Howard Simpson

“

You want fifteen of the same dishes up here?

”

Howard Simpson was a contestant on Season 4 of MasterChef. He ranked in 15th place.

Personality

Howard was by far the weakest cook of the season, as well as one of the worst cooks in the history of the show, although he could be more accurately characterized as more pathetic than contemptible. He was shown to be arrogant, condescending, and narcissistic, often slacked off multiple times while cooking, and relied way too often on other cooks to do more poorly than him to stay in the competition, which backfired all the time. In the kitchen, despite being a good team player when it came to team challenges, his performances were relatively subpar and mediocre at best, putting in minimal to no effort when it came to cooking. His mistakes included having no clue on what he was cooking, always finding excuses for his failures, and getting misty-eyed out of pity whenever he was at the bottom. He eventually became the worst performer of the season, as he was always in denial about his poor performances and lacked the passion to move further in the competition, both of which led to his elimination and made the judges believe that he had given up on the competition. He was disliked by Krissi after thinking that she would go home instead of him and had multiple confrontations with Joe, the latter of which constantly berated and belittled on his ignorance.

Season 4

Episode 1

Howard did not appear in this episode on the first day of auditions.

Episode 2

Howard did not appear in this subsequent episode and auditioned in the next episode.

Episode 3

Howard auditioned on the third and final day of auditions, serving a peach and blackberry cobbler. Gordon gave a no for too much bourbon, and Graham gave a yes. Joe brought Howard back to the waiting room where his family was. Joe told Howard's grandmother that Howard had a lot of potential, and that he was going to the MasterChef kitchen.

Episode 4

Howard proved himself in the lamb challenge, gaining entry into the kitchen. For the first mystery box, he created chocolate covered bacon and potato stuffed tomato. His dish was not selected in the top 3. For the langoustine challenge, he guessed that Krissi's dish would send her home. Unfortunately for him, it was the other way around. The judges were outraged by his spinach mango and grapefruit salad, which was deemed lazy, underwhelming, bland, and a complete waste of the langoustine. Gordon refused to try it, but Joe didn't have any nicer words to say to him. Joe reminded Howard about how he told Howard's grandmother how good his grandson is. However, Joe removed Howard's food from the plate and called it a "waste of time" for letting the judges down. Howard was in the bottom three, but was saved by Sasha's elimination.

Episode 5

Howard's team lost the team challenge at Emperor Elementary School, but Jordan saved him, along with James and himself and they were immune from taking the Pressure Test. He was thankful that Jordan saved him and said how he gets the job done although he stumbled in the kitchen sometimes.

Episode 6

In the second Mystery Box Challenge, Howard was called out by Gordon for serving raw fish, even though Howard thought that someone else served "sashimi" to the judges. Gordon himself said that even without tasting it, it wouldn't separate. Usually, fish is supposed to separate, but not into shreds. After the judges were done examining Howard's dish, Joe took it a step further by throwing it into the trash, serving as a perfect example on how dishes that were served with raw food would not be tolerated in the MasterChef kitchen and that anyone who continues to do so would be served with a one-way ticket home. However, Howard made up for his mistakes by making cupcakes that were deemed good enough for him to survive another day in the competition.

Episode 7

The second team challenge that dealt with New York strip steaks and firefighters was a victory for Howard and his team. He was immune from the Pressure Test.

Episode 8

In this continued Pressure Test, Howard, along with the other immune contestants, appeared as guests at Gordon Ramsay's BurGR in Las Vegas to judge the food on both teams from Natasha and Beth on the blue team and Luca and Kathy on the red team.

Episode 9

The Top 15 had to work with different foreign foods for the Mystery Box Challenge. What Howard made was unknown, but his dish was not selected as a top entry.

In the Elimination Test, the remaining cooks had to cook agnolotti given a demonstration from Joe's mother, Lidia Bastianich. While cooking, Joe asked Howard if he cooked a lot of pasta, with the latter replying no. Howard planned on making a braised chicken and bell pepper filling for his agnolotti, with Lidia commenting that putting bell peppers in pasta was unusual and wanted Howard to taste it. When Joe asked Howard what would he do with asparagus, the latter didn't know what to do with it.

Howard was the seventh cook to present his agnolotti dish. He didn't feel very confident due to admitting that his plating wasn't good, but hoped that the flavors would come together in his dish. He served a bell pepper, jalapeño, and braised chicken filled agnolotti spiced with cumin, though Lidia stated that cumin isn't a spice that is used in pasta. She found the taste to be a mouth full of peppers, felt that the dish wasn't harmonious, and told him to not get carried away so easily. However, when Joe came up to taste his pasta, he berated him for having a cavalier attitude, having no clue what he was making, and crying out of pity whenever he messed up, while going as far as rambling how he was not even thinking about playing in the competition properly. When Joe was about to taste Howard's dish, he later rebutted if Joe wanted the other contestants to bring up fifteen of the same dishes. This annoyed Joe even further, as he further berated him for him for his arrogance while adding that if his attitude keeps up, he can go back to cooking at dinner parties while the rest of the contestants compete to become the next MasterChef. Whilst implying that the purpose of the Elimination Test was to purely replicate a dish before elevating it, Joe then called him out for being a narcissist in full denial before thanking him for nothing. While going back, he thought that the competition was supposed to be about flair, finesse, and technique and not just copying someone's dish just to win $250,000.

Howard was the third person to be called up for elimination, along with Jonny, Lynn, and Beth. When he and Lynn were left as the bottom two who made the worst agnolotti in the Elimination Test, Ramsay found him to be ignorant and accused him of refusing to take Lidia's advice. When deciding who to eliminate, Ramsay noted that among the two, one of them has reached the end of the road and wanted either him or Lynn to do the honorable thing by giving up their apron, with that particular person already knowing who he was. In the end, he decided to take off his apron and was subsequently eliminated for his careless string of poor performances, arrogance, and having the worst agnolotti of the bunch. He was given a retrospective montage on his time on the show. During his exit interview, he acknowledged that Lynn was a better cook than him, felt that he did his best, and left saying that he would be a better cook himself in the future.

Episode 25

He was one of the returning cooks who came to see Luca and Natasha battling against each other during the finale.

Competition History

Week 4	In/Low
Week 5	No Pressure Test
Week 6	Bottom/In
Week 7	Win
Week 8	Immune
Week 9	In/Eliminated

Post MasterChef

After his appearance, Howard managed a bar before becoming a Chef at Hillstone Restaurants and R+D Kitchen Newport. He worked in restaurant management until 2019 when he opened his own car detailing business.

Trivia

He is the second contestant to have a military background before coming to MasterChef, following Josh (Season 3).
- Before he auditioned for the competition, Howard was an OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) veteran who took part in the war in Afghanistan.
He is the third contestant to eliminate themselves without having the judges formally announce their elimination, following Erryn (Season 2), and Ryan (Season 3).
He is the fifth contestant who had his dish thrown away in the trash by Joe Bastianich, following Slim (Season 1), Jennifer (Season 2), and Helene and David (both from Season 3).
- He is also the first contestant to have his dish thrown away without having the judges taste it and coincidentally during a Mystery Box Challenge.
  - By extension, he is also the first contestant to have his dish thrown out by Joe Bastianich during a Mystery Box Challenge.
He is the fourth contestant to be singled out as a bottom entry in a Mystery Box Challenge before an Elimination Test, following Ben, Jennifer, and Christian (all from Season 2).
- He is also the second contestant to be called out for serving raw food in this situation, following Jennifer (Season 2).

Quotes

"I screwed up. I've made two mistakes in a row. There's a big chance I'm not gonna make it through this."
"I just overthought it. I just, I grabbed too much from the pantry, and started out doing too much, and got overwhelmed, and went too simple, and that was my product."
"It's not raw fish. I was like 'Did somebody...did somebody do like sashimi or something'?"
"I'm excited to make something that they...that they actually complimented me on. I'm really surprised that all the dishes that I could have impressed them with, I ended up doing with a batch of cupcakes. It's good to be back on top."
(To Joe) "You want fifteen of the same dishes up here?"
(About Joe) "Ah, Joe's just a dick. This is a competition about flair, about finesse, about creativity, not about copying someone else's shit so you can win a quarter million dollars."
(After being eliminated) "Lynn's one of the top guys here. He's a better cook than I am, and he shows it with his plates. I got here, and I got an apron, and I got compete. Thousands of thousands of people did it. I did as best as I could, and I feel amazing about it. My dreams about being in the culinary world are even more alive before I even got here. I'm leaving a better cook for sure."

Gallery

Season 4

External links

Howard Simpson on Facebook
Howard Simpson on Instagram

References

MasterChef U.S. Season 4
Judges
Gordon Ramsay • Graham Elliot • Joe Bastianich
Contestants
Krissi Biasiello • Jonny Blanchard • Lynn Chyi • Natasha Crnjac • Bime Cruz • Sasha Foxx • Malcolm Green • Adriana Guillen • Eddie Jackson • Beth Kirby • Bri Kozior • Jessie Lysiak • Luca Manfè • James Nelson • Kathy Prieto • Jordan Roots • Bethy Rossos • Howard Simpson • Savannah Sturges