Verona Home Cook Competes on 'MasterChef'

Joelle DeNotaris of Verona learned how to cook as a child watching from her mother’s hip. 

Now 22, she’s competing for a coveted white apron in the fourth season of Masterchef, a contest for amateur chefs starring Gordon Ramsay on Fox.

After hosting a viewing party for the premiere last week, DeNotaris said everyone will have to tune in Wednesday at 8 p.m. to see how the rest of her audition goes. 

DeNotaris was one of more than 40,000 home cooks nationwide to try out for the competition. She brought a dish to be taste-tested at an open audition in New York last October, which helped her earn a spot in the top 100.

The contestant was then flown to Los Angeles in January to present Ramsay and two other celebrity judges, restaurateur Joe Bastianich and chef Graham Elliot, with her signature dish: almond crusted tilapia, coconut curry rice with an avocado honey lime puree. 

“I have never had any formal training culinary-wise,” said DeNotaris who is working toward a master’s in social work from Rutgers University. “I’m Italian and Greek and we love to eat. We love to cook and my family just revolves around food.”

DeNotaris mostly makes Mediterranean dishes based on her heritage, but she also likes to taste new foods and then tries to recreate them at home.

Her “food dream”, which the show’s cookbook and $250,000 grand prize could make a reality, is to combine her passion for cooking with her love of children.

“My food dream is to open an after-school program for underprivileged kids to do food therapy, teach cooking classes,” she said. “I love to help people and I love to cook and I just think that putting those two things together can be really meaningful.”

DeNotaris said a lot of good things have already come from the exposure of being part of Masterchef.

For one, she’s started a food blog, Joellesplate.com, where she shares recipes, favorite restaurants and the like.