farm in Cedar Falls will have me cooking with vegetables grown by a local producer, Kaiser Farm. I just love this sort of collaboration and how it pushes me to think creatively about food.  At the heart of it, I think that educating people about food and giving them knowledge opens the door for them to better care for themselves and those around them. I truly believe that food is love, so hopefully folks watching the show will be inspired to try their hand in the kitchen and make their own mark in the food they cook!

ADAM WONG

The obvious question for a Harvard student who goes on a TV show—who leaves Harvard, even temporarily, to go on a cooking show?

Lots of people leave Harvard and take some time off! College is a scary time because people are trying to figure out what the heck they’re going to do with the rest of their lives. I wanted to try and see if cooking could help me answer some of those questions.

What was the reaction of your family members?

I am fortunate to have a family that cares most of all for my happiness. Of course they were concerned when I was taking a hiatus from my anthropology program, but warmed up to the idea once they cheered me on during the first episode.

What’s it like to be back to school?  

It’s pretty surreal with the show on.

What/who are some of your favorite Boston area restaurants and/or chefs?

Most of the time I eat at Harvard dining halls, and the crazy workload means I can’t travel too far to eat. I also appreciate good deals on an aesthetic level. Simple stuff made cheaply means there’s no smoke and no mirrors. Instead, there is a genuinely good, ideologically pure idea behind it. Pinocchio’s pizza does this extremely well. It’s my favorite pizza, especially the tom-baz with the Italian sub peppers. Al’s is also great, and I was really surprised about how good a Flat Patties burger is.

What’s your next move? Back to normal or pursuing some things as a result of the show?

I still appreciate food the most from an anthropological perspective. What you eat, when you eat it, who with, and how are incredible introductory questions into culture and self awareness. Applying that appreciation into a job would be amazing.