'MasterChef' Contestant Says He 'Blacked Out' Going Face-to-Face with Gordon Ramsay
Charles Calvino Hang
It always feels as if there’s too many cooks in the kitchen when MasterChef does its tag-team challenge, and season 13 was a perfect example of what can go wrong when two home cooks are partnered up to make a three-course meal.
Because he won the Immunity Pin last week, Grant Gillon was given the task of pairing up the competition into teams, and one team he selected was the South’s Jennifer Maune with the Midwest’s Charles Calvino Hang.
In pairing them, Grant said, “I’m putting a weak cook with a strong cook,” meaning Jennifer was the strong cook and Charles was the weak cook.
“It’s a competition and he had to pick,” Charles, who was eliminated as a result, tells Parade in this interview. “I don’t blame him. I’ve been in the bottom quite a few times. I respect his honesty.”
Even so, initially Charles thought the pairing might work.
“This is just my side of the story and nothing against Jen or anything, she comes from a big family, I come from a big family,” he explains. “I think Grant knew that I had a big family, and she did, as well. It would be great to see me go under Jen’s wing and her mothering skills would come into play. Sometimes the son doesn’t always listen to the mom. And the mom doesn’t listen to the son. So, the communication kind of got lost in the air.”
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But it was more than that. Charles shares that Jennifer has hearing loss on one side, and since he wasn’t sure which side, he he was yelling, so he pulled back so as not to seem too aggressive and then it was like they weren’t a tag team anymore. It was more of her trying to save them both by doing what she knew how to do better.
CR: FOX
That said, Charles does accept responsibility for their being the worst team. It was so obvious to Gordon Ramsay, Aarón Sánchez, and Joe Bastianich that Jennifer and Charles had stopped communicating and they were missing so many elements of the three dishes that no other team was considered for elimination.
“Throughout the competition, I blacked out,” Charles admits. “I did not know what a knife was. I did not know what a mashed potato grinder was. I blacked out. I really don’t know what came over me. There was a lot going on and to have the famous Gordon Ramsay in your face, eye-to-eye you just don’t know is this for real. I didn’t know what anything was, and I take full accountability. I knew most of it had to do with me.”
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During our interview, Charles revealed that he hadn’t watched MasterChef before he was cast, so there was a lot he didn’t know about the competition; he shares how he was cast; and what he’s doing now and hopes to do in the future.
What made you audition in the first place? Didn’t you understand the pressure?
I don’t even watch the show, as bad as it sounds. Now I am watching the show. I love reality TV; I never thought one day in my life that I would be in the MasterChef kitchen in front of Gordon talking to him as if he was like you or me. I respect him. He’s one of the best chefs in the world. I’m still thankful and honored that I got to even shake his hand. That was a great experience overall because I grew up watching him and it’s amazing to say, “I’ve met Gordon. I’ve got yelled at by Gordon.” I can check that off my list.
If you don’t watch the show, then how did you get on the show?
I got on randomly through one of the producers on MasterChef. They hit me up on Instagram randomly. I really thought it was a scam at first because I’m just like, “This person has a low following.” It kept bothering me, so I asked my friend Nick, “Can you look this person up on LinkedIn just to see if they’re legit?” Sure enough, it was legit and my friends were just clapping for me, “You need to call this person ASAP.”
I called and it started from there. It was a fast process. I’m still in shock that they had gone through my social media and saw everything and thought that I was worthy enough to be on the show as a home cook representing the Midwest. I wear a lot of pride on my sleeve, and I don’t regret anything.
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What is it that you post on your social media that made her interested in you?
I am a content creator at the end of the day. I make beautiful posts. I do a lot of tutorials; I do a lot of Asian or Latin cuisine. I’m very versatile when it comes to cooking and I learned it all from my mom. It was just random and I’m not private, you can see everything. I got a DM from her, and she asked if I wanted to be cast for season 13. And I didn’t believe it. Like I said, at first, I thought it was a scam.
So, you didn’t prepare then? You didn’t make practice dishes?
Once I got cast, they want audition videos from you. So, obviously, once the conversation was handled with one of the casting producers, I had a whole list of what I needed to do and what they wanted to see. I gave them what they wanted to see. So, yeah, that’s what happened.
CR: FOX
Who do you see making it to the finale?
That’s so hard because as much as I want to know and I can’t, I want to surprise myself, too, because I’m depending on my region. A lot of crap has been talked about the Midwest being the underdog, and who goes to the Midwest to eat food, or it’s a flyover region and all that stuff. I just hope whoever stayed after me that’s from the Midwest takes the title. I’m really hoping because I see some potential winners.
What are you doing these days? Are you back to hairdressing?
I’m still doing the same thing. I’m content creating. I'm a digital creator, and I’m still a traveling hairstylist. It was pretty busy once I got back because everybody’s hair was busted.
When I was down there, we weren’t really allowed to be on our phones much, so I was getting all these texts and these DMs like, “Who do you recommend to go get a haircut from?” I was like, “You know what? If you wanted, you would wait for me. I can’t tell you when I’ll come back home.” I had a lot to do when I came back home, it was nonstop. I got busy right away. Cut and color, the whole shebang.
CR: FOX
Didn’t I read that you were working on a Cambodian cookbook?
Yeah, I am. It’s not official, but my goal is to come out with strictly Cambodian cooking. It’s going to be dedicated to my mom. This whole journey right now is dedicated to my mom. She escaped the war growing up and I just want to dedicate everything to her. I’m so honored to showcase her, showcase my culture, my cuisine, and have been in a top show with a bunch of great home cooks that I can call friends.
MasterChef airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.