Christine Ha wins US MasterChef contest
Christine Ha, a blind woman of Vietnamese origin from Texas, beat her rival military expert Josh Marks to become the winner of the US MasterChef reality show on September 11.
The two contestants had tried to complete a full menu within two hours.
Ha’s courses were a Thai crab salad for appetizer, braised pork belly for entree, and a coconut lime sorbet for dessert.
Her crab salad was great, with a sour and spicy vinaigrette. The judges loved the flavours but thought it might be too simple.
Her pork belly was too rustic looking for the finale. The judges did love the taste, but her presentation should have been more professional.
Her dessert of coconut lime sorbet was fresh after the heavy pork belly dish.
Josh’s menu was a lobster grits appetizer, rack of lamb entree, and bacon pecan pie dessert.
He made a technical error by blending his lobster shells with the broth. That brought out the iodine flavour of the shells and not the beautiful seafood flavour.
It turned out to be a good idea because the end result was praised by the judges. They didn’t like his raw lobster tail however.
His rack of lamb was great. The judges thought that the lamb was perfectly cooked, but the vegetables didn’t fit in the dish. Joe Bastianich did love the mixture though, and thought the use of different seasons was brilliant.
His bacon pecan pie was great. The only problem with the dish was that the crust was a bit oily. They couldn’t pick out the bacon, but they loved the ice cream.
With the MasterChef title, Ha received a trophy, a total cash prize of US$250,000 and a cookbook publishing contract.