If you have been watching the new season of MasterChef Canada, you might recognize a familiar voice. Contestant Rebecca Abbott hails from Gander, and if you listen closely, her central accent flows in and out of her speech—bringing you home while you watch her on the grand stage, like a warm cup of tea.
“I’ve cooked my whole life. Even as a small child, I would find myself in the kitchen asking my mom, ‘What is that? Why are you putting that in there? Can I touch that?’ and more importantly, ‘Can I taste that?’” recalls Rebecca.
When she attended university in Nova Scotia as a student, getting by was tough. Rebecca used the food bank to fill her cupboards and experimented with whatever she had at her disposal.
“I learned to take simple ingredients and bring them to a comfort level, to make them enjoyable. I wanted to make things wholesome out of nothing—that kind of deal.”
Cooking became Rebecca’s calm place. She fell in love with the process rather than just the kitchen itself; she owns over 130 cookbooks, with another one on the way during our conversation.
“I struggled with postpartum depression after my first child, and I think you have to find that thing for you—the calm in the storm. Being in the kitchen can be chaotic, like a storm, but it was calming. When people try to make something, they worry when they don’t have a certain ingredient. I love that,” said the cook. “I love looking in my fridge and figuring out a substitute to make the meal just as delicious.”
Rebecca’s Aunt Mary was a home economics teacher in Gander who instilled the idea that people can do hard things. She was also adamant about which cutlery went on the table and ensuring everything matched for dinner.
“She always had the most elaborate dinner parties. I will never forget the smell of lamb coming through her kitchen while the rest of us were eating Jungle Jim’s in the living room.”
But Rebecca also fell in love with food on her own—from the kind of bite that takes your words away and makes you think, to mixing traditional Newfoundland foods with other culinary flavours.
“For me, it’s whatever is local and fresh. I am lucky to have travelled in my late twenties and taken notes from the cultures of the places we have been or the cookbooks I have read, wondering what I could do with those flavours and bringing them back to my roots,” she said.
Rebecca took a chance with her calm space and threw her name into the ring for MasterChef Canada, which premiered on September 22 on CTV.
“I never could have wildly imagined I would be accepted; I thought I would never get selected. When I got the email, I thought it had to be fake. If you’re from a small town, there aren’t a lot of culinary options in small communities, so you second-guess these things,” recalled the contestant.
When Rebecca got the call, which turned out to be very real, she had a nine-month-old at home. By the time she left for filming, her youngest daughter was about 14 months old, and her oldest child was four.
“It was stressful, and I thought, ‘What did I get myself into?’ But then I thought, if I don’t do it now, I am never going to do it. I want my kids to know—and my mom always told us—put yourself first, reach for the stars, you can do hard things.”
Once the show aired, Rebecca had a plan to tell her oldest child about her big debut. Before she could share the news, however, her daughter already knew from the folks at daycare—the reality of living in a small town.
Rebecca joked that once the news got out, the daycare staff must have been wildly disappointed to see Moana Kraft Dinner in her child’s lunchbox. At the same time, not many four-year-olds can say they have eaten a lamb bolognese, but her daughter can.
“I do hope when all of this is over and they are older, my girls think, ‘My mom’s a badass’.”
While on MasterChef Canada, Rebecca hoped to have the chance to move away from an exclusively Newfoundland-focused culinary experience.
“That’s part of my roots, but it’s not all of who I am. I want to show my other culinary side. I love elevated pasta dishes, I am a really good baker, I can make something out of nothing, and I can think on my feet really quickly. I’m not just a Newfoundlander with an accent who can cook fish, jumps on a boat, and goes cod fishing,” said Rebecca. “I can show the other side; my roots are quite spread. Gander is the crossroads of the world, and we have had many people come through here. I would like to show that I am a Newfoundlander who knows many things.”
Those intertwined roots are clear: Rebecca’s favourite dish to cook is a wild chicken carbonara with noodles made completely from scratch—ensuring your arms ache after you have rolled them out—with Italian music playing in the background while she and her family wear silly Italian hats.
Meanwhile, the most memorable dish she ever ate was on her and her twin sister’s sixteenth birthday. They were told they could have anything they wanted, and they chose rabbit stew topped with a thick puff pastry.
“Everyone was there; we all gathered together. We had McCain cake with gummy bears, and I remember that pastry. It was made in a huge, restaurant-sized pan. It was one of those massive family gatherings where everyone sat down, and the household finally went quiet.”
The kitchen remains Rebecca’s personal space. There, she is in total control, doing what she loves for herself and for those she holds dear.
“It feels like home.”
Rebecca Abbott was eliminated from MasterChef Canada on September 29. Although it was a short run, she was one of the first contestants to earn her white apron. She did her province proud, made it to the Top 12, and showed everyone that she really is a badass
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