“Masterchef” season 5 was released in 2014. The fifth season is one of the most popular due to its competitors’ fiery and passionate personalities as seen in finalists, Elizabeth Cauvel, Leslie Gilliams and Courtney Lapresi.
Viewers loved the spectacle of participants throwing and receiving insults, but the controversy and entertainment of the show thrived on social media long after the season ended. Lapresi won the MasterChef title, the $250,000 prize and the right to publish a cookbook but has encountered backlash on social media for continuing her dancing career ever since.
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Viewers loved the spectacle of participants throwing and receiving insults, but the controversy and entertainment of the show thrived on social media long after the season ended.
Lapresi won the MasterChef title, the $250,000 prize and the right to publish a cookbook but has encountered backlash on social media for continuing her dancing career ever since.
The reality show introduced Lapresi as a 25-year-old aerial dancer from Philadelphia who wanted to transform her life. During her behind-the-scenes introductory interview, Lapresi revealed that she worked 5 jobs but still couldn’t pay her bills as a senior in college. She emphasized that she had spent her life with a driven and persevering force. Her tempestuous patch in college pushed her to join a gentlemen’s club, and although she loved dancing and entertainment, Lapresi acknowledged that she couldn’t do that forever.
Lapresi’s enthusiasm and confidence shimmered in her first appearance when she asserted she was going to get an apron, but it was only a matter of when. Her first plate to enter the competition was a ricotta gnocchi in brown butter sauce with peas to celebrate and embody her Italian heritage. Gordon Ramsay, one of the three judges, complemented the dish by calling it “authentic, brave and tenacious,” just like her.
Eventually, Ramsay gave her the first apron, making her the first contestant to join the fifth season.
The dancer would wear a full face of makeup, stiletto heels and dresses resembling 1950s housewife fashion, emphasizing her consideration for appearances and revealing her multifaceted talents.
Lapresi also won the first Mystery Box challenge and was saved from the first elimination, deeming her a decisive competitor. She was considered the toughest competitor and disliked by most of her peers for her immense capacity to make innovative dishes under pressure that were praised by the judges. The show branding her as a dancer rather than an adult entertainer most likely led to her never being reduced to a stripper by other contestants.
The judges consistently recognized her sturdy morale and creative cooking streak. Whenever another contestant would win an advantage in the Mystery Box challenge, they used the opportunity to throw hurdles toward Lapresi. When Christian Green won a Mystery Box challenge, he was asked to choose a contestant to give 30 minutes to cook with rather than the usual 60 minutes, and he gave Lapresi the drawback. However, she took the challenge in stride and said in her backstage interview, “Christian didn’t target me. He put a spotlight on me, and that’s where I perform the best is in the spotlight.”
Ahran Cho, an 18-year-old competitor, noted the favoritism she believed Lapresi was receiving when speaking with judge Joe Bastianich. YouTube comments from 9 years ago when the season came out and even a few months ago agree with Cho. When Cho won a Mystery Box challenge, she also asserted she wanted to take Lapresi out of the competition because she deals with “fake b**ches” all the time as a high school student. Since the season came out, the now 28-year-old has apologized for her immaturity on the show.
However, social media users commended Cho for her statement, and one YouTube user says, “Joe got so butt hurt that she talked sh** about his little toy.” This is one instance out of numerous where Lapresi was accused of having affairs with the judges to stay in the competition. The concept of Lapresi being favored for being an entertainer was further noted by audiences when Lapresi was saved even when she used salt instead of sugar in her donuts.
Lapresi eventually won with her unique pig ear, duck breast and cherry meringue recipes and released her cookbook “Everyday Fancy: 65 Easy, Elegant Recipes for Meals, Snacks, Sweets, and Drinks” in 2015.
Beyond Masterchef, performance has always been characteristic of Lapresi’s life, as she addresses her ballet training since the age of 8 in her Instagram posts. Lapresi also addresses the daily hate comments and DMs she receives in another Instagram post:“Saying I was being favorited was easier than saying I was likable and made a good presentation. I was the viewer’s favorite, and they couldn’t admit that because their limiting beliefs regarding [sex work] told them they weren’t allowed to. Judging ME for something THEY were imposing onto me. And look at what happened; [sex work] is becoming more accepted, I am thriving in my own right, and I am sharing my journey…”
Despite Lapresi’s belief that sex work is being accepted, Reddit users, Instagram comments and YouTube comments continue to degrade her for returning to stripping after winning. A Reddit user from a year ago claimed that the winner was still despised because she was “full of herself, fake, and talked to the judges with that stupid fake baby voice while making sure to have her fake boobs 50% out when they were around.”
A more recent Reddit user from two months ago said, “Waste of a winner. Very clearly favored by the producers/guys in charge, especially after she survived the salty donuts incident. Made a big deal of wanting to use Masterchef as a way to live a new life and leave her past risque life behind, then shortly after stopped cooking and went back to being a stripper/OnlyFans model.” There are also multiple Reddit threads concerning rumors theorizing that her guest on one of the episodes was her son and not her younger brother.
Lapresi has appeared on multiple podcasts like “50 Plus a Tip,” where she discusses embracing her sexuality, dealing with death threats on Twitter and encounters with rude customers. Stripping, dancing and cooking can be viewed as sports of survival for the Masterchef winner as she stated, “if I had a dollar for every hate comment I received for winning, I’d have gotten a lot more than $250K…”
Lapresi’s journey and misogynistic encounters in the cooking, entertainment, public and private spheres arouse an interesting question: where do women belong?
