Eliminated 'MasterChef' Lizzie Hartman Predicts the Winner of Season 13
Lizzie Hartman
One would think that a home cook from Alaska who has a freezer full of fish and seafood wouldn’t be eliminated from MasterChef with a dish in which the main ingredient was king crab, but that’s what happened to Lizzie Hartman.
The challenge was to create an elevated version of stadium food as the guest for the night was season 11 MasterChef winner Kelsey Murphy, who since her appearance on the show was expanded her culinary career and was hired to elevate the food at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Lizzie, who admits that she hasn’t eaten much stadium food as there is really only one small stadium in Fairbanks, went into the pantry, spied king crab, and decided that that was the perfect ingredient to represent her region. She decided to use the crab to make hush puppies.
“I just got an idea stuck in my head and instead of being able to reverse and come up with a new idea, I just couldn’t move past it,” the 29-year-old former preschool teacher's aide told Parade in this exclusive interview. “I know where I went wrong on that."
Hindsight is 20/20 and Lizzie admits she would rethink it if she had a chance to do it over. Instead of trying to do new things and use ingredients she had never used before but were oh so tempting, she would stick to her tried-and-true.
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In fact, she says when she went home, she went to a restaurant where they served king crab in a dip with pita bread, and “it was actually one of the best appetizers I’ve ever had, and I was like, ‘Man, I should have done that.’ But, yeah, we live, and we learn.”
Most of the eliminated MasterChef home cooks hem and haw when asked who they think will make the finale, naming several of the remaining contestants, but for Lizzie, she boldly puts her money on fellow West teammate Kennedy Grace.
CR: FOX
“I don’t think anyone would argue that Kennedy is just the strongest cook there,” Lizzy proclaims. “That girl can cook. And she’s creative. I’m just super excited that she is still there. I think she’ll do well.”
During our conversation, Lizizy also talked about what it was like cooking for Gordon Ramsay, Aarón Sánchez, and Joe Bastianich, what it means to her to have made the Top 10, why she began cooking, how MasterChef found her, and what she’s doing now that she is working fulltime in the culinary field.
You’ve talked about how much seafood that you cook, that it’s in your freezer. Yet the bottom two challenges that you were in were both seafood dishes. Is it maybe over confidence because you know it’s something that you do all the time? What do you think happened?
Both of those challenges, I tried to do things that I had never done before with the seafood. Now looking back, when you’re on MasterChef, you really need to lean into the things you’re good at and the things you know how to do. I was excited about new ingredients and new things that I was seeing in the pantry and trying to use them and try them. I should have just stuck to what I know and am comfortable with.
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What was it like cooking for Gordon Ramsay, Aarón Sánchez, and Joe Bastianich? These are top chefs. How do they inspire you or what did you learn from them?
Somebody that worked on the show told me, “Lizzie, even your worst day on MasterChef is still the best day of your life.” I couldn’t agree with that statement more. Even those moments where maybe I had a bottom dish, or maybe they were critiquing me, or maybe the words were a little intense, it was me learning from them. It was me standing in front of them talking to them, getting to ask them questions. Getting to say, “Hey, Gordon, would you please taste this and tell me what you think?” Who gets to do that? That is such a special privilege. I was just so grateful to meet each one of them and to learn what I could from each one of them. I truly left a much stronger cook.
You still made the Top 10. That must count for something.
Oh, definitely. The whole process from audition to Top 10, it was just let’s see how far we can make it. From small-town Fairbanks, even the audition process was such a huge accomplishment for me. I was just thrilled with every new step. I’d be like, “Oh, my goodness. Top 20.” It was so incredible. So Top 10 was an absolute gift. I was just thrilled.
CR: FOX
Did you apply to audition or did they find you?
They did reach out to me at the end of October. They asked me if I would consider auditioning. I was like, “Why not, let’s do this.” It was pretty cool.
What is it that you do online that made them think you would be a good candidate?
My social media is all about showcasing Alaska and how to visit Alaska in a way that supports the small businesses, the local chefs, the local artists. And I do a lot of cooking myself. I’ve been a cook for years and years, cooking for stuff around town. So, I post a lot about cooking with Alaskan ingredients. I think they found me in a post where I cooked a halibut dish, and I think that was how the connection was maybe made.
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Being in the MasterChef kitchen, there’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot of nerves. Some of the challenges are harder than others. What was the hardest part for you about being there?
One of the things that I struggled with was the quick talking when the judges walk by you and they’re asking you questions and you’re trying to cook. Just learning how to still be cooking but making eye contact and having a conversation and that back and forth. That was a really fun learning curve. I wish I could find a way to continue to practice that, because it was such a neat skill to leave the show with.
CR: FOX
When you moved to Alaska were you a cook then? Or was it something like, "now there’s not as much takeout, so I’m going to learn to cook." Or maybe it was your mother or grandmother that got you in the kitchen.
I have incredible cooks in my grandmas and my mom, they’re all amazing. But I did not know how to cook. When we moved to Alaska, I was 15 years old, and it was a very tough move on me. Alaska can be a dark, dreary place if you don’t know how to handle it. So, cooking, for me, became a way to connect with friends and my community. It became a way for me to deal with the depression that I was really struggling with as a teenager. It gave me a hobby. I didn’t have a hobby; I wasn’t into sports. I was a violinist, so my friend group was very small.
Food became a way for me to meet people. I would bring other little girls into my home, teach them how to bake cupcakes and cakes. It just really grew. At one point, I remember having events for up to like 40 little girls where food was involved, and I was only 16 or 17 at the time. So, for me cooking was just a way to deal with my depression, the dark winters, and to meet new people.
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You and Nina Interlandi Bell weren’t in the same region. She was northeast and you’re in the west. But the fact that both states use a lot of wild food, did that make a connection between the two of you?
It definitely gave us something to talk about, which was a lot of fun. It’s something that the rest of the world in between maybe doesn’t know as much about. So, definitely some fun conversations. But as a cast, we were all very close and we always enjoyed talking about food and learning from each other. I learned so much from those other contestants. The things they taught me were just incredible, new ways to think about food, new techniques, new ingredients. It was just a really neat thing.
CR: FOX
What’s next for you? You’re a preschool teacher’s aide, but are you planning on doing something more food oriented now that you’ve had this experience?
I’m actually no longer a preschool teacher’s aide. I am full-time chef, caterer, community outreach. My days are slammed full of cooking with other people, other chefs, other community organizations, nonprofits. Since I’ve come off the show, these last couple of months have just been a whirlwind and it’s been incredible. The show was a great way to catapult me into this next phase of life.
You do have the background. You went to college and you studied, but it’s not like going to culinary school, is it?
I attended a one-year culinary program here in Fairbanks about eight years ago. I did a semester in baking and a semester in culinary. It gets your feet wet with all the different areas of cooking. Then through that I created a lot of incredible friendships and it led to a lot of opportunities to help with food events around town. Honestly, for the last eight years of my life I’ve been cooking for groups in one way or another. The show just helped it take off in the way I’ve always dreamed it would.
It’s nice when you can make a living at the thing that you love to do, because it’s not like really having a job.
Exactly. I have the best life right now. No complaints. I’m having the most fun.
MasterChef airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.