Tag Archives: Mary Berg

Featured, Masterchef Canada

MasterChef Canada winner plans her future

1 Comment

Mary Berg won Season 3 of MasterChef Canada, but she’s only beginning her culinary adventure. The energetic insurance broker from Pickering, Ont., captured the grand prize on Sunday night by beating Jeremy Senaris with her cohesive three-course creations. But winning the series, a trophy and $100,000 is just a launch pad for Berg, who plots to run her own catering business … and perhaps return to television.

“I have a project in development with Bell Media and Proper Television and we’ll see where that goes,” Berg says with a smile during an interview Monday afternoon. “I met with Proper Television and was showing them some photos and they sat me down and approached me.” Berg is mum on anymore details regarding the potential television project, but does plan to continue catering. Sunday’s season finale broadcast didn’t stop her from catering an event for 29 on Saturday night.

Regarding her three-course finale of golden beet borscht, surf and turf and blueberry financier, Berg plotted the meal once she’d made the Top 5 so she’d be prepared, using the inspiration of her family as the basis for her choices. Being prepared was never an issue for Berg, but being too adventurous was. Case in point? Deciding to create four different eclairs in an Elimination Challenge that put her on the cusp of going home.

“As soon as I started that challenge I thought, ‘Mary, you idiot, why are you doing this?’ but I had decided and once you make a decision like that you just have to go with it,” she says with a laugh. “And even though I look frazzled, I get it done.” Berg was in the bottom two a second time this season after leaving a bone in the fish she’d prepared; she still has that piece of bone.

But that’s all in the past. Berg is eying future prospects … and finally getting her hands on the trophy after it was taken away at the conclusion of filming.

“I know where I’m going to put that,” Berg says. “In my house, on the speaker for my record player. It’s very central. I don’t have trophies, this is my first, and I’m going to place it somewhere noticeable.”

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Masterchef Canada

Who will win Season 3 of MasterChef Canada?

1 Comment

MasterChef Canada‘s Season 3 return date has been announced, and that means I can let you in on a secret: I know who’s going to win. Mary Berg, the insurance broker who nabbed a spot during the show’s auditions in Toronto last summer, is taking home the title and $100,000.

OK, yes, I am biased. I don’t have an inside track or suspect MasterChef Canada is fixed; I’m just rooting for the energetic redhead because I followed her through the audition process up until the point she earned a place in the Top 40. Bell Media offered journalists two options during the summer event: bring something for the judges to taste or trail behind someone trying out. I opted for the latter—I love to cook but would have been too stressed out having Alvin Leung, Claudio Aprile and Michael Bonacini judge me—preferring to watch another go through experience.

It didn’t take me long to be convinced Berg has what it takes to follow in David Jorge and Eric Chong’s footsteps. She oozes confidence and a girl-next-door quality that will connect with viewers, she has an inspirational back story that will tug the heartstrings and she can make damn fine food. The fact she’s a vegetarian won’t derail her plot to become Season 3 champion.

“I have no issue with meat,” she said in July. “I love cooking it so much. It smells good, it caramelizes, and when I was a kid I ate only bacon. I’d go to the breakfast buffet and eat four plates of bacon.”

Berg advanced to the Top 40 in the strength of her deconstructed lemon meringue pie, a stunning plate that impressed Aprile when he swung by to chat with her. The pie is a twist on a recipe passed down through Berg’s family

“My nana was Miss Canada during the Second World War, so I called it Miss Canada’s Lemon Meringue Pie,” Berg said. “My grandfather ran one of the oldest public houses in Canada in St. Catharines and on Friday nights she would make homemade mac and cheese and lemon meringue pie for him. I wanted to pay homage to her with this pie.”

MasterChef Canada returns Sunday, Feb. 14, at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail