When Aishu Challa was laid off from a tech job last year, the North Shore mom of three kids under 3 had a choice: Would she go back to the corporate world, or would she shake things up? On a whim, the 33-year-old decided to apply to a longtime favorite TV show, Fox’s “MasterChef” starring Gordon Ramsay. Spoiler alert: Challa made it onto the cast for Season 16: Global Gauntlet — and her first episode aired on Wednesday, April 22.
Challa was born in Mumbai and grew up in Florida. The food she presents on the show reflects both histories: Challa initially impressed judges with an orange cardamom olive oil cake.
“I never thought in a million years that I would be a mom of three, like doing this at this point in my life,” she says. “I think that’s why they picked me, because I said, ‘There’s never a right time for anything, and I’ve learned that the hard way, so I’m gonna freaking do this right now.”
Before her next episode airs, Challa paused to reflect on risk-taking, reward, and her favorite pork-fried rice.
I love the fact that you’re a home cook and that you put yourself out there to audition for TV.
You know, I’m genuine and authentic to a fault, and this has been an interesting journey. When I started to think about “MasterChef,” I didn’t have a plan. I just thought, “I’m going to learn as I go through this. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
Why did you try out? What’s the backstory?
I’ve watched “MasterChef” with friends for 10 years. I’m a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay and the show. Last summer, I’d gone through five years of some of the most transformative changes in my life — I became a mom of three under 3, I got promoted at a tech startup, I bought a house. I was pregnant with identical twins on my son’s first birthday, and I worked throughout my pregnancy.
Last summer, I got laid off. It was the first time that I actually could just stop and [think]: What am I doing? I realized that I was working so hard, and I wasn’t living at all. The person I had become was purely somebody everyone thought of as a businessperson and a mother. I felt so lost as a person; this isn’t the person I wanted to be.
I applied [to “MasterChef”] randomly. The application was so organic. Every question felt so natural. And I thought: “This means that I’m ready.”
Why a cooking show and not some other competition?
The women on my mother’s side of the family are highly educated — principals, lawyers, doctors. They’re really powerful women, and they always put education and independence first. I never learned to cook. Growing up, my mom actually would tell me not to be in the kitchen.
It wasn’t until I graduated from college that I started really watching the show, learning about food, and surviving by cooking for myself. I’d see something on the show, and I’d try to re-create it. I started eating out more. That’s when I started to build a knack for cooking. I moved to Davis Square for about eight years, and eating out was a hobby for me. I was critiquing restaurants before it became an Instagram trend. When I go with my friends, they know the drill: I try a little bit of everything.
I’ve never bragged about my cooking to people. This has been kind of funny, because it’s a hard flex that no one really thought I had. The show made me realize not just that I’m good at cooking, but how much I truly love and believe in it.
When I was working 50 hours a week, I just couldn’t find joy in cooking anymore. It became a chore. I lost a bit of myself. When I got laid off, all of a sudden, through applying for “MasterChef,” I found this passion for cooking. It healed me to be in the kitchen, making things that reminded me of places I traveled, things that I did, or different people.
What do you think they saw in you? What made you feel like you could pull it off?
I think they saw somebody doing something crazy and taking a chance, and they wanted to give me it. And they also saw someone who probably knew more about food than I was giving myself credit for. They believed in me before I believed in myself, and I really appreciated that.
You’ve got to tell me: What happens behind the scenes?
This is a show not just about cooking. They’re looking at their personality and everything. I think it was around November or December that I got a call to be invited to audition.
I didn’t know what was going to happen the minute I landed, other than meeting someone to take me to a hotel. I’m pretty type B. But being a mother of three, you get so used to being on a schedule.
I got to meet the other contestants and learn what the audition week was going to be like. There was so much diversity in age, gender, and race. It was beautiful. I felt so in my comfort zone, but at the same time, it’s quite intimidating. You’re seeing such confident people, and I just didn’t feel as up to par with many of them.
When we got there, we were able to talk wardrobe. They didn’t buy us clothing, unfortunately. There wasn’t a “Sex and the City” budget! We really got a lot of time to bond with everybody. We got to eat out and try different restaurants. Getting to eat with people who have the same mind-set about food was such a fun experience.
Did you get picked on the strength of a certain recipe?
I am not a baker by any trade; I really learned to bake like in the past couple years. I think maybe COVID helped me bake a bit more, but it just wasn’t something I learned. I didn’t have the equipment. I think they wanted to see me do something outside of my comfort zone.
I ended up making an orange cardamom olive oil cake, and the challenge was to make a dessert from your country. It’s not an Indian dessert, yeah, but I think they enjoyed my story around it and why I chose to do it.
I love Indian food, but Indian sweets, to me, are very dense and very sugary. You don’t want to eat like a whole box of them, because it’s just so rich. And so I wanted to make a dessert that embodied the parts of India I love, which is their generosity and hospitality. When you go to India, everybody invites you for tea, no matter how busy they are.
I thought that this cake was something that represented both my childhood in Florida — that was the oranges — and then the cardamom and other flavors came from India. And the cake itself was a vehicle for those flavors. It just was something I pictured you would have with a cup of chai when you were getting to know people.
I competed against 10 people. Only five of us would get an apron. The stakes were a lot higher than I even knew.
When you’re cooking, [judges] come out and start talking to you. I got to share a little bit about myself. Gordon was involved in the process of picking who he wanted in the top 40, and he truly got to know me in a way that I didn’t expect him to find the time to do. He watches your interviews and auditions and really thinks about: Is this person right for this opportunity? So that was really special.
And then you’re in this glamorous test kitchen, cooking on command? How does that go?
They definitely have an amazing test kitchen. It’s every ingredient you can imagine.
After I won, I cried a lot because it was just reality hitting me, that everything I had worked for was coming true and that I was going to get to be a part of this season and experience everything I’d seen on TV for 10 years. Because even though the audition is such a cool experience, it’s not the actual show yet. So that moment was when I truly started to unpack my suitcase. I did not believe I was going to get in.
What happens next?
You become the official top 20, who compete to get the MasterChef title. Only one person gets the title. But what they’re really trying to do is cultivate a story across all these people. The longer you’re on the show, the longer your story gets heard, and the more you become a presence in the food world. Each week, you have a new challenge, and you have to put your best self out there.
Is this going to be a career for you, or was this a fun diversion?
Honestly, as I’ve gone through this process, I’ve learned to discover things about myself that I don’t feel like I’ve been able to showcase as a corporate girl in startup tech. I’m really looking forward to potentially taking a lot of my business experience and applying it into something food-related. I’m looking to do what I think is missing in Boston, more niche and curated food experiences. It might be a podcast, it might be a supper club, it might be a pop-up event, it might be a cooking class. I’m looking to start these low-risk experiences to see what resonates with people in the Boston area.
Any advice for other people at a career crossroads who want to take a risk?
Don’t stop learning. You’re never going to be perfect. But the more you put yourself out there, the more you will learn, and the more you will get better. That’s what I did from the minute I got back from “MasterChef”: I just started posting, learning, getting equipment. I’m not there yet, but I’m getting there.
Sometimes, we get stuck in a world where we’re like robots; we’re just going and going. What I realized in my career is: I could work harder, I could be smarter, and I could keep moving up. But was I really happy? Did this career deserve all my time? I think that’s an important question to ask yourself: Is this environment good for you?
In tech, [as] a woman of color, I was going through such a crazy experience last summer thinking: Am I cannibalizing myself from ever going back to tech? Am I giving up my career because I’m a mom?
When I stopped thinking about who I was working for and about working for myself, I think that’s when I realized that there’s a pathway for me to be myself and be an entrepreneur and apply my brain in ways I want to and still have the flexibility of being a mother.
What skills do you need to succeed on a food TV show?
I’m a bit bold. I said this to almost everyone in the competition. When I got in, I said, “Look, guys, I’ve been cooking for toddlers the past two years. I’m not the best cook in this room, and I know it. I haven’t had the time that some of you might have, but I know ‘MasterChef.’ I know storytelling, and I know what speaks to people.”
That’s something you learn from watching “MasterChef.” It’s not just about making the best food. Everybody’s a good cook when you’re at that level. It’s about: How does your food speak to the judges? Does it make sense? Does it really evoke the theme or the challenge? And I think I was really good at doing that, and I think that worked to my advantage.
Something I love about Indian food is, no matter whether you’re eating at someone’s home or in a restaurant, it’s just the most amazing experience, and it’s just quality food that doesn’t have a price tag on it. I love getting to be my authentic self, show my roots, how I was raised. To get to show that on TV is really special. I’m really proud to be Indian.
Where do you like to eat for fun?
I love Sarma. And my go-to Chinese place is Shunju in North Andover. It has the best pork fried rice I’ve ever had.
Where do you eat with your family?
That’s a good question. We love Pomodori Pizza. They not only have great pizza, but they also have really good gluten-free pizza.
Is there a food that you absolutely cannot stand?
I think that chicken parm is the most overrated dish ever. I think that fried chicken doused with pasta sauce doesn’t make sense, because you’re just making something crispy soggy, and adding a giant bowl of pasta feels like not a necessity at all. It’s too much food. I like eggplant parm; let me put that out there. It’s not about the flavors. Eggplant delivers. It’s the right vehicle for that dish. But chicken parm is just too much.
What do your kids like to eat?
I’m very big on making my kids eat everything and try everything, I kid you not. Last summer, when I took them to Crane Beach, my kids were eating olives, pistachios, and balls of mozzarella.
Interview was edited for clarity.
Kara Baskin can be reached at kara.baskin@globe.com. Follow her @kcbaskin.