Five years after MasterChef: Q&A with season 3 winner Christine Ha

I lined here yeah I said it before and I'll say it again like moves pretty fast hey everyone it's been five years since my season aired MasterChef eight now and I was the winner of MasterChef season 3 in 2012 I believe it's from that mom it's been an interesting journey and I thought it would be a good time to kind of commemorate the last five years and revisit my MasterChef journey many years ago so John's prepared some informal questions and I guess we'll do like a little bit of QA before I launch into a little surprise montage for you guys are you still blind that's a question that a lot of people asked me on my social media on my YouTube and whatnot because people are always like how do you know where the camera is how do you know what your husband is the truth is John I mean I can see where this I'm not see I can hear where the sound is coming from so I know in the general direction of where someone is when I talk to them camera wise I'm usually looking at the camera because John aligns my eye line up to the camera before we film but yes I am still vision impaired what I see is counting fingers in both eyes but to explain in layman's terms I see mostly shadows I have some color and some light perception but I best describe it as though if you were to come out of a really hot shower and you looked into that steamy foggy mirror that's what I see so just kind of vague blobs and shapes but not very much I can detect some movement if there's like color contrast or whatever but I don't see completely black I see a little bit people always forget that blindness or vision impairment is actually a spectrum and not just one or the other not like a black or white thing but it's a spectrum so I am vision impaired I do have to use a cane or a sighted guide when I walk around and yes I am still blind what have you been up to see one hmm since MasterChef I've done a lot of cool things I wrote my first cookbook which is part of the prize of winning MasterChef and it was really awesome to find out when that became a New York Times best seller I've been able to travel the world I do a lot of public speaking motivational speaking I've done some work for the US embassy abroad as a culinary envoy in other countries sharing American cuisine and learning about other cultures from through their foods I've won the are was awarded the Helen Keller personal achievement award from the American Foundation for the blind so that was really an honor as well what else have I done oh I have a TV show in Canada called four senses which is on am I the accessible media Network and it's a cooking show that is geared towards the vision impaired and it's to inspire novice cooks and vision impaired cooks to get into the kitchen and cook their own food so I had that I've done judging MasterChef Vietnam as a full-fledged judge on their season three of comeback as guests on MasterChef u.s. I've done some pop-up dinners I've done a pop-up dinner in Hong Kong even I've done a supper club in Stockholm Sweden some in Houston a lot of cool things who on the show do you still keep in touch with hmm well I was just in LA this past weekend and I had dinner with Cyndi who was my aide on the show so she was the person I was hired by producers to act as my eyes and my legs during the show so we obviously became very close because we had to learn to communicate and work with each other but I just had dinner at her place in LA and I also see Felix when I go to LA as see Michael Chen now lives in Dallas I was just talking to Tanya who now lives across the world in Indonesia but she's actually in the States this month so I'll probably meet up with her in the next few weeks and then here and there like on Facebook or just random text messages I'll keep in touch with other people someone I really do miss though is Josh Parks who was my co finalist in the of MasterChef and we became really good friends but unfortunately he had taken his own life in 2013 and so I want to dedicate this actually this video to Joshua was a really dear friend to me how have you grown as a chef from the show I think that I have learned to be more confident in my cooking and really believe in the foods that I produce and I've experimented more I've become more creative I think about food constantly I mean I did before but now it's also like my career so I think and also because I get to travel over the world I try so many different foods and I bring all that inspiration back home and I experiment with all of these new ingredients and techniques and different types of dishes and cuisines in my kitchen so I would say I've grown exponentially as a chef in terms of confidence and in terms of just I think the range of foods that I've cooked do you still have of course I saw in my trophy funny who asked I actually always carry it with me everywhere I go just kidding here's my MasterChef trophy still shining I actually keep this on top of a shelf in my home office where I spend most of my days working during the day so I don't see it but it's on a shelf so I know it's there and it's motivation for me to know that rewards come after hard work so what did you do with the 250,000 so the prize money that I won from winning season three I wasn't really that like I didn't do anything that crazy I we paid off our card loan at the time I helped pay for my in-laws and family to take a trip to Korea that year that in 2012 into Japan I paid off my school loans and then the rest has been kind of either sitting in the bank or just doing some investments here and there haven't opened a restaurant I know that that was a dream and it still is but what I've learned doing pop-ups and stuff and just knowing more chefs in the industry that rationale work is really hard and I it's even harder for me because I can't see so I know I need to have a really good team to support me both in back up house in front of house and it's not only just about your love for cooking but it's also business and you have to make sure that you're being it you're able to make enough money for payroll and all this stuff so I don't have my own restaurant yet but I do have the money to hopefully one day put some of that towards opening a very small restaurant so which was your favorite episode slash challenge from your season my favorite I guess aside from the finale because I won and I knew that the season was finally over one of my favorites was probably the challenge the team challenge those are actually really tough because I'm vision impaired and I'm used I get used to my station in the MasterChef kitchen and then every time we have a field or team challenge we get taken out of the MasterChef kitchen and I have to learn a whole new environment and so that's hard as someone who can't see but one of my favorite ones was actually a field challenge it was the one where we had to cook out of a food truck with our team on Venice Beach and I liked that one because we are my team got to cook in native food and I love and in food and I know Indian food and our team worked well together and we didn't win that challenge but it was nice to be out you know on a beach after we've been cooped up in the warehouse in the kitchen and we didn't win but I will say that after cameras stopped rolling all of the crew came to our food truck and ate all of our leftover food which was your least favorite challenge Oh easy it was the team the it was like a pressure test where we had to do a tag team type challenge where I had to partner up with another person and it was with Stacey and we had to recreate a sushi dish or Japanese dish and there was like tempura on there there was a roll there was some naked eye sushi and it was really hard because it was tag-team and you can imagine being vision impaired I don't really know what my partner's doing while she's at the station and then when the ringer or the timer rings I have to go in and take over and I don't know where she's put everything so that was really frustrating and that was by far my worst memory of MasterChef and I cried a lot after that challenge and I felt super defeated and it was not good what's Gordon Ramsay really like that's a question I always get Gordon Ramsay is exactly like how you see him on TV but even crazier when the cameras aren't rolling but he is hilarious extremely charismatic perfect personality for television very big personality you know exactly when he comes into the room so he's got a lot of charisma he's tall he is a good mentor he is caring but he can also be really tough and he expects a lot from people that he believes in and I will say he wears really good Cologne he smells good would you do MasterChef again if no if I knew that I would win then yes if not I don't know it was definitely one of the toughest things I've ever had to go through my life very stressful so it's not really something advice for everyone it's not as glamorous as people may think it is advice for people who want to try out for MasterChef my advice when you go to audition be true to yourself cook something that really means something to you it doesn't have to be like the most amazing dish in the world but if there's a story behind it if it means something to you if it's something you grew up with there's just something special or signature about that dish and meaningful to you and that's what matters if you believe in that dish and you can tell a story about it and be true to yourself and and cook it with integrity then that's your best shot to getting as far as possible on master chef season 8 finale is tonight what would be your advice to the finalists my advice to the finest it is a crazy time you made it this far yes it may really seem like everything's at stake whether you win or lose but whether you win or you are first runner-up your life will be completely changed and it's really what you make of it and so you can be extremely successful and take this dream and passion anywhere you want to take it so my advice is to enjoy the ride and cook with integrity and be strong and just know that the end is finally right around the corner so just give it your all and your best and go out with a bang last question take three people who would be at your fancy dinner party and why uh-huh Dead or Alive okay first we move my mom because she passed away man like in 1993 so that's been a long time so I haven't talked in a long time I was 14 at the time so now I'm much older and I wonder what our conversations would be like so for sure my mom but I'd probably be scared to cook for her because she'd probably be like this isn't as good as my cooking but definitely mom second uh I think can't decide if I want Barack Obama or Michelle Obama at my table maybe I'll do Barack Obama team do I want him or Michelle the third person you would either be the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa I don't know can I have one more I'll pick them both just one I'll pick the Dalai Lama because I need to learn some meditation techniques and learn how to deal with stress and be happy like him so it's been five years and I want to revisit the moment and so I'm leaving you and ending this video with a montage of some different viewing parties of the finale at different groups of friends my neighbors my church community and my school my graduate school friends they all had different watch parties to watch the finale that I was in in 2012 I was actually in New York to film or to be part of the official finale party with Josh and Joe Bastianich and some other press and media so I wasn't around my friends in my community but they all recorded their reactions because none of them knew who'd won except for the small circle that was actually at the finale of mine that was there but we were all sworn to secrecy so everyone that watched had no idea that I'd won so I love hearing their reactions every time I play these videos and they always always always bring a smile to my face so there are good memories for me to kind of relive the moment of winning again so I leave you guys with this montage that can only be one winner and that winner of 840 million dollars the unique opportunity to publish the very own cookbook and to get their hand on this company target the winner of MasterChef congratulations [Music] Christine [Applause] [Applause] I just can't believe it I'm the master chef this isn't the most amazing experience seriously I'm sure all the obstacles have been through going up against such awesome amazing cooks [Music] [Applause] christine is a tough competitor I love her I respect her I'm just proud to be able to compete against her I will never give up on my dream it will come true without my MasterChef or not is definitely coming through

Channel: Christine Ha

Views: 3,149,515

Keywords: masterchef, christine ha, masterchef christine ha, the blind cook, christine ha vlog, travel vlog, where are they now, q and a, josh marks, masterchef season 3, the blind chef

Id: CArLhV_DrFc

Length: 16min 34sec (994 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 20 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/j5uh]

Thanks for sharing our video. If you have any questions, ask them here! I'll pass them on to my wife.

[u/yaboy1998]

1. Who was your biggest competition in season 3 for your win?

2. Which judge was the kindest? Which judge taught you the most?

3. Who from season 3 are you still friends with?

4. Were Tali and Ryan jerks or were they better than their edit portrayed?

[u/SheedRanko]

How is the restaurant doing?

[u/miaabadeer]

Can I just say I admire you sooo soooooo soooooo much Christine! You’ve inspired me to cook and I love rewatching Season 3 of Masterchef just for you! You cook so elegantly and have come such a long way! Hopefully when it’s safe to travel I’ll come down to Houston and support your restaurant!

[u/alexjouan88]

What was your proudest dish in the competition?

What was the pressure test you didn’t take that would’ve scared you the most?

[u/BladeBlur]

Which contestants from different seasons does she keep in touch with?