Heather Dombrosky was a contestant on Season 8 of MasterChef. She ranked in 18th place.
Personality[]
TBA
Season 8[]
Episode 1[]
Heather was not seen at all, since it was not her turn to audition yet, and was thus cheering for the other home cooks auditioning for the competition.
Episode 2[]
Heather was seen in an audition montage, having to make crepes for her signature dish challenge along with an unknown female attendee. Her dish impressed the judges, and she was given a white apron by Ramsay.
Episode 3[]
When the home cooks arrived in the MasterChef kitchen for the first time, they had to cook a dish with 12 of America's most commonly bought grocery items for the first Mystery Box Challenge in 60 minutes. During cooking, Aaron and Christina checked up on Heather. Heather told Aaron that since her mother was Peruvian, she would be making a Peruvian rice with a Latin-inspired chimichurri sauce on fried chicken. Heather also wanted the dish to be an ode to her mother, since her family was poor growing up and thus her mother would try to make whatever she could with the ingredients she had. Aaron gave his final words to Heather to keep her eye on the prize.
Ramsay selected Sam, Mark, and Heather for having the three dishes that stood out the most. Heather appeared elated to be the first three to be called forward. However, Ramsay revealed that they were only selected because their dishes were deemed as the worst during the challenge and were forced to wait in the winery to face elimination.
After the Mystery Box Challenge was over, Aaron felt that Heather was lacking the fundamentals in her cooking. He criticised the dryness of her chimichurri chicken, the lack of a sauce, and the presence of unpeeled carrots. He also found her dish to be a "great travesty" to all of the Peruvian cooks that he "called friends and colleagues".
For the Elimination Challenge, Sam, Mark, and Heather had to either recreate or remake their own dish in 45 minutes. Despite thinking of the challenge as nerve-wracking, Heather wanted to show to the judges that she was a fighter, had resilience, and wanted to win the competition. Aaron noted that Heather should take a different approach to her chicken, and wanted her to show that she had "taken complete notice of what [his] comments had to bear". When Aaron checked up on Heather, the latter stated that she was now making a grilled chicken kabob, with both a broccoli and carrot slaw. During another round of judge discussions, Aaron felt that if she were able to nail her chicken and chimichurri, she could overcome her mistakes in her previous dish.
Ramsay checked up on Heather, questioning the fact that she was brining her chicken in a limited amount of time, with Heather replying that she wanted her chicken to be nice and moist. Ramsay pointed out the fact that she was grilling her chicken without any fat, and suggested that she brush her chimichurri onto her chicken as she was grilling it. He also motivated her by reminding Heather that she had 8 minutes left, and that she could "bring it back". Infamously, as Ramsay left her station, Mark suggested to Heather that she could do exactly what he was doing by ignoring the judges' advice, much to her and Sam's dismay.
After the allotted time was up, Heather presented her chimichurri chicken kabob, with a vinaigrette and a side of french fries. Aaron praised her new dish for looking more Peruvian and her chicken for being moist and juicy. He also favoured the vinaigrette for being well-balanced, and the great flavor of the chimichurri. When Christina enquired about her decision to skewer the chicken, Heather felt that a kabob would make the chicken easier to eat. Christina also praised the better presentation of the dish, and the improved flavor of the chicken.
After deliberation, Heather and Sam were saved, thus eliminating Mark.
Episode 4[]
The contestants were brought to a beach to cook a fish lunch for 101 lifeguards and were split into two teams. Heather was part of the Red Team alongside Adam, Cate, Eboni, Jason, Necco, Newton, Sam, Yachecia, and team captain Brien. At the team discussions, Heather made a suggestion regarding the method of including the peas in the team's dish. The Red Team served a crispy skin sea bass with bamboo rice, fried eggplant, corn salad, and sweet chili sauce. Heather was seen helping her team in the preparation of their dishes. The Red Team eventually finished serving all of their fish dishes to the lifeguards, and huddled together.
The Red Team won the challenge, with the majority of the lifeguards voting for them, and thus did not have to compete for the Pressure Test. Heather was also among the people at the balcony who voted for Jennifer to stay in the competition.
Episode 5[]
In the Mystery Box Challenge, the contestants must cook a dish featuring various types of shellfish. Heather's dish was not shown, and her dish was not picked by the judges, thus sending her to the Elimination Challenge.
In the Elimination Challenge, the remaining contestants must prepare a scrambled egg dish by Gordon and must prepare it using Gordon's cooking style. Heather stated that she makes scrambled eggs regularly and ordinarily since she usually has many people coming to her place for brunch, but was challenging herself to cook scrambled eggs using Ramsay's cooking style, and felt confident about the challenge. As the challenge came to a close, Aaron noted that Heather did not have any mushrooms on her plate.
When the judges came to taste Heather's scrambled eggs, Aaron asked her whether she had any timing issues due to the lack of mushrooms, to which she affirmed. In addition, he also criticised the eggs for being overcooked and not seasoned enough, and hence Heather was not sent to safety. Heather, along with the other contestants not sent to safety, were then given one last chance to repeat the dish within a shorter time of 10 minutes.
During cooking, Ramsay noted that Heather was "all over the place", with Christina audibly gasping when Heather added a lot of black pepper to her eggs. This shocked many of the contestants on the balcony, and worried Aaron.
When Christina tasted Heather's scrambled eggs, she began to cough uncontrollably, noting that Heather had added too much black pepper to her scrambled eggs. She also did a side-by-side comparison of Heather's scrambled eggs with Dino's, showing Heather that her scrambled eggs were much darker in colour than Dino's. This visibly shocked Heather.
During deliberation, Christina was still coughing from Heather's scrambled eggs. Jason was also seen telling Adam and Eboni that Heather had added too much black pepper to her scrambled eggs.
Heather was part of the Bottom Two, along with Sam. Ramsay noted that her eggs were too peppery, and that she was a smart individual. Eventually, Ramsay told Sam to say "good night" to Heather, thus eliminating her from the competition. Christine noted that Heather had made new mistakes in her second scrambled eggs dish, though she praised her gusto and drive.
Competition History[]
| Week 3 | Low/In |
|---|---|
| Week 4 | Win |
| Week 5 | In/Low/Eliminated |
Post MasterChef[]
- After her appearance, Heather is a nurse and works for a medical tech company. She has also been a Private Chef for dinner parties and is an avid surfer.
Trivia[]
- She is the lowest-ranking contestant in her season to win any challenge.
Quotes[]
- (After being eliminated) "Leaving the MasterChef Kitchen, I'm proud of myself. Getting to the Top 18 is not easy so this is definitely a step forward. Being a nurse, it's really important for me to show people that I care for them and I was able to do that with my cooking and I've learned a lot more skill from being here, to be able to do that even more."
Gallery[]
Season 8[]
External links[]
References[]
| MasterChef U.S. Season 8 |
|---|
| Judges |
| Contestants |
|
Reba Billingsley • Jenny Cavellier • Necco Ceresani • Heather Dombrosky • Eboni Henry • Yachecia Holston • Paige Jimenez • Caitlin Jones • Gabriel Lewis • Dino Angelo Luciano • Daniel Pontes-Macedo • Cate Meade • Mike Newton • Brien O'Brien • Sam Reiff-Pasarew • Jeff Philbin • Mark Togni • Jason Wang • Jennifer Williams • Adam Wong |