Caitlin "Cate" Meade was a contestant on Seasons 8 and 12 of MasterChef. On Season 8, she ranked in 4th place, and on Season 12, she ranked in 19th place. She originally auditioned for Season 7, but failed to receive an apron.
Personality
In Season 8, Cate came into the competition with a bang after failing to make it through last year's auditions. Not only was she one of the nicest contestants, but she was also one of the strongest. She had a joyful and light-hearted personality and was very kind towards all the other competitors. Along with her kindheartedness, she had a fearless attitude, since she described herself as a "tomboy". In the kitchen, she was viewed as an absolute force to be reckoned with, because of her probably being the most versatile cook, along with tremendous skill and impressive techniques that led her all the way to the semifinals, getting eliminated in a 3-part flour Skills Test. She got along with everybody and made strong friendships with Dino, Jason, Eboni and Yachecia. However, she had an unwanted short-lived confrontation with Gabriel over conflicting ideas in a team challenge and had a huge long-lasting dislike toward Jeff over his poor attitude.
In Season 12, Cate's second chance was short-lived. Despite having an outstanding audition dish, in the first Mystery Box Challenge of the season, the chefs had to cook a dish that featured a different type of alcohol. Cate tried to make a dessert in order to continue making up for baking being what sent her home right before the finale of her season. But she didn't start making her cake until halfway through the cooking time causing it to be underbaked, leaving her in a panic by breaking off and serving the slightly baked pieces. She was ultimately in the bottom for the first time due to the cakes inconsistency as the deconstruction of it was poorly presented to hide it from being underbaked, leading to her devastating early elimination.
Season 8
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
Episode 13
Episode 14
Episode 15
Episode 16
Episode 17
Episode 18
Episode 19
Episode 20/21
Competition History
Week 3 | In/Immune |
---|---|
Week 4 | Win |
Week 5 | In/In/Immune |
Week 6 | Win/Immune |
Week 7 | Win |
Week 8 | In/Win |
Week 9 | Win |
Week 10 | Win/Immune |
Week 11 | Win |
Week 12 | In/Immune |
Week 13 | Win |
Week 14 | High/Win |
Week 15 | Win |
Week 16 | In/In |
Week 17 | Pressure Test |
Week 18 | Win/Immune |
Week 19 | In/In/Eliminated |
Season 10
Episode 4
Cate made a cameo appearance as a guest at the Season 10 Pool Party.
Season 12
Episode 2
Episode 4
Episode 5
Competition History
Week 4 | In |
---|---|
Week 5 | Eliminated |
Post MasterChef
- After her first appearance, Cate is a Personal Meal-Prep Chef, offers Private Dining experiences, cookery classes, seminars and a personal grocery shopping service.
- After her second appearance, Cate continues to be a Private Chef and attending culinary events.
Trivia
Season 8
- She is the second returnee to come back and took her place in the MasterChef Kitchen, following Luca (Season 4), and Taylor from (Season 9).
- She is the only returnee whose first season audition was not shown on that season.
- In season 7, she lost the apron battle to Lisa-Ann, where the theme ingredient was scallops.
- Ironically, she beat Taylor in the Season 8 auditions.
- She is the first contestant suggested by Ramsay to be removed as a team captain in a team challenge.
- She holds the record for most challenge wins in her season with 11, and is tied with Cesar (season 9) for the third highest out of any contestant in the American version of the show.
- By extension, she also has the most wins out of any 4th placed contestant in the series.
- She was never on the bottom of any challenge.
- Cate was sent home in a head to head challenge against Dino.
- Because she shares the same name with Caitlin, she went by "Cate" to avoid any confusion.
Season 12
- She was the only returning chef who had auditioned more than once prior to Back to Win.
- She is the second contestant and first female contestant who received more bottom entries during their second run on the show. Following Stephen (Season 12)
Quotes
Season 8
- (About Eboni's style of leadership) "If you’re gonna yell at people, yell at them to correct them, not to make them feel stupid. That's not gonna lead us to victory."
- Jeff: "I don't like souffles. At all. I'm not a big sweet guy to begin with. I know that, and I've gotta work at that, but at the end of the day, you gotta be three steps ahead."
Cate: "Three steps out the door tonight!" - (After being eliminated) "When I first came back here, I had one goal and that was to get my apron. I made it to the very last step before the Finale, that's huge. I had some obstacles throughout this competition and it feels like I climbed over Mount Everest to get to this point. Not only did I learn about cooking, I learned more about myself, and my strengths and my weaknesses. I won so many challenges; I came here for redemption and I redeemed myself and some. My dream was, yeah, to win the trophy but, I still feel like I won an experience of a lifetime."
Season 12
- "When I was on Season 8, I was working as a nutritionist, and now that has changed. I'm a full-time private chef in Chicago, I cook about 60 hours a week, and any other time I'm out hunting, fishing. If I can find, I wanna cook it, and now I'm back because it's my time to win it."
- "The competition is fierce. There are no weak links here, so it's game on, game face every single day."
- (After being eliminated) "In Season 8, I had the best record of the season, I kicked ass, and I was expecting to be here until the end. It's definitely showing how fierce and cutthroat this season is. The stakes were huge, and the talent was insane. I know I did everything I could have in that 60 minutes. Sometimes shit hits the fan and you just gotta, you know, duck."
Gallery
Season 7
Season 8
Season 10
Season 12
External Links
Cate Meade on Instagram
References
MasterChef U.S. Season 8 |
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Judges |
Gordon Ramsay • Aarón Sánchez • Christina Tosi |
Contestants |
Reba Billingsley • Jenny Cavellier • Necco Ceresani • Heather Dombrosky • Eboni Henry • Yachecia Holston • Paige Jimenez • Caitlin Jones • Gabriel Lewis • Dino Angelo Luciano • Daniel Pontes-Macedo • Cate Meade • Mike Newton • Brien O'Brien • Sam Reiff-Pasarew • Jeff Philbin • Mark Togni • Jason Wang • Jennifer Williams • Adam Wong |
MasterChef U.S. Season 12: Back to Win |
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Judges |
Gordon Ramsay • Aarón Sánchez • Joe Bastianich |
Contestants |
Bri Baker • Fred Chang • Samantha Daily • Shelly Flash • Derrick Fox • Christian Green • Emily Hallock • Stephen Lee • Gabriel Lewis • Bowen Li • Cate Meade • Willie Mike • Brandi Mudd • Shanika Patterson • Amanda Saab • Michael Silverstein • Alejandro Valdivia • Tommy Walton • Shayne Wells • Dara Yu |