'MasterChef's Sarah Fry on 10-Minute Penalty: 'It Cost Me Everything'
The twists and turns on MasterChef: United Tastes of America continue to stymie the home cooks competing for the win on the cooking competition. Tonight, the twist was that last week’s winner of the Immunity Pin, Jennifer, was given permission by Gordon Ramsay to pick one of the losing teams to receive a 10-minute penalty.
After consulting with her South teammates, Jennifer selected the Midwest to lose 10 minutes. The thinking was that, even though the South had paired with the Midwest last week for the win, the Midwest still had all five of its members, so it was a strong competitor and needed to be taken down. After all, MasterChef is a competition.
The challenge for the night was a Mystery Box, which contained one chicken, which needed to be divided up among the team members and then each one had to make the best dish possible with whatever parts they received.
Despite receiving a coveted chicken breast, 33-year-old Sarah Fry from Springfield, Missouri, who chose to make a chicken roulade, was done in by the 10-minute penalty.
“It cost me everything,” she tells Parade in this exclusive interview. “I think I would have gone in a different direction. I have never made a chicken roulade. I had made steak roulade and pork roulade, so I had thought in advance, ‘If I have to make a chicken dish that’s something I would make.’ So, when I see it’s going to be a chicken challenge, I’m like, ‘I know exactly what I’m going to make.’”
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Hindsight is 20/20, so now that some time has passed, Sarah says that while she was really “bummed” about it at the time, if she had been in Jennifer’s position, she would have done the same thing.
Cr: FOX
“It’s a game. It’s a strategy,” Sarah continues. “We had been in the last competition with Jennifer, and she knew our team was strong. I think it was more strategic this season than in past seasons. [Without the team], at that point, I would have been one of 17. But [with United Tastes of America], you’re also competing against your own team, your own region, to have the best dish of the region. The Midwest all looked strong that day. All of the chicken dishes looked great. I think I could have stayed if I had the extra 10 minutes and had poached the chicken instead. But I don’t blame Jennifer. I love Jennifer. I love all of them. That was the best part, those people are awesome.”
Since leaving the competition, Sarah says she has made thousands of chicken roulades and they’ve all been delicious, so she’s come to terms with it, but initially, the fact that she got a chicken breast when others on her team had to deal with bits and pieces compounded her feelings
“I think Charles, honestly, had it the hardest because he used the innards and the scraps, and he was fine with that,” she points out. “I was glad it wasn’t me, but I also felt bad then because I got sent home on a chicken breast. There’s so much you can do with a chicken breast. So, it had me feeling like, ‘OK, well maybe I’m not as good as I thought.’ I think I’m over that because I know that if I had time, I could have done better.”
During our chat, Sarah also talked about being "discovered" on her Instagram account, the fact that she’s a recent home cook, how her grandmother inspired her, and more.
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I understand that in this instance they found you instead of you applying. How did that happen?
They had reached out. Somebody reached out to me on Instagram and said they were a recruiter for the show, and would you be interested in applying? I had never thought about it, but I’m like, “OK, I’ll apply.” The interview process went quickly. That was probably late August. I applied, I moved onto the next round. I got a call maybe within a day or two that they wanted me to fill out the long-form application, I’d made it through. It kind of happened quickly, but there was a lot in the process, too.
When they reached out to me, I had never watched MasterChef. Like ever. Now I’ve seen one season. I watched I think it was Season 11 with Kelsey as the winner, which was like the COVID season. I watched a lot of clips leading up to it. I’d look up certain stuff on YouTube, but I really had never planned to do anything like this. I feel like it’s been the biggest blessing for me. It’s given me a lot of confidence in myself. Not just in cooking, but confidence overall that I can try new things and be good at them.
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You haven’t been cooking that long, right? You began the kind of cooking that you do now, during the pandemic. Did you have any nerves? How did you prepare knowing that some of these people have probably been cooking their entire lives?
Cr: FOX
I felt like I grew up eating, so I know what good food tastes like. My grandma [Merrilee Tieche] was always a really good cook and I always really aspired to cook how she did. She could taste something and know exactly what was in it and what it needed. I always really wished I had that skill. I think COVID gave me the opportunity to lean into that, really feel like I was nourishing my family, making healthy, wholesome, flavorful dishes. I think during that time that I really gained that skill. Now I feel very confident in it. Even though I was eliminated, it also gave me a lot of confidence to keep pushing through. There are thousands of people that applied to MasterChef. There are so many people and so it just makes you feel like, “Yes, I got sent home pretty early on, but also I was one of 20 that made it this far out of thousands of people that wished for this opportunity.” I feel really lucky.
You mentioned your grandmother. How proud of you is she?
She’s so proud. She just turned 79 and she came out for the live auditions. It was so cool having her there. She was my entire inspiration. She had one daughter, my mom. My mom passed away when she was 39, so she passed away really young. She was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer at 33. I turned 33 this year. And so, it was really a surreal time for—I call her Granny—Granny and me because it’s always looming over us. Just knowing that grandma and I had that connection in cooking and I just loved that she was able to be here to watch that. She’s been through a lot of hardship in her life, and so it was so fun to bring some fun into her life and some enjoyment. She’s loved watching the show. She is obsessed.
Have you had the genetic testing?
Yeah, I’ve had the genetic testing. I have two younger sisters. We are all three negative for BRCA1 and BRCA2. I’ve had two rounds of genetic testing done and it’s all been negative. My mom had six aunts that all died from breast or ovarian cancer. My grandma is a breast cancer survivor. So, they think it’s probably a rarer gene. They’re like, “It’s pretty rare that none of you would test positive.” I don’t know, we’ll see. I get checked very often.
Cr: FOX
What’s next for you? Are you going to use this as a steppingstone to something or back to normal life?
I definitely want to keep cooking. I don’t think my dream is ever to open a restaurant or cater or anything like that. I think, for me, it’s always been more that food is how I show love to people. I can make a cake for somebody’s birthday, or I can take soup when they’re sick. It’s how I feel nourishing those in my life. I would love to share that love and that passion with other people. I’ve been doing a lot of interviews for the MasterChef stuff. I really, really like that. I’ve loved being on the local news stations. I got to host a couple of conferences for the college that I graduated from. I’ve judged a couple food competitions. I think, for me, it’s more people centered. I’d like to do the food stuff but help bring people together with food.
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You can build a reputation online.
Exactly, yes. I would love that. I’ve been doing a lot of content. I’m @mrssarahfry on all social media. I have so much fun sharing videos and the feedback’s been really good. I don’t know what’s next for me, but I definitely am going to keep cooking and sharing that.
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In your time there, which of the other home cooks really impressed you? Who do you think should go all the way?
For me, MD, Madame Donut, really stood out. She’s so unique and she’s so truly herself. I loved watching her. Nina, I could watch Nina on Instagram all day long. She forages from her backyard, and she makes the most beautiful dishes. Kolby, I love Kolby. He has so much personality. He does stuff that is very easily accessible, like you could make it on your own, but it looks just so full of flavor. Grant, I love Grant. He’s from the Midwest and he makes super beautiful pasta dishes. There are so many. Charles from my region and I, we’ve talked about how everybody’s such a different niche. Everybody cooks so differently, and that was really beautiful. It’s been fun to learn from each of those people, too.
They probably cast it that way, so they could call it United Tastes of America, because we have so many different regions.
Yes. Brynn made some awesome stuff from the Northeast. Really, there’s nothing bad I could say. Richie, Ryan, and Amanda have already been sent home, they are incredible. Ryan, he’s doing the coolest stuff in the Northeast. I think his name’s Cooking It Keto on Instagram. We called him Steggs—steak and eggs, because he ate so many steaks and eggs. But he just makes the most beautiful, elevated keto dishes. I think it’s just been so cool to see everybody.
MasterChef airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.