Woodbury Resident Makes TV Cooking Debut on MasterChef

When some people hear that Woodbury resident Arnaud Bourgeois grew up in Arbonne la Foret, France, they make an assumption about him.

"I came to the United States when I was 20 years old and everyone assumed, since I came from France, that I was a good cook," he said. "I started cooking more when I was in the States and it just grew."

Bourgeois is a contestant on the televised cooking show MasterChef with chef Gordon Ramsay, restaurateur Joe Bastianich and chef Graham Elliot.

The two-part premiere of season three will take place at 9 p.m. tonight, Monday, June 4, and 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, on FOX.

Only the best amateur cooks were flown to Los Angeles for a chance to compete for the coveted title of MasterChef and the $250,000 grand prize, according to a press release from Fox.

This season features contestants from 23 different states and situations, including a professional opera singer, food photographer and the first blind chef to enter the competition. Monroe resident and attorney Jason Maur also went to L.A. for the MasterChef competition.

In the premiere episode, the contestants will prepare their signature dish and present them to the judges in order to win a white apron and continue to the next round.

During the second episode, the judges critique the contestants and continue to narrow down the competition. On the June 11 episode, the 36 remaining contestants will undergo the ground beef challenge. Those who move forward will be a part of the top 18 chefs striving for MasterChef status.

"I Think I Can Do This"

Bourgeois, a pilot, came back from a trip one evening and turned on the television to MasterChef.

"I looked at it and thought, 'you know what? I think I can do this'," he said. "My wife said I was crazy and my daughter said, 'That looks like it's fun.' I said, 'Watch. I'm going to Hollywood and going to get my golden ticket."

And get a golden ticket, he did. Approximately 30,000 applicants all across the United States auditioned for the show, according to Tanya Taylor of Triple 7 Public Relations, LLC.

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Out of all those people, Bourgeois said his choice of ingredients was one of the reasons why he was picked.

"I like to cook with ingredients that are in season," he said.

The audition was in the fall so Bourgeois made a roasted butternut squash soup with bleu cheese crumble and homemade crème fraîche.

When he goes to the store, he often doesn't have a particular dish in mind. Instead, he said he goes to the fish station and then the meat station, to find what is fresh and what speaks to him.

"I find something that looks good and I build my dish around that," said Bourgeois.

On the show, he said it was challenging to build dishes he hadn't made at home.

"It adds a lot of stress to the cooking," said Bourgeois. "It's not like you're at home with your friends and family."

But meeting the other contestants was great, he said.

"They're terrific people with all kind of different backgrounds," said Bourgeois. "The main thing was that everyone had a love of cooking. Just after a few days, you become friends with people you could never have met."

The most rewarding part of the MasterChef experience is the message he sent to his two children, ages 14 and 16.

"It was being able to show my kids that if you tell yourself something and you put something in your mind and you work hard to do it, there's a way to do it," he said. "Just remember this — if you decide to do something and you put your effort into it, you can do it."