Fred Chang

 

Hometown	Redondo Beach, CA
Age	24 (Season 10) 26 (Season 12)
Occupation	Revenue Analyst (Season 10) Recipe Developer (Season 12)
Statistics
Mystery Box(es) Won	0 (Season 10) 1 (Season 12)
Skills Test(s) Won	2 (Season 10)
Elimination Test(s) Won	0 (Season 10) 0 (Season 12)
Team Challenge(s) Won	3 (Season 10) 1 (Season 12)
Pressure Test(s) Survived	1 (Season 10)
Top Entries	2 (Season 10) 1 (Season 12)
Bottom Entries	3 (Season 10) 3 (Season 12)
Placement	10th (Season 10) 11th (Season 12)
Episode Eliminated	Box in a Box in a Box (Season 10) GrubHub Challenge (Season 12)

Frederick "Fred" Chang was a contestant on Seasons 10 and 12 of MasterChef. On Season 10, he ranked in 10th place; and on Season 12, he ranked in 11th place.

Personality

In Season 10, Fred came into the competition as a skilled baker and plater when Gordon Ramsay licked his dessert dish clean in his audition. While he had his high points during the competition, including winning the King Crab immunity challenge with guest judge Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, he was inconsistent during elimination challenges, either landing himself on the bottom or top in the three he competed in. He got along with everyone but had a close friendship with Bri.

In Season 12, Fred returned wanting to prove that he was more than a baker. While he got off to a decent start by winning the season's first Mystery Box Challenge, he was still inconsistent while in the kitchen as he landed in the bottom immediately after having the Immunity Pin due to his Vegan dish looking canned and clunky. Ever since then, he was in the middle or inconsistent until he eventually cracked in the Tag Team Challenge with Dara and then made a bizarre dish of potstickers in the Grub Hub Challenge, leading to his elimination.

Competition History

Week 3	Win/Immune
Week 4	Win/Immune/Immune
Week 5	Low/Low
Week 6	Win/Immune
Week 7	Win/Immune
Week 8	Win/Immune
Week 9	High/High
Week 10	Lose/Eliminated

Competition History

Week 4	In
Week 5	Win
Week 6	Immune
Week 7	Low
Week 8	In
Week 9	In
Week 10	Win
Week 11	In
Week 12	Low
Week 13	Eliminated

Post MasterChef

• After his first appearance, Gordon told Fred that he would contact Christina Tosi and ask if there is a spot for Fred at her bakery. Fred (who is from Redondo Beach) would later go on work in her bakery in Los Angeles, which opened in the fall of 2018 when he auditioned. He also wrote regularly at Freddy's Harajuku, where he posts food recipes.

Trivia

Season 10

• He is the fourth Taiwanese-American to compete on the show, following Jason Wang from season 8, Lynn Chyi from season 4, and Felix Fang from season 3.
• He was arguably one of the strongest dessert bakers in the competition.
• He was the first contestant to get their audition dish licked clean by Gordon, as well as the first contestant to receive a white apron without formally receiving any yes's from the judges.
• Tied with Bri and Nick for the most team challenge wins in his season.
  • Of the three of them, he was the only one who was never a team captain.
  • Fred and Bri were always on the same team for the 4 team challenges they competed in.
• Holds the record for most wins out of any 10th place contestant, with 5.
  • Is tied with Emily (season 9) for most individual wins out of any 10th place contestant with 2.
• First contestant to never finish a challenge in the middle, either winning, being immune, being in the top group, or being on the bottom of every challenge he competed in.

Season 12

• He is the only contestant to receive the same number of bottom entries in both seasons, with three.
• He is the lowest ranked contestant of the season to win an immunity pin.

Quotes

Season 10

• (During the bread mystery box critiques) "I'm watching these other home cooks go up and I am so glad to be up on the balcony right now. This level of competition, its through the roof. Everything is definitely judged on quality. These guys are stepping up their game this season. I'm definitely worried; this is my competition."
• (About the cake replication challenge) "This is literally like everything I could ever dream of right now. Give me the diabetes.
• "The judges keep calling me 'dessert king' but I haven't earned my crown yet, so this is a chance for me to prove that I am as good of a baker that I'm proclaiming myself to be."
• "My ultimate dream is to go and open my own bakery with my parents, so I have to just keep pushing until I get to that goal."
• "I think that I might not deserve the dessert king crown, but I might deserve the dessert prince crown."
• (After being eliminated) "My food dream coming into MasterChef was to open my own bakery with my parents. Just because I got cut now, it doesn't mean that I'm gonna stop with my food dream. I'm gonna go and continue to bake my heart out, I'm gonna continue to tell stories through my desserts. I've had my moments of self-doubt, I've had my moments where my confidence was low, but I've had such incredible highs too. I won 5 immunity challenges, have a free seat of any Morimoto restaurant of my choosing, Candace Nelson loved my macarons; I'm happy for getting this far. I don't need anything more from this competition, I've already won in my own way."

Season 12

• "I made a chocolate cake that was so tasty, Gordon Ramsay himself picked up the plate, licked it clean, and threw the apron at my face."
• "So when I got eliminated at Season 10, it was a sad moment for all but a second. I did take up Gordon's offer to work with Christina Tosi at Milk Bar in LA and right after that, I started a food blog where I post recipes 3 times a week. So I am ready to fight my butt off to get an apron and get back in that kitchen and continue my food journey."
• "There's a huge Mystery Box behind the judges. I'm just praying, 'please don't be a live animal'. I already made a promise to my mother that I wasn't gonna kill animals on national television."
• "It's so incredible watching Gordon cook. He's like an artist bringing paints and colors to life on a blank canvas. You just see all these ingredients just magically transformed into this beautiful vegan dish. I'm stunned by that transformation."
• "Christine (Ha) is one of my biggest inspirations. Seeing someone like her win, someone who looks like me, it helped me realize that, you know, I can have a place in this society and I'm not just some outcast like how I was made out to be as a kid. So I don't want to disappoint someone who I really look up to and is the reason why I cook to this day."
• (After being eliminated) "You know, it sucks to not make Top 10, but I’m proud of everything I’ve done. Despite getting sent home, I feel happy to have just even done this. Being invited back from Season 10, it warms my heart, and it makes me feel loved and accepted. While I’m sad that I didn’t do as well as I did last time, I had a winning desert, I was able to stay true to myself, and the fact that the judges acknowledged that, it means the world."

Gallery

Season 10

Fred's Confessional

Fred's Audition Dessert

Fred receiving his Apron

Fred's Skills Test Basics

Fred in the Blue Team

Fred in the Red Team

Fred in a Black Apron

Fred's Failed Latin Mystery Box Dish

Fred's Tarte Tatin

Fred, Sam, and Evan in the Tarte Tatin Bottom 3

Fred's King Crab Dish

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

Fred's Replication Cake

Fred's Macarons

Fred's Surf N' Turf Mystery Box Dish

Fred and Bri in the Surf N' Turf Bottom 2

Fred Eliminated

Season 12

Fred's Confessional

Fred's Audition Dish

Fred & Bri Reinstated

Fred's Spirit Mystery Box Dish

Christian, Fred, and Brandi in the Spirit Mystery Box Top 3

Fred in the Red Team

Fred in the Orange Team

Fred’s Failed Vegan Dish

Shelly, Samantha, and Fred in the Vegan Bottom 3

Fred and Dara's Tag-Team Trio Plater

Fred’s Failed Grubhub Dish

Fred and Willie in the GrubHub Bottom 2

Fred Eliminated (2nd Time)

External links

• Fred Chang on Instagram