See MasterChef’s ‘fiery cooks’ cook live during Genesee Theatre show Saturday
Genesee Theatre in Waukegan is hosting a live version of the “MasterChef” television show Saturday, Oct. 11, and it’s bringing its own special flair to town.
“MasterChef All-Stars Live!” is a roughly 90-minute cooking show that features four chefs who previously competed on “MasterChef” programs. Rachel Sanchez and Julio Figueredo, who are married, were finalists this year on the team-based version of the show, “MasterChef: Dynamic Duos.”
They’ve been dubbed by fans as “the fiery cooks.”
“We have a lot of passion for food,” Sanchez said. “We’re super fun, and we were fiery, and people like it so much. So, we decided to go with that, and now it has become our brand.”
The other two chefs coming to Waukegan are former “MasterChef” winners Gerron Hurt and Michael Leonard.
The show itself is structured similarly to the TV program but without judges or direct competition between chefs. Sanchez says they typically cook three courses, often a brunch item, a main course and a dessert.
The chefs are given a set time limit, and they get to work live in front of fans. Those in attendance see the process up close, and a select few are chosen to try the food at the end.
“The idea is that the audience gets to feel what it is to be on a ‘MasterChef’ set,” Figueredo said. “You get the challenges, you get the clock, you get the pressure, so you have a little bit of understanding how it is to be on the show.”
The couple says they’ve enjoyed cooking in a lower-pressure environment without judges, and it’s given them time to interact with fans and answer their questions.
The live shows started on Sept. 16, and they perform six days a week, traveling to 30 different cities over the course of the tour.
Sanchez is from Cuba, and she immigrated to the United States in 2013. She says that cooking shows provided comfort as she adjusted to a new country, and she dreamed of testing her own skills on TV. Sanchez applied three times by herself to be on “MasterChef.”
Then, she met Figueredo, who also had a background in both cooking and the restaurant business. He was an immigrant as well, from Brazil, and the pair hit it off. They now have been married for almost three years.
“Immigrants ourselves, you know, we left our countries to be here,” Figueredo said. “So, we had a lot of stories to tell, a lot of history, culture, heritage, pride, and that’s what we wanted to show.”
Tickets to the Waukegan show are available starting at around $40 on Ticketmaster. Sanchez and Figueredo also give away a pair of tickets to their social media followers in each city.
• • •
“MasterChef All-Stars Live!”
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11
Where: Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan
Tickets: Start at $40 at ticketmaster.com/