‘MasterChef’ USA interview: Malcolm Green on cupcake comeback, big dreams
In leading up to Wednesday night’s all-new “MasterChef” episode, we had a chance to chat with a pair of contestants who were sent packing from the show last week. If you want to read what Adriana Guillen had to say about her time this season, click here. Meanwhile, this chat is with Malcolm Green, who was sent home after a cupcake challenge that went awry a week ago.
Just like with Adriana, what was refreshing about Malcolm was that he came across as very likable, driven, and ready to take everything he learned and apply it to his life. Plus, as a lover of all good food from the West Indies, we were thrilled to find out about how he viewed this sort of cuisine as one of his specialties.
CarterMatt – So what has been like re-living something in the past week that you obviously went through several months ago? Tough?
Malcolm Green – I’m still dealing with the emotions up and down. You think you’re over it, but then you’re not. It was tough seeing myself go, but I’ve been trying to connect with as many fans as I can, people who were in my corner the whole time.
I was reading up on your bio that your family has some background in the West Indies. Is this a sort of cooking that you like to do?
Yeah, my grandma was born there, my great-grandpa was born there, and they had a lot of influence on me learning how to cook. They allowed me to be in the kitchen to help and prep. I was born here, but we still had some of the home-grown tradition … recipes and such here. That was probably my #1 cooking style, but I wasn’t limited to that. I wanted to learn about other cultures and I’m intrigued by food.
What’s your dream after this: Are you hoping for a cooking show, a restaurant, cookbooks, or something like that?
I want to have it all, to be honest. In this realm you can’t be too greedy, but why not shoot for the stars? I’d love to have my own show and teach people who didn’t go to school or didn’t have the opportunities that other people had [that they can] still be as good as anybody else in the world. All you gotta do is apply yourself 100%. I wanted to inspire people to get out there and really fight, that you didn’t have to be in the restaurant field in order to be a good cook, or you don’t have to go to school in order to be a famous chef. There are all sorts of other things and options that you can do, and if you apply yourself 110% you can do it.
I want a place that I can call my own, I want a truck, I want to cater, I want it all, you know? Anything involving food is something that I would love to be involved in, because that’s the one thing that I could do always and forever that doesn’t cause me stress. Unfortunately this [show] was kind of a stressful situation, but before I was being judged and while I was cooking [I was fine].
Why apply for this show? Did you see this as a great resume-builder to get your name out there for a career in food?
I don’t know of any other shows or opportunities that are like this. You can go into a restaurant and apply for a cooking job, and you know you can cook, but if they look at your resume and you don’t have anything on it, they won’t even give you the opportunity. This was one of the shows where not having anything on it helps you, because they’re trying to show that being a chef is more than just [trained] skill. That was one of my things that [drove me], all of these people who said that I couldn’t do it or that I wasn’t good enough or that I had to do this in order to do that. I wanted to prove them wrong; I wanted to go out there and make it. Every step was an accomplishment for myself. Hundreds of thousands of people apply for this show, and there are really good cooks that get turned down because they are not good enough, so for me to even make it past those people and into the 100, and then make it to the top 19, was an accomplishment in itself.
Did you watch a lot of the show before?
I watched the first season, and I had watched the third season. I was a big fan of Josh, I was a big fan of Christine, people who really had no background in food and really applied what they did at home to the show. Monti Carlo really reminded me a lot of myself. She’s a single mom, and I’m a single dad trying to care for loved ones and using food as the catapult to get there. Josh being one of the only African-American contestants to make it that far was inspiring as an African-American.
You’ve seen the show, so was the experience what you expected? Did the contestants, the judges, or the reality TV part of this surprise you?
The whole reality TV aspect of it all was actually interesting to me. I really enjoyed that part, and seeing how much work it takes to do something like this. It made me have an appreciation for it all, as well.
I made some really great connections with people, and I wasn’t expecting [to]. I was really expecting everyone to be all about themselves and competition-based. I’ve been fortunate to have some really great connections with others. I’m really, really close friends with Krissi. She considers me her younger brother … Eddie is a really good friend of mine, and Big John, we talk almost every day still.
It’s a competition at the end of the day, but [these people] would rather have their integrity and [having] their best foot out [there] be the reason that they win or lose, which is great because you don’t really find that in competitions anymore.
So let’s take a minute to address the cupcake challenge that sent you home. Have you been able to forgive cupcakes?
When I came home, I cooked the same cupcakes! How I view my mistakes or downfalls is that I take it home, and try to do it the right way. I never want to leave myself knowing that I couldn’t do it or didn’t have the ability to do it. The day I got off the plane, I got the stuff to make the cupcakes and I made it, and then had my family members taste it and they loved it. So basically I did what the judges said, and applied what the judges said and perfected it.
The [memory of those cupcakes] won’t die; I wish it was something different. If I had prepared myself more in baking, maybe I’d still be on the show. I felt as though I was one of the best chefs there. I didn’t know if I could beat everybody, but I thought I could beat a lot of people and I don’t know if it showed that.
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Are you going to miss Malcolm? For more “MasterChef” coverage, be sure to click here. A full review for Wednesday’s episode is coming up later tonight.
Photo: Fox