“I was up against such stiff competition with Suu and Autumn, both who have very strong viewpoints and strong cultural backgrounds within their food,” Kelsey told Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “Suu, obviously, cooks Burmese food. And then Autumn cooks Japanese food. I definitely felt like I had to make myself stand out with other tactics, my technique and my plating, because I don’t have one cultural background that I cook from.” Of course, there was a twist. The women went into the final cook expecting to make three courses: an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert, but surprise, surprise, they were informed as they were starting their appetizer that they also had to make a small plate, an amuse-bouche or a canapé for the judges. So, they ended up making four dishes. “My strategy was to stick with what I did all season and really focus my food, on strong technique and simplicity in the presentation, and the beauty of presentation, but a lot of complexity behind each of those components,” Kelsey said. “Really letting the main ingredients shine and highlighting them with beautiful sauce work, great technique, and just focusing on beautiful plating, too, since that’s really where I was able to stand out throughout the season.” Murphy has made no secret of the fact that she wants to follow in Gordon Ramsay’s footsteps. Maybe not opening a Michelin starred restaurant—at least immediately—but following him into the on-camera food world. “I really want to be a force to be reckoned with in the culinary world,” she added. “I really love being on camera and would love to be able to reach more people that way by showing my skills and my personality, whether that’s YouTube or TV. I really think I have a lot to offer in that space. I would like in a decade from now for people to be like, ‘Oh, my God! Kelsey, she’s amazing. I’ve learned so much from her and just admire her tenacity and her go-for-it attitude.’ That’s really what I feel makes me stand apart from everybody else.” Now that she has won the $250,000 prize and the secret has been revealed, Kelsey gave her notice at her job as a physical therapist, taking the risk that she will be able to build a second career in the culinary world. “That money is going to help to keep our family afloat while I figure out my culinary career,” she said. “It takes that pressure off a little bit to know that ‘OK, we have some backup money.’ It’s funding my ability to educate myself and further my career. Hopefully, by the time that money runs out I’m making money. That would be nice.” Even so, it is the brand-new Viking kitchen that the Indiana-based MasterChef winner is really excited about. She plans to put it to good use to help her further her career, which will begin with cooking in her home kitchen, which she says is very much in need of an upgrade. “To get the chance to have really top-of-the-line caliber appliances and be able to further my cooking dream with those is huge,” she said. “Especially because, like I mentioned, I want to do things on camera. I’m probably going to begin by starting a YouTube channel to get myself out there. So, I’m going to be doing a ton of cooking in my home and having those materials is going to be priceless. It’s going to definitely help me boost my career.” Following is more of the conversation with Kelsey as to how she honed her cooking skills in the first place, how the COVID break both helped and hurt, and the upcoming partnership between MasterChef and Grubhub. What does it mean to you to have won MasterChef? It’s such a hard thing to put into words. It almost still hasn’t hit me that I actually won MasterChef since I’ve been such a fan of it for the last 10 years. It just means so much that I took a risk to go on this show, do this crazy thing, and follow a passion of mine. I just feel so validated in the fact that it paid off. I was able to accomplish a goal and make it the whole way and prove to myself, my family, and my friends that I have something special to offer. You’ve also said on the show that you mostly make mac and cheese and chicken nuggets for your kids. So, where did you hone your skills? Who have you been cooking for? I cook my kids the simplest of simple foods. I end up cooking like three meals every single night, because I’m cooking them food, I’m cooking myself food, and I’m cooking food that pleases my husband. While I obviously have to cook simple foods for them, I’m not willing to compromise my passion for food when it comes to cooking for myself or for my husband. Most importantly, I end up really learning how to multitask in the kitchen, work with what I have, and work under really strict time constraints because I’m just trying to get dinner on, but, obviously, still trying to cook something that’s not necessarily of MasterChef quality, like what I cooked on the show, but something that’s a little bit more elevated than what you would just normally cook on a weekday. I think a lot of it just comes from the need to cook quickly and not follow recipes. You’re like, “OK, what do I have? Let’s make something.” Then I’ve got 30 minutes to get it together. That’s honestly where I’ve honed my skills. Also, I’m a food TV junkie so I love watching food on TV and that’s where I’ve learned a lot of techniques and flavor profiles, what goes well together and what doesn’t. The MasterChef pantry has everything you could possibly imagine. Was there one ingredient that you never had been able to use before and you got to try it for one of the dishes? Many. Oh, my gosh, so many. So many different things. One of the things I loved – and I almost didn’t even cook with them because they’re best when they’re not cooked, but they always had fresh figs in the pantry, which are very hard to find in Indiana. And so, every time they had those, I would just grab some so I could just eat them. I just love them for a snack because they are just so good. And then the amazing number of different proteins that we had access to. Again, it can be very hard and very expensive to be able to use these products at home, especially when you’re cooking for your whole family. To be able to use these proteins and really cook at such a high level and really respect the ingredients and use them, it was such a luxury. It was very daunting to go into that pantry and see everything in front of you, but many times I would go in there and try to just really stop and remember and take it all in and appreciate the moment. I was like, “Wow, this is not something people get to do ever.” It’s just very special and definitely a luxury for us. At what point in the competition did you think, “Hey, I might be able to win this thing?” I don’t know if I really ever got to that point because I tried to keep myself very in the moment in each challenge. Maybe when we came back after the break. We had a seven-month break during COVID, and I came back, and I was so nervous. I just did not think that I was going to be ready. I didn’t practice enough over that break. And then I came back, and I won the first two challenges back. Then I thought, “OK, I just need to trust my instincts more and just believe in myself more because, obviously, I have some sort of talent and I just need to keep running with it.” I think that’s when I probably was “eye on the prize, make it to the finale, you can do this.” In the finale, it’s just anyone’s game. You just do what you can do, control what you can control at that point, and just cook your butt off. Maybe the COVID break worked in your favor. You knew what to expect, so then you could go home and say, “OK, now I need to practice because I know what I need to do.” That’s a good point. I thought that and, yes, that ideally would have been what everyone should have been doing, because what else did everyone do during the pandemic but cook? But I came home, I had the two kids, and I’m a physical therapist. We were essential workers, so I was still working out of the house each and every day. I ended up getting COVID, I ended up getting pregnant, and I was actually pretty ill during my pregnancy. That’s really why I came back so nervous because I was like, “I honestly haven’t had time to practice.” I just didn’t hone my skills as much as I could have. I was confident that everyone else had, so I thought, “Oh, my gosh. I’m going to come back after seven months and I’m just going to get kicked off right away, they’re going to send me home.” But you’re all good now, right? Yeah. Tell me about the project that you will be taking part in with MasterChef and Grubhub. Very exciting things to come. We can’t announce fully what the entire partnership is, but MasterChef and Grubhub are going to be partnering together. I was asked to take part in this, which is really exciting. It’s me and some other past MasterChef winners that are going to be partnering with Grubhub. It’s going to be a way for everybody at home to be able to taste MasterChef food that is conceptualized by us, a way viewers can eat the food that we cook. It’s a really exciting partnership. It’s the first time that MasterChef and Grubhub are partnering together so we’re really looking forward to seeing what this brings. Hopefully, everyone jumps on board and loves it, too. How old were you when you first went into the kitchen? Where did this love of cooking come from? I have been cooking since I can remember. My very first memory in the kitchen is when I was about 2 1/2 and I was at my grandmother’s house. She sat me up on the counter, opened up all of her cupboards where she kept her spices and her flour and all of her stuff, and she told me, “Make whatever you want.” She told me, “Just put whatever you want in a bowl and just make it.” I remember that. I don’t know why it sticks so closely in my head of being fascinated that I could do whatever I wanted. That’s how my whole upbringing was. Everything was centered around food and being in the kitchen. Italian on one side, Polish on the other. Very food-focused cultures. That’s how we showed our love. My love language is cooking for people. That’s really where my passion came from, my love for food, the kitchen, and all of that. Like I said before, I honed my skills slowly but surely and found my own individuality once I left home and went to college. I started watching food TV and reading cookbooks. It was a hobby that I really enjoyed and it was a big stress reliever for me to come home, get in the kitchen and cook, and just shut my brain off and work. I worked by taste, so I felt like I could let my brain relax and I could just taste things, cook, and create. It became a creative outlet for me. Next, We’re Answering All Your Questions About MasterChef—Including Updates on 2021’s ‘Legends’ Season
