Masterchef: Elise Mayfield

It's Monday, and that means that tonight is another edition of MasterChef where the remaining home chefs fight for their chance at winning the coveted title of MasterChef.

I got the chance to chat with the Chicago-based artist, Elise Mayfield about her time on the show and her passion for cooking.

Now Elise, I'm curious to know about what inspired you to audition for MasterChef.

I actually auditioned on a whim. One of my very good friends here in the city is a big fan of MasterChef, and I had watched a couple episodes of season 4 with her. She saw the notice that said there was an open call happening the next day, and said I should go do it. So I thought maybe I could. Actually I had a meeting that morning, and had about 15 people in my house. So I conducted the meeting from my kitchen while I was cooking. I got to the audition that afternoon and was one of the last people in the Chicago group to audition. Then I just kept going through rounds of auditions and suddenly I was in Los Angeles. It really has been an amazing experience.

So were you a fan of the show before you auditioned?

Yeah, but I hadn't seen a ton of it. I admittedly had watched about half of season 4. I really enjoyed all of the episodes that I watched, but I wasn't quite as immersed as some of the other contestants from this season. I know that there were some that had been watching from the very beginning. So I was a little new to the MasterChef family, but I was definitely a fan from the first episode I watched.

Do you think that not having seen many episodes and not being one of the super fans may have helped you? Then you didn't necessarily have what some of the former contestants had done in the back of your mind .

I think that is certainly something that helped me in a way because I didn't have too many expectations. It sometimes hurt me too because sometimes I didn't really know what was coming. It was a little bit of a double edge sword because not knowing what was coming also meant I didn't have to have any expectations beyond what the instructions were from the judges for whatever particular challenge it was going to be. It was interesting to not be quite as immersed in the family.

Where did your cooking experience come from? Was it something that you had made almost a career out of or was it more something where you cooked for your family and friends? How did your cooking passion start?

So I'm originally from Birmingham, Alabama and my grandmother (my mamaw) is an amazing cook. As a kid my main responsibility was to go out into the backyard with my papaw to pick out all of the veggies we were going to eat for the big Sunday lunch, which was something we had every week. Mamaw was very much the person in the kitchen so I would observe a little bit until I would get shooed out of the kitchen with a something like a piece of cornbeead. They would make me go play with people. When I moved to Chicago a few years ago, I started to miss comfort food from home, and that's when I really started getting into cooking. The wasn't a place I could go get the food that I missed here in the city, so I just started cooking it myself. That was really only about two years ago.

I got some friends that were really encouraging, and said that I was pretty good at this. When I auditioned for MasterChef, it was right at the beginning of my realization that I wanted to be cooking for a living. It's funny because trying out for the show was the first step towards me thinking about cooking as a career. I think it was a good whim to take on.

That's such a funny coincidence, and I think that whim might just be telling you that this is something you should pursue. Now, I can only picture growing up in the South and then moving to a very northern state, and living in a pretty big northern city. So how were you able to combine two different flavors and cultures in your cooking.

Chicago has a really amazing food community here. Graham Elliot's restaurant is here and he actually has several in the city. He's just one of the few top chefs here in the city. There's so many, and I definitely think moving from the South with a very specific cuisine to up here has really expanded my palate. That's definitely been one of the biggest contributions to living in a bigger city, my experience with different kinds of food, cuisines, and flavors. The city has been such an inspiration for my cooking.

So when you had to prepare that signature dish for MasterChef, did you draw from the Southern influence or from the Northern tastes of living in Chicago?

It's a little bit of both because I grew up eating something called fried pies that my great-great-grandmother made. They were always kind of like apple fritters. So when I decided to make the blueberry, goat cheese, and basil hand pies, it was a little bit of a fallback to those fried pies I ate as a kid. Then adding goat cheese and basil to blueberry pie gave it a twist that my expanded palate helped open up my flavor profile. So I definitely think that signature dish was a combination of the nostalgia from growing up in the South to the new cuisine and palate of living in Chicago.

That's a pretty unique recipe. Was this something where you were experimenting in your kitchen one day or did someone give this recipe to you?

The first time I had ever heard of it, I was watching a rerun of “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” <laughs>, and I saw there was a restaurant in Indianapolis that made this pie of blueberry and goat cheese. So I thought how interesting and then just got in my kitchen because blueberries are my favorite fruit and started making the filling wondering what this was supposed to taste like. I just started messing around with the filling and started with a big 9 inch pan. Then I started doing hand pies shortly after that. I knew that pie was a winner when one of my friends asked me to bake one as a silent auction prize. That was the moment where I realized that this was better and good enough to raffle off. It was such a compliment to receive. That was something that I was just inspired by, and got in my kitchen trying to figure it out.

Now it sounds like you took to baking a little more than cooking.

Yeah, I definitely would consider myself a baker first and a cook second. I probably started baking in college (about 10 years ago), and started with boxed cake mix and homemade frosting. Then from there I moved on to making my own cakes, and then doing layer cakes, cookies, whoopie pies, muffins, bagels, and most baked goods. So I definitely latched on to the baking first and then got into cooking a little more just a few years ago.

No wonder all of your friends come to you when they want something delicious. It sounds like quite the experience that you really built up. Where can people go to stay updated with you and everything from MasterChef plus your future career?

I'm on Facebook and Twitter under MC5Elise. I also have a website where I have a blog called “Adventures in a Tiny Kitchen” where you can follow my adventures in my teeny, tiny, little kitchen here in Chicago. That's a www.elisemayfield.com.

Another edition of MasterChef is on FOX tonight at 8pm. This time the home cooks are faced with the challenge of choosing between two mystery boxes. One is filled with everyday ingredients and the other contains high-end ingredients. Find out which contestant will get immunity from elimination and which will go home.