Luca Manfè

  

“

I'm not the joker that everybody thinks I am. I'm here for business.

”

Hometown	Astoria, NY
Age	31
Occupation	Restaurant Manager
Statistics
Mystery Box(es) Won	2
Elimination Test(s) Won	1
Team Challenge(s) Won	5
Other Challenges Won	1
Pressure Test(s) Survived	3
Top Entries	4
Bottom Entries	4
Placement	Winner

Luca Manfè was a contestant on Season 4 of MasterChef. He was the winner of that season and received: the MasterChef trophy, a cookbook deal, and a salary of $250,000. He originally auditioned for Season 3, but failed to receive an apron.

Personality

Luca was easily among the nicest contestants in the show's history, and got along with everybody on a notoriously aggressive, cutthroat, and competitive set of home cooks due to affable, kind-hearted, genuine personality and big heart. He came back having improved his mistakes from Season 3 with a lot more passion and determination than before, but was immediately recognized as a weak contender from the start. In the beginning, he tended to struggle a lot, and was placing himself in the bottom several times over simple mistakes, but quickly bounced back from them and gradually became the strongest cook of the season with consistent high performances during individual and team challenges. Due to his overall friendly nature, he was well liked by most of the other home cooks, even going as far as making Jordan, James, and Bri jealous of his talents. The only cooks that he didn't seem to get along with were Natasha and Krissi, as he had a rivalry between Natasha over valuing the other as top competition and had a strong dislike toward Krissi like nearly everyone else over her hostile and bullying attitude, but was one of the only cooks to not get into an argument with her. He was viewed as a dark horse that no one expected him to come such a long way, as he proved to be willing to take risks as well has having a ton of passion, determination, talent, consistency, patience, and humility that all helped him not only to win the competition, but become one of the fan-favorite contestants and winners of all time.

Competition History

Week 4	In/In
Week 5	Win
Week 6	Win/Immune
Week 7	Low
Week 8	Low
Week 9	In/In
Week 10	Win
Week 11	In/Low
Week 12	No Pressure Test
Week 13	In/In
Week 14	Pressure Test
Week 15	In/In
Week 16	Win
Week 17	Win/Immune
Week 18	Immune
Week 19	High/In
Week 20	Win
Week 21	High/Win
Week 22	Win/Immune
Week 23	Win
Week 24	Low/Low
Week 25	Winner

Season 5

Episode 6

Luca made an appearance, alongside MCJ Season 1 Winner, Alexander Weiss, to promote his new cookbook and to challenge the contestants to replicate his pancetta wrapped veal dish.

Season 6

Episode 17

Luca made an appearance, alongside Season 3 Winner, Christine, and Season 5 Winner, Courtney, to challenge the contestants to cook a dish with his Italian ingredients in the Elimination Challenge. His basket was given to Katrina by Claudia, who won the Mystery Box prior.

Post MasterChef

• After his appearance, Luca launched his cook book "My Italian Kitchen: Favorite Family Recipes". He also launched personal catering service Dinner with Luca and food truck The Lucky Fig. He hosted online cookery classes with other MasterChef winners and does cookery demonstrations and dining experiences. He is a brand ambassador for Donna Italia.

Trivia

• He is a New York Yankees fan.
• He is not only the first male winner, he is also the first returnee winner.
  • He originally auditioned on Season 3.
• He first met his wife when she was working as a waitress at his restaurant, though he tried to fire her two weeks later.
• He is the only winner of MasterChef from before Season 10 to not return for the finale of said season.

Quotes

Season 3

• (After failing to pass the auditions) "I feel very sad. It was a great opportunity. I missed it. I go back home to my wife. I will come back 100%."

Season 4

• (To Ramsay) "Chef Ramsay. You broke my heart. You broke my wife, and my mother's heart. You broke all America heart!"
• (After receiving a white apron) "MAMA! PAPA! I made it! Next time when we'll be talking, I'll be the next MasterChef."
• (After being the last one to be accepted) "WHAAAT?! I'm going to the MasterChef kitchen! He said my name! He killed me. I lost like five years of my life, but I made it.
• (After taking Jordan's mixer) "Jordan saved himself in the last team challenge as a team captain, and for me as a respect for your team players, captain goes down with the ship."
• "I'm not the joker that everybody thinks I am. I'm here for business."
• (About Krissi arguing with Joe) "Krissi, I'm sorry, but you need to show a little bit more respect for the judges and for everybody who's around. You're there, you did a bad job, be honorable, take it, go back to your station. End of the story."
• (To Ramsay) "Yeah, no offense, but I never eat Mexican."
• (To Natasha after winning the challenge) "Now I hate you again."
• (About Krissi) "I would like to go five miles away, because is bomb waiting to explode."
• "I worked so hard to get to this point. I got this extra push of confidence, and, I just start cooking in a completely different way."
• (After finding out that his picture is on a live turkey) "I'm a turkey?"
• "I think that making out something awesome with the cheese is not easy. (In an interview) I would love to cook with Grana Padano! I'm praying 'God, you know me and crab don't have a great relationship, but I would love that cheese'."
• (After winning MasterChef) "I came here from another country because America is the best place in the world. This is where dreams come true and now I am America's MasterChef, and to win the title in front of my wife, my sister, my dad, this is so special. Natasha put up a huge fight. She's a great cook. I think that Natasha will have a beautiful future."
• "I AM AMERICA'S MASTERCHEF!!!!!!!!"

Gallery

Season 3

Luca's Confessional

Luca's Audition Dish

Luca failing to receive an Apron

Season 4

• Contestant
• Dishes

Luca's Confessional

Luca receiving his Apron

Luca in the Red Team

James, Beth, and Luca in the Japanese Mystery Box Top 3

Luca in a Black Apron

Kathy, Luca, Natasha, and Beth in the Eggs Benedict Pressure Test Bottom 4

Kathy and Luca in the Lobster Pressure Test

Beth, Luca, and Krissi in the Crab/Catfish Bottom 3

Luca in the Blue Team

Luca with his wife

Natasha, Jessie, and Luca in the Loved Ones Mystery Box Top 3

Jordan, Luca, and Krissi in the T-Bone Steak Mystery Box Top 3

Luca, Jessie, and James in the Random Ingredients Mystery Box Top 3

Luca in a Chef Smock

Luca's Confessional (Chef Smock)

Natasha and Luca in the Finale

Luca after winning MasterChef

Luca's Audition Dish

Luca's Boot Camp Dish

Luca's Langoustine Dish

Luca's Japanese Mystery Box Dish

Luca's Pressure Test Eggs Benedict

Kathy and Luca's Burger

Luca's Pressure Test Lobster

Luca's Crab Dish

Luca's $5 Walmart Basket Dessert

Luca's Pressure Test Sautéed Chicken

Luca's Pressure Test Fried Chicken

Luca's Pressure Test Stuffed Chicken

Luca's Canned Mushroom Dish

Luca's Loved Ones Mystery Box Dish

Luca's T-Bone Steak Mystery Box Dish

Luca's Poultry Dish

Luca's Random Ingredients Mystery Box Dish

Luca's Pho Replication Dish

Luca's Charity Dish

Luca and Natasha's Three Course Meal

Luca and Natasha's Appetizer

Luca and Natasha's Entrée

Luca and Natasha's Dessert

Luca's Audition Recreation Mystery Box Dish

Luca's Grana Padano Dish

Luca's Duck Appetizer

Luca's Short Rib Entrée

Luca's Panna Cotta Dessert

Season 5

Luca as a Guest

Luca and MCJ Season One Winner Alexander

Luca's Veal Dish

Season 6

Luca as a Guest

Luca's Cookbook

Christine, Luca, and Courtney

External links

• Luca Manfè on Facebook
• Luca Manfè on Instagram
• Luca Manfè on Twitter