Francis Biondi

Hometown	Orlando, FL
Age	25
Occupation	Server
Statistics
Mystery Box(es) Won	0
Elimination Test(s) Won	1
Team Challenge(s) Won	1
Pressure Test(s) Survived	1
Top Entries	1
Bottom Entries	2
Placement	15th

Francis Biondi was a contestant on Season 5 of MasterChef. He ranked in 15th place.

Personality

Francis B. had a light-hearted and upbeat personality during his stay. As a result, he got along well with his fellow competitors. In the kitchen, he was generally strong and consistent when it came to individual challenges. However, he sometimes struggled when it came to working with others during team challenges. He also failed to replicate dishes, which caught up to him in his last Pressure Test, leading to his elimination.

Season 5

Episode 1

Francis B, was one of the 30 home cooks brought to the MasterChef Kitchen. His audition dish wasn’t shown, but it was good enough to receive an apron, along with 16 other contestants.

Episode 2

Francis wasn't seen in the Mystery Box challenge and wasn't chosen by Courtney to go up to the balcony. In the meatloaf elimination challenge, Francis explained his idea to Gordon that he was going to stuff his meatloaf with burrata, an idea that Gordon wasn't a huge fan of at first.

When Francis was called up, he presented his Burrata stuffed Meatloaf using Short rib and Lamb, after tasting the dish Gordon along with Graham and Joe all praised the dish.

Francis had the best dish of the night and was given the advantage of being one of the team captains in the next challenge.

Episode 4

In the Seafood Mystery Box challenge, Francis was the first one called up and he presented a Spicy Seafood Broth that he cooked down with blue crab, mussels, and clams, along with the fact that he used chorizo oil to sear the scallops. Gordon said that visually it looked as if it had come out of one of the country's top bistros.

After tasting it, Gordon said it delivered a punch of flavor and praised Francis for his dish and when Joe tasted it he asked Francis where his ability to aggressively season came from and Francis mentioned his Dad who used to live in Morocco and his mother who lived in Italy for 8 years, Joe then commented that Francis hit the nail on the head and that he was one to watch. Despite having a great dish, he eventually lost the challenge to Ahran.

When making doughnuts, Francis B's formed into balls more like doughnut holes. After the challenge ended, the judges told Ahran she got to save one person, and asked her to walk around and look at everyone’s boxes. She settled on Francis as his donuts were more like munchkins, and she hoped to knock Courtney out. The judges told Francis he dodged a bullet.

Episode 5

Leslie and Francis L. were appointed team captains for the wedding themed team challenge after both of them being named winners of the last Elimination Test. In the following order, Leslie selected Christian, Daniel, Jaimee, Ahran (who he mispronounced her name on accident), Christine, Tyler, Jordan, and Francis B.

At the beginning, Leslie wanted to hear his teammates' opinions instead of taking control. When Ramsay checked over to ask Leslieabout the menu, Leslie struggled to recite it. After Ramsay told the Red Team to get their shit together, Leslie tried to make his team communicate with each other by constantly telling everyone to talk to him, much to the confusion of his teammates. In his defense, Leslie stated that he'd never led a team who didn't want to be led in the first place. When Daniel saw him cracking under pressure, he decided to step in and allow Francis B to replace Leslie as team captain. Much to his disapproval, he let Francis B become the team captain. In his confessional, he wasn't happy that he wasn't being the team captain any longer, but would be perfectly fine if they won the team challenge under Francis B's leadership. Leslie then yelled at his teammates to push more scallops, but Francis B calmed him down, saying that the team didn't need more screaming. His team lost the challenge.

Back at the MasterChef kitchen, Ramsay asked Leslie to name three people to compete in the Pressure Test. Leslie was quick to pick Christian, Daniel, and Ahran, as they all threw him under the bus. Ramsay found his choices interesting, but then told him that it wasn't his decision. The judges chose Leslie for being a disorganized team captain, Jordan for looking lost the whole time, and Francis for failing to get the team back on track after trying to step up.

Christine and Courtney were giving Francis Biondi advice to make a compound butter for his steak during a pressure test because they don't like Leslie Gilliams. Francis L. told them not to help the enemy.

Francis and Jordan had the two worst dishes in the challenge, but he was spared over Jordan as neither his fries or steak really shined.

Episode 7

As Courtney won the previous challenge, she was immune and got to select all the pairs for the Surf ‘n Turf Challenge. She paired Francis up with Christian, another front runner, believing their egos and personalities would clash too much. Christian thanked Courtney because Francis is a good cook. Christian and Francis ended up presenting a Moroccan spiced ribeye, with green beans, roasted potatoes, and a king crab topping. The judges were underwhelmed with their dish, saying either of them could’ve made it in 20 minutes. They were named as one of the two worst teams, along with Dan and Cutter. All four were then forced to compete in the Spring Rolls Pressure Test.

Francis presented his spring rolls, which contained glass noodles, purple cabbage, carrots, fresh sprouts, and a mushroom. Joe said the ratio of filling to dough was way off, and noted how greasy his spring rolls were. He pressed a piece under the napkin to show how the cold oil penetrated the wrapper, and said if Francis went home that night, he could order some spring rolls.

Francis’ poor dish put him in the Bottom 2, along with Cutter. The judges called Cutter forward, but sent him up to the balcony, and Francis B. was eliminated due to his poorly constructed spring rolls and sauce that didn’t make sense. The judges saw him as a frontrunner, but they saw his quick downfall, and noted that he was supposed to sink Christian but sank himself.

Competition History

Week 2	In/Win
Week 3	Win
Week 4	High/Immune
Week 5	Lose/Low
Week 6	In/In
Week 7	Lose/Eliminated

Post MasterChef

• After his appearance, Francis is a professional golfer and hosts pop up dinner events.
• In 2021, he appeared on TV show The House My Wedding Bought.

Trivia

• Francis was the lowest placing contestant to have an individual challenge win in his season.
• Francis was also the first contestant to be a Team Captain to be eliminated in his season.
• He and Francis Legge are the first two contestants to have the same name in the same season.
• He is one of a few contestants in his season to never have their Elimination Test dish aired in an episode unless they were in the top or the bottom of the challenge. The other contestants to have this status were Ahran, Francis Legge, Elise, Dan, Elizabeth and Tyler.

Quotes

• (After being eliminated) "There are a lot of great cooks around the country that wanted to be a part of this and the experience of cooking for the judges and having them say that your dish is a stand-out dish, that was a great feeling. I don't want to be a server for the rest of my life; I expect more from myself now. I feel like I take a lot of experience with me. After being in the MasterChef kitchen, you definitely leave inspired as a cook and the hope for something more, something better."

Gallery

Season 5

Francis B's Confessional

Francis B receiving his Apron

Francis B's Meatloaf Dish

Francis B in the Red Team

Francis B in a Black Apron

Francis B's Seafood Mystery Box Dish

Francis B, Ahran, and Christian in the Seafood Mystery Box Top 3

Leslie, Francis B, and Jordan in the Steak Frites Pressure Test

Francis B's Pressure Test Steak Frites

Jordan and Francis B in the Steak Frites Pressure Test Bottom 2

Christian and Francis B's Surf N' Turf Dish

Christian, Francis B, Dan Wu, and Cutter in the Spring Rolls Pressure Test

Francis B's Pressure Test Spring Rolls

Francis B and Cutter in the Spring Rolls Pressure Test Bottom 2

Francis B Eliminated

External links

• Francis Biondi on Twitter
• Francis Biondi on Instagram