MasterChef Junior interview: Lila Deluca on her season 5 journey

Lila Deluca

Lila Deluca was one of two contestants eliminated from MasterChef Junior on Thursday night’s new episode, and while it may be tough to be sent out of the kitchen, she’s got a lot to celebrate — she survived several eliminations, participated in multiple team challenges, and got to meet everyone from Mayim Bialik and Julie Bowen to of course Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi.

Over the weekend, we conducted an email interview with the young home cook from Massachusetts, and got a few assorted thoughts from her on her culinary dream, her highs and lows in the competition, and also what she learned from Gordon and Christina. One of her goals was to be one of the best young chefs-to-be in America, and she did a pretty good job obtaining that by making it so far.

CarterMatt – What did you enjoy the most about being a part of the show?

Lila Deluca – I most enjoyed learning how to cook new things, meeting Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi, and meeting lots of friends all over the country.

What was the one challenge that you enjoyed the most over the course of the season?

The challenge I enjoyed most was when we cooked pies and threw them in the judges’ faces. [Also,] when we used a blowtorch.

Did the judges have any advice for you upon leaving the show?

Gordon always told us to taste your food.

What are you hoping to do with some of your cooking skills moving forward now that you’ve been a part of this season?

When I am older I want to open a restaurant called The 7 Seas.

Further MasterChef Junior coverage

First of all, major thanks to Lila for her time, and of course all the best to her moving forward. These interviews are always fun ones to do in contrast to the ones we do for other shows, including the main MasterChef proper.

Also, be to check out our full MasterChef Junior landing page with all sorts of further coverage — we’ve got an interview there with Gonzalo (the second one in fact), and an exclusive sneak peek for the episode coming on Wednesday. (Photo: Fox.)

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