For many a cooking mortal, merely deciding what to fix for dinner can be unnerving.
And then there’s Rebecka Evans.
The food blogger, Bacon World Champion at the World Food Championship, winner of Clash of the Grandmas on the Food Network and numerous other competitions, recipe creator and contest judge who, of course, shares her food and drink recipes with fyi 50+ readers every issue, thrives on culinary chaos.
How else could anyone possibly survive almost 15 weeks of being a contestant on the prestigious yet fingernail-bitingly competitive and challenging “MasterChef” TV series?
“There’s something about that part of the competition I enjoy,” Evans said. “You’re pumped up, hyped up, like an athlete before a game. I know that sounds masochistic, but it’s what fuels me and makes me want to win: being timed and under pressure.”
Those 15 weeks of competition weren’t just tossed into her aproned lap. They began 15 years ago when Evans, who no longer owned a beauty salon and no longer sang opera for a living, started food blogging. Loving food came naturally to her: She was raised by an adventurous cook of a mother and a father who introduced his children to global cuisines and ingredients he’d experienced while in the military.
She won many contests through the years and then set her sights on “MasterChef.” In 2015, she auditioned in Houston with 5,000 other home cooks, each given three minutes to make a precooked meal look delicious on a plate. She made it to the second round but not the third.
And that, she thought, was that. She kept cooking, blogging, winning prizes, and sharing recipes — and, in so doing, reminded her readers and herself that what steps can you take but forward? She was doing what she loved; not everyone can make that statement.
Then, in 2023, came the call she’d never entirely given up on receiving but which she hadn’t let herself anticipate for quite a while: It was from “MasterChef,” asking if she’d be interested in auditioning again.
Could her heart stop pounding long enough to say yes? What followed were months of paperwork, making a video of herself cooking and talking as she went along, going through a psychological examination to make sure she was up for the stress and the tension. And then Evans — chosen from 10,000 home chefs going through the same process — was off to Los Angeles.
The series was called “MasterChef: Generations” and featured chef Gordon Ramsey as head judge, assisted by chefs Aaron Sanchez and Joe Bastianich. It pitted teams of age groups: Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z, and Boomer against each other.
“To get here, they take you through the wringer to make sure you can handle the pressure,” she said. “You’re in fight or flight mode the entire time.” The days were long; filming each episode was only the beginning. After leaving the studio or wherever they were filming that day, contestants went to their hotel, and most spent a few hours studying recipes for ideas on what they might be asked to cook the following day.
“You have to have them in your head; you can have nothing written down,” Evans said. “I studied sauces, entrees, cakes, baked goods, and appetizers every night.”
Her 18 years as an opera singer came in handy, helping her memorize cake ingredients by creating a song in her head, which, she said, “worked for me.”
In another round, Evans was one of three contestants given a disadvantage in the challenge. They were instructed to use coffee in a dessert instead of an entrée. She decided to bake her tried-and-true crinkle cake, as she had many times before. But wouldn’t you know, this time, she forgot to add parchment paper when prepping her pans, and when she poured the liquid custard into the pan, the batter went all over the countertop! Thankfully, she was able to make one tattered coffee crinkle cake that the judges proclaimed to be delicious, thus allowing her to advance to the next round.
An especially tough challenge involved cooking lunch for workers at a nearby quarry. The wind was blowing like crazy, the temperatures ranged from 30 to 80 degrees, and the day seemed endless. Yet Evans, being Evans, persevered, leading her team to the win that day.
Any negatives from those rounds were redeemed over and over, especially by what she cooked for the Blue Moon Beer challenge. Evans made snapper puttanesca, deemed by Chef Ramsey as “visually rustic, but rustic with charm.” Chef Sanchez: “It’s firing on all cylinders.” Bastianich even said it tastes like his mother’s fish brodetto. His mother is the famed celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich.
Evans’s personality — Type A, thick-skinned, and ever-optimistic — was a huge asset. She reveled in being able to captain teams on certain days (“I do love being in charge”) and delighted in her ongoing banter with Ramsey (“My respect for him is incredible, and he knew I wasn’t afraid of him”); savored the camaraderie with her teammates and other contestants.
They were competitors, but they were family, too.
“We were constantly on the same emotional stage, and we were very supportive of each other,” Evans said. “There were days we’d go in and back and cry together; we were so exhausted and sad when one of us didn’t make it.”
In some of the earlier challenges, one contestant is granted the privilege of an immunity pin, meaning they can’t be eliminated from the competition that day. Evans got her first immunity pin on the show’s first challenge: Make a recipe that exemplifies your generation, one that could also be served in a three-star Michelin-ranked restaurant.
She made blackberry hoisin meatloaf, an Asian version of her mother’s recipe. That day was an up day. Others… not so much.
“It’s often grueling,” she said. “People who think they can do this don’t consider 18-hour days, constantly standing, something new every minute. Will you be cooking twice that day? What will you be cooking?” And in her case, what do you do if you get sick?
Midway through the series, she developed bronchitis. “I was totally overdosing on DayQuil so I wouldn’t cough,” she said. “I stuffed cough drops in my pockets and my bra. The crew was great. They always had water handy, and if I had to kneel behind my stove and have a coughing fit, I did, and they didn’t film it.”
The days were long. They were stressful. Yet they were memory-making and unforgettable in so many ways.
“The whole process was daunting,” she said, “but I loved every minute. Never was there a day in which I wanted to go home. I wanted to be there until the very end.” And she just about was. Maybe one day she’ll be a “MasterChef” contestant again, which she’d say yes to in a heartbeat. If not, she holds close to her heart all she accomplished this time: three individual wins, two immunity pins, and two team wins, including one as a captain. Best of all, she placed fourth overall, the best the oldest contestant (64; she was 63 when she competed) has ever done.
Evans says her journey is not over. She wants to represent boomers and fulfill her dreams as a competitive chef on future cooking shows. She is currently working on a cookbook and other projects.
“Before this, I had confidence in myself, but still that feeling of not being good enough, not having gotten to the pinnacle,” Evans said. “This, hands down, is the pinnacle. I feel so proud and accomplished to go so far and make it further than people much younger than me. I can take all that with me as I head for my next challenge.”
