Nick DiGiovanni

“

I'm not going to get in the finals if I don't fail throughout this process and I'm going to embrace it in every way and if I don't do that, then what's the point in taking time off of school and being here?

”

 

Hometown	Barrington, RI
Age	22
Occupation	College Student
Statistics
Mystery Box(es) Won	2
Skills Test(s) Won	1
Elimination Test(s) Won	0
Team Challenge(s) Won	2
Pressure Test(s) Survived	1
Top Entries	2
Bottom Entries	2
Placement	3rd
Episode Eliminated	The Finale - Pt. 2

Nicholas "Nick" DiGiovanni (born May 19, 1996) was a contestant on Season 10 of MasterChef. He ranked in 3rd place.

Personality

Nick is considered one of, if not the most, creative contestant in the history of the show. He was passionate and hardworking, strategic, and early on he proved to be one of the strongest cooks of the season by going 5 weeks without facing a single Elimination Challenge. Despite his strengths within Immunity challenges, Nick has had issues working under pressure, and early on also struggled with desserts, ending up in the Bottom both times within “Sweet Week”. However, he never gave in and continued going, continuing to do well in challenges until his issues with working under pressure caught up to him at the finale, as he prepared overthought and underwhelming dishes that ultimately led to his elimination. He got along with almost everyone in the kitchen.

Competition History

Week 3	Win/Immune
Week 4	Win/Immune/Immune
Week 5	Win/Immune
Week 6	Win/Immune
Week 7	Win/Immune
Week 8	High/In
Week 9	Low/Low
Week 10	Lose/In
Week 11	Win/Immune
Week 12	High
Week 13	In/In
Week 14	Lose
Week 15	In
Week 16	Eliminated

Post MasterChef

• After his appearance, he returned to college where he gained an MBA in Food and Science upon graduating. In October and November 2019, he was offering private chef and catering services, private dining experiences with guest appearances, local pop up cookery events, pop up dinners and other culinary projects.
• He is now a social media food influencer with over 10 million subscribers on YouTube and over 8 million followers on TikTok.
• He won the Food Award from the Streamys.
• He won the 'Uncle' title from Uncle Roger for making Vietnamese Pho.
• He broke Gordon Ramsay's world record for filleting a fish at 1 minute flat, but the record is broken in New Zealand on June 20, 2023 (NZT) on live TV.
• Both Nick and Gordon share the record for the biggest beef wellington.

Trivia

• He and Adam from Season 8 are the only two college students who attended Harvard when they were in the competition.
• He is the first finalist in the show's history to ever be eliminated during the finale.
• He is the first contestant from Rhode Island.
• He is the second contestant named Nick (the first being from Season 6)
• In Season 10, he is the second Italian-American from New England next to Kenny.
• He is the fourth Italian American finalist, next to Luca, Courtney, and Dino.
• He holds the record for most team wins for his season along with Bri and Fred, with the three of them all winning the first 3 Team Challenges.
  • They were all on the same teams for those particular challenges.
• He is tied with Dorian for the record of most challenges won in his season with 6.
  • He also holds the record for winning the most immunity challenges with his 6 wins all being in Immunity Challenges.
• He is the youngest male finalist to appear on the show, at age 22.

Quotes

• (During the Tag-Team Challenge) "I caused a little bit of drama."
• (Before his first elimination challenge) "I'm not going to get in the finals if I don't fail throughout this process and I'm going to embrace it in every way and if I don't do that, then what's the point in taking time off of school and being here?”
• (Describing his dessert) "I think my dessert is sort of a MasterChef Junior dessert."
• (At the Finale) "It means everything to be here in the Finale. I feel fortunate that I've so many things in my life that I would count as big successes, but at the same time, a lot of those had nothing on getting that white apron. I came into this competition as a simple minded homecook and being here has been the once in a lifetime opportunity to do stuff that I've never done before and to just take massive risk. Since coming back from the MasterChef Kitchen, I have this newfound sort of hunger to win that I've never seen before. For me to pause school it was a bold move, but one I would definitely do again. I've followed this very sort of traditional path in academics all through my life, but on the backburner all this time has been food and I'm taking this as seriously as I would the biggest exam of my life so I've been practicing pretty religiously for this. I've tried to push the needle in every possible way in this whole competition. The Finale is no different. In fact, I think I'm bringing it up a whole another level here. Figuring out my menu, I think the biggest things that went through my mind were how I should I shake this into something that tells my story. I want to do a menu that sort of describes my collegiate life because that's a big part of who I am. It's a risk but to win, you have to take these sort of risks. This meal could change my life."
• (After being eliminated) "It's hard to get so close but not quite reach the goal, but this journey that I've had has been incredible. It's been one of the craziest and coolest experiences of my life. I'll never forget just all the memories that I have."

Gallery

Season 10

Nick's Confessional

Nick's Audition Dish

Nick receiving his Apron

Nick's Skills Test Basics

Nick in the Blue Team

Nick in the Red Team

Nick in a Black Apron

Nick's Latin Mystery Box Dish

Nick's King Crab Dish

Wuta, Nick, Shari, Fred, Dorian, and Micah in the King Crab Top 6

Nick's Bread Mystery Box Dish

Nick's Bread Mystery Box Dessert

Nick's Replication Cake

Nick, Renee, and Bri in the Cake Replication Bottom 3

Nick's Macarons

Noah, Bri, Micah, Nick, Wuta, and Subha in the Macarons Bottom 6

Nick's Surf N' Turf Mystery Box Dish

Nick's Plating Dessert

Nick's Cast Iron Skillet Mystery Box Dish

Nick with his Father

Nick's Loved One's Dish

Nick's Sea Bass Replication Dish

Nick, Subha, and Shari in the Restaurant Takeover Bottom 3

Nick's Venison Dish

Nick's Trifle Dessert

Nick in a Chef Smock

Nick's Smock Confessional

Sarah, Nick, and Dorian in the Finale

Nick's Crab Appetizer

Nick's Sea Bass Entrée

Nick Eliminated

External links

• Nick DiGiovanni on Instagram: nick.digiovanni

• Nick DiGiovanni on Twitter: @nickdigiovanni

• Nick DiGiovanni on YouTube: /@NickDiGiovanni