If you are a fan of cooking TV shows, you must have heard of MasterChef. After 10 seasons in the US, the show has achieved great success, with much of its appeal coming from the “drama” between the contestants and the judges. Among them, the famous male chef Joe Bastianich is the name that “ignited” the explosion.
Joe Bastianich is considered the toughest male judge in the history of MasterChef because of his extremely blunt responses to contestants.
Joseph “Joe” Bastianich was born in 1968 in New York City, known as a restaurateur, winemaker, author and one of the three powerful judges of the American MasterChef and MasterChef Junior programs. He also owns 30 famous restaurants around the world, including Babbo (1 Michelin star) and Del Posto in New York, Carnevino in Las Vegas. In 2008, the James Beard Foundation awarded him the “Outstanding Restaurateur Award” for the most outstanding restaurant owners.
Despite his difficult personality, no one can deny his popularity, talent and great contributions to the world culinary industry.
When mentioning this famous MasterChef judge, almost everyone nicknames him “Bossy Joe”. The times he “ran into a rage” with contestants, threw entire plates of food into the trash, and even made harsh criticisms of amateur chefs, have made the audience terrified. Let’s review some of those memorable moments!
In the first season, with passion fruit and crab as the main ingredients, the contestants were asked to prepare romantic dishes. However, the dish of Vietnamese-American contestant Slim Huynh was judged by judge Joe as “ridiculous”, a “bad” buffet and was immediately thrown in the trash.
In season 5, the dish of venison and fried tuna of the contestants Cutter Brewer and Dan Wu was commented by Gordon Ramsay as the worst dish of the show so far. Even more surprising, judge Joe even brought up a trash can for Cutter to… dump his own food into.
In season 3, contestant Helene Leeds accidentally undercooked the Risotto rice and left the scallops raw. As a result, our harsh judge sent those “unlucky” scallops to the trash!
In season 4, the contestants had to go through a dessert making test, and Lynn Chyi was the “center” of attention in this episode when his dish was thrown straight into the trash by famous chef Joe Bastianich because it was so bad.
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During a mystery box challenge in season 4, after the competition ended, the judges discovered a sashimi plate with uncooked fish from contestant Howard Simpson. And without even tasting it, Joe immediately threw the 26-year-old man’s plate of food into the trash.
In episode 9 of season 4, contestant Howard Simpson continued to make our male judge “furious” with his pasta dish. This time it was not just about the food, Joe also frankly warned Howard about his attitude in the competition, but the male contestant fought back. As a result, the dish flew straight into the trash and the male contestant had to pack up and leave immediately.
Even Jennifer Behm – the champion of MasterChef season 2 – could not avoid the fear of her dish being thrown into the trash by “bossy Joe”. She could not hold back her tears when she saw her dish of ground pork being treated like that by the male judge.
With a dish of bacon served with shrimp and potatoes in a season 3 episode, contestant David Martinez was judged very badly by the judges. Joe Bastianich even did not hesitate to throw the dish of food into the trash in front of the other contestants’ astonishment.
In season 4, a female contestant named Sasha was also “shocked” when a difficult male judge mercilessly threw a plate of food made from Norwegian lobster straight into the trash.
Regardless, it is undeniable that if MasterChef America lacked the appearance of talented male judge Joe Bastianich, the show would be a bit “bland”, right?
