Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep 198 | MasterChef Meets Chewing The Fat | Guest: Bri Baker

Episode Date: September 14, 2019

Yes you read that correctly Jeffy sits down with MasterChef contestant Bri Baker. Jeffy talks good and Bri’s journey in the MasterChef kitchen.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So for those of you that are fans of Master Chef, and we're into season 10 now of Master Chef, we have Bree Baker joining us on Chewing the Fat today. Yes, an actual chef on chewing the fat in the break room. Amazing. Bree, thanks for joining us today. Thank you so much for having me. It's good to see you. So life after Master'ship.

Yes. I mean, I know Master Chef is still ongoing in season 10. It is. But you had a little falling out with the show a couple episodes ago. Sadly, yes. And, you know, you got the boot even before your boy, Suba. Oh, my gosh, I know. Suba even hung out for a couple more episodes than you.

He did, yes. How's that relationship? Oh, it's fine. I mean, yeah, Suba gets along with. with everybody because, you know, he's just a funny, likable guy. So you, you got the boot. Who wins? I'm not allowed to say.

Okay, so who wins? I don't know. Actually, I have no idea. You'll have to tune in to find out. Okay, fine. You know, whatever. Whatever, that's fine. So you, how did it feel to,

get voted off and then, I mean, I realized how I felt to get voted off. Right, right. It's sad. Yeah. But then you find out the next episodes we're going to London. Yes. I know.

That was such a... I'll stop stabbing you on the heart here in a little bit. I know. No, that was definitely a bummer because obviously I would have loved to have gone to London and cook in Gordon's restaurants. But, you know, I'm just... I've just tried to have a positive outlook on the whole thing because I know there's so many people that would kill to make it to the top eight. So I've just been thankful for where I did make it and I'm happy.

So when you, we'll talk a little bit about being on Master Chef. Do you, the grand prize is like, I don't know, a quarter of a million or something. Exactly. Do you make any cash from there at all being on the top eight? Do they hand you a couple of bucks and say, hit the road? No, it's more so just the experience is the richness that you leave with. Yeah, the home game show and that's it. You just take them a home game and be done with it.

You do. But, you know, I mean, some of the experiences that I got from the show just are priceless. So now you, you know, obviously you are continued to call the cocktail server. Breed Baker. Are we done with that now? Are you the plating queen? Are we over the cocktail servers? Because if we're not, I need a drink.

Okay, well, I've got you. I'm still there because it's just such a great job for me to be able to still have a flexible schedule during the week. You know, going into work just on weekends at 9 p.m. is really a nice, easy schedule. It is a pretty good gig. So I'm still doing that because it allows me to still have the freedom and the income to go to Central Market,

go to the grocery stores, buy the high-end ingredients I love, and have my whole week to cook and do my thing. So now that you're done with Chef, and you end up doing some tours like this, talking about the show and stuff, you're still involved in that. But are you, so you're still a cocktail waitress?

I mean, are you not opening up your own place? Well, actually, I'm starting off by doing pop-up right now because what I love about doing those is you can kind of do it anywhere. So, you know, I just did one in L.A. with Fred. That was super successful. I plan on doing one here in Dallas in maybe in November. So it's kind of cool that you can just do it wherever, whereas if I had a restaurant right now, I would be tied down to one city. So the pop-ups. What does that entail? I'm fascinated by the pop-ups. I mean, do you just need to buy a tent and say, hey, here I am? Not quite. I mean, usually it's an event space or like a restaurant that's maybe closed on a

certain night of the week. And we did ours at SkySpace, L.A., which is the U.S. Bank Tower. So it was gorgeous. It was on, I think, the 61st floor or something like that. So the view was incredible. They do other events like weddings. So they set up this long table for us. And we just cooked in the back and brought out all of our food. We did five courses. So, but people find out about, I mean, how do you promote the pop-up? Is that just a separate promotional blast? We're going to be here tonight and you need to show up or do you send out special imitations? So we just did a blast. I just posted it on my social media and within, I think, like, 10 hours, it's sold out. So it took 10 hours. Yeah. How embarrassing. Yeah. So, I mean, that's kind of the cool thing about pop-ups. Like, you know,

If they get really big, I know some other pop-ups do like an auction thing. So you apply and you may or may not get a seat. So it becomes kind of exciting in that way. So you make a little cash from it. I mean, you kind of feel good with little cash from the pop-up. And plus you get to do whatever you want to create, right? You're doing whatever you want. Exactly.

Yeah, we designed the entire menu on our own. We had a little practice session. And then it was just kind of like a marriage of both of our styles, which was super modern molecular gastronomy techniques, also with Asian and flu. Wait, molecular... Molecular... Molecular gastronomy. Yeah, I love that.

Yeah. That's my favorite. You know, just a little simple. Yeah, I love doing molecular gastronomy in my cooking. It's like synthesizing caviars and foams, all of that kind of fun science stuff. So you, when you have the pop-up, you know, you say, hey, we're having a pop-up, be here at, say, 7 p.m. or whatever the time you want to start. Then you cook in front of everyone and are you cooking before they get there? Are you actually performing in front of the crowd and then serving them?

For this one, we did most of the cooking behind the scenes, but we did some like table side pours. Like for example, we had a pasta course and Fred and I went around to everybody and poured the sauce onto the pasta directly in front of the guests. So I'm, the reason I ask is because I know that you had one of the issues during Master Chef was time management. Yes, that's true. And so one of the things, you know, like say if I have a reservation someplace for, let's say, 7 p.m. just off the top of my head. And I get there.

How long am I going to have to wait for you to get the food to the table? That's a good point. But we prepared literally all day long. So since, you know, we could, we were able to start whenever we wanted. It wasn't like a stop-start kind of clock. It worked out much better. So you're now done with Master Chef and you're doing your pop-ups. You're still the cocktail server.

You're here now back home. And I use home in parentheses of Dallas here in the Metroplex. But where's your home? What do you call it home now? I mean, you've traveled the globe from a childhood. Right? I mean, you claim that's where you got your love of cooking, right? Because you're able to be able to create anything anywhere.

That's exactly right. You know, I still do call Dallas my home, but I love traveling. That's the other good thing about my cocktail serving schedule. I have pretty much the whole week off. So I go to L.A. quite a bit. I'm going to New York and Chicago coming up soon. And, you know, I really do gain inspiration from my travels. And one of my favorite dishes that I created on the show, actually my hands down favorite dish was inspired by my beach vacation. that I took with my family, and that was the oceanic dish that I cooked for Grant Ackett. And I came so close to winning that one. Very, very difficult. And I know you had a difficult time with, of course, in your pop-ups, you're using more than one pan. Because I know the show that brought you down was the Iron Skillet show, just one show, that you were devastated by.

I was. And I've practiced cooking that way since. to kind of get it under my belt and redeem myself. Was it more the one pan or the iron skillet? It was kind of both because I did have trouble with the skillet itself with the salmon skin sticking. And honestly, truth be told, maybe I should have just served it without the skin, but I'm such a perfectionist that I just didn't want to do that. But since then, I've definitely practiced and it's nice having just one pan to clean up.

So, you know, I see the point. So I learned something there. Fascinating. Yeah. So another thing that's a little disappointing is one of the things that we pride ourselves here on the show is liking food. And that you're a chef and all. I was just wondering where the food is for the show.

Oh, no. I'm sorry that I came empty-handed next time. Don't worry. I got you. That's very disappointing. Very, very disappointing. So you made it 20 episodes in. Yes.

Your pop-ups are now, that's what's next for you, right? I mean, you're on tour now. We need to follow you on your social media accounts, which are? Yes. So my Instagram is what I'm definitely the most active on. It's plating queen, all one word. Nice, of course. Yes, and then Twitter is the plating queen.

But Instagram is where I usually post my little announcements. Definitely check my story. Like I said, we have one coming up in November. That would be great. Yes. All right, Bree Baker. Master Chef, Plating Queen.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate even if it was without food. Next time I got you. So are you coming back? One more question about a Master Chef. Now, do you expect, do they tell you, hey, obviously you're not talking about the show. You know, you can't talk about the winners

and the losers after you left. But are, is there an opportunity for like coming back again? Do they expect you ever come back again? Or are you locked into Master Chef now for a lifetime? You know, I really hope so. We have no idea. But, you know, it'd be so cool if they did an all-star season, I think. And I would really hope that I could come back and redeem myself.

I think we all kind of wish that, you know. We've all been kind of recreating the dishes at home that we messed up on on the show. But I don't know. Do you guys call each other at Mon? We do. We do. No, I know. I know, I just made the salmon again.

It was so good. No, we really do. We really do. Tremaker, thank you very much for joining us on Chewing the Fat. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Quick reminder to subscribe to chewing the fat

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