MasterChef season 3: where are they now? The 2012 finalists, and the cooks who nearly beat them
MasterChef's third American season ran from 4 June to 10 September 2012 and produced the finale the show still leans on in its own promos. Fourteen years later, its top ten have ended up in kitchens, classrooms, real estate offices and, in one case, a Barbie-themed pop-up.
Eighteen home cooks competed across twenty episodes in front of Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliot and Joe Bastianich, with $250,000, the trophy and a cookbook deal on the table. The final two plated three courses each: Thai papaya salad with crab, braised pork belly and coconut lime sorbet with ginger tuile against butter-poached lobster, rack of lamb and bacon-crusted pecan pie.
Christine Hà, the winner
Hà was a 32-year-old MFA student from Houston who had lost most of her sight to neuromyelitis optica, and she became the first blind contestant to win the American series. Her cookbook Recipes from My Home Kitchen followed in 2013, she took the Helen Keller Personal Achievement Award in 2014, and she judged a season of MasterChef Vietnam.
The restaurants came later and haven't stood still. The Blind Goat opened as a Vietnamese gastropub in Houston's Bravery Chef Hall in April 2019 and later relocated to a larger space in Spring Branch. Xin Chào, opened in 2020 with co-owner Tony Nguyen, earned national attention before Hà parted ways with the business in 2023; the restaurant closed afterward. She has also run Stuffed Belly, a sandwich and burger operation.
Josh Marks, the runner-up
Marks was a 24-year-old Army contract specialist from Jackson, Mississippi, and at 6'8" the most physically imposing cook the show had put on screen. He died by suicide on 11 October 2013, aged 26. His family said afterward that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the year following the show and had been dealing with bipolar disorder.
Marks remains the only American MasterChef finalist to die within two years of his season airing.
His mother spoke publicly about the diagnosis in the days after his death, describing it as the battle of his life.
Becky Reams, third place
Reams was a 27-year-old food photographer from Stilwell, Kansas, and stayed closest to the industry of anyone outside the winner. She works as a private chef and food stylist, co-launched a brunch concept called Lately in 2018, and has more recently partnered on a traveling Barbie-themed cafe pop-up.
The rest of the top ten
- Frank Mirando — the Holbrook, New York stockbroker left finance twice over and now works in New York real estate as a financial advisor and homeowner advocate.
- Mairym "Monti" Carlo — the Los Angeles homemaker became senior food editor at Budget Bytes, appeared on Food Network's Help My Yelp, and works as an events chef and host.
- David Martinez — the Chicago educational administrator went the other direction entirely, finishing a PhD at Arizona State and taking an assistant professorship in education policy.
- Felix Fang — acts, runs a web series, and sells her own Fangs Sauce line.
- Michael Chen — runs the kitchen at The Kessler.
- Dave Mack — private chef and culinary director at a Miami catering company.
For the record: Hà is the only winner in the American series' history to have judged an international version of the same format.
Previously we wrote: Who dies in Four Hands Two Sonatas? The victim, and who fired
