“ | I feel like crap. Nobody has ever told me that my food was not good. I just wanted to crawl under the nearest oven. | ” |
Stephani Syfax-Shepherd was a contestant on Season 5 of MasterChef. She ranked in 20th place.
Personality[]
Stephani is best remembered for her pettiness, arrogance, and overconfidence. She came to the competition to show America what she was made of, but had consistently poor performances in both individual and team challenges. She had an argument with Leslie during her only team challenge, but seemed to be friends with Elise, although she didn't consider her strong enough for the competition. Her mistakes kept piling up and she was eventually eliminated after failing to improve.
Season 5[]
Episode 1[]
Stephani was one of 30 home cooks brought to the MasterChef Kitchen. She was not seen cooking this episode, but was one of 17 contestants to receive their apron after the first round.
Episode 2[]
Stephani was not seen during the Dessert Mystery Box, and was not selected to be in the Top 3.
She was not selected by Courtney to be safe, and was one of 10 contestants forced to compete in the Meatloaf Invention Test. During the challenge, Joe and Graham remarked how they had never seen couscous with meatloaf before. After tasting her blue cheese cream sauce, Joe asked her if she was out of her mind as it was non-traditional. She remarked that she didn't want to be a pretty face sitting on the balcony, and she was here to show America what she was made of.
She presented her lamb with couscous, pepper ribbons, and a blue cheese cream sauce. Ramsay spit her food out, saying there was no way on earth he could swallow it. He called the combination dry, asked her why she chose such a strange combination of flavors, and told her she should be heading home.
She was the first contestant to be called down as part of the Bottom 3, with Dan Wu as the second and Whitney as the third. She was sent back to her station as Whitney's meatloaf was deemed the worst overall.
Episode 3[]
During the 500 Soldiers Challenge, Stephani was part of the Blue Team. At one point, Leslie tried to tell her that her chicken wasn't cooked all the way through, but she didn't listen to him, saying all he does is run his yap. Eventually, Ramsay came over and saw that the two pans of chicken that were done were completely raw. Fortunately, she was able to get all her chicken cooked in time for service, but the Blue Team lost the challenge by a near 2:1 ratio. She was seen pissed off during clean-up.
During the Blueberry Pie Pressure Test, she told the judges she was putting pecans in both her crust and on top of the finished pie, which they deemed to be another bad idea. Due to the odd taste of her pie, she was sent to the Bottom 2 with Elise. She was eliminated for her string of poor performances, bad flavor combinations, and her inability to learn from her mistakes. She was not given an exit interview, but Elise remarked it was hard to see someone she considered a friend go home, saying it was one of the toughest days so far.
Competition History[]
Week 2 | In/Low |
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Week 3 | Eliminated |
Post MasterChef[]
- After her appearance, Stephani began offering private chef services, meal prep and a catering service. She was a private chef for Cincinnati Bengals player A.J. Green and has cooked for a number of celebrity clients.
- She is also a married woman and a mother to two sons.
Trivia[]
- She is the first contestant from the state of Michigan.
- She is the first contestant to come in 20th place.
- She is the first contestant to not give an exit interview after being eliminated.
Quotes[]
- (After having her dish tasted) "I feel like crap. Nobody has ever told me that my food was not good. I just wanted to crawl under the nearest oven."
- "Leslie is driving me up the wall. He's always in my face, running his yap, talking too much and he really needs to back off."
Gallery[]
Season 5[]
External links[]
Stephani Syfax-Shepherd on Instagram
References[]
MasterChef U.S. Season 5 |
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Judges |
Gordon Ramsay • Graham Elliot • Joe Bastianich |
Contestants |
Francis Biondi • Whitney Bray • Cutter Brewer • Elizabeth Cauvel • Ahran Cho • Leslie Gilliams • Christian Green • Gordon Houston • Jordan Kaminski • Courtney Lapresi • Astrid Lavenia • Francis Legge • Elise Mayfield • Daniel McGuffey • Willie Mike • Kira Novak • Victoria Scroggins • Stephani Syfax-Shepherd • Christine Silverstein • Tyler Viars • Jaimee Vitolo • Dan Wu |