MasterChef fans have come to know Aarón Sánchez,
who made his debut as a judge in 2017 at the start of the show's eighth season. However,
he was far from an unfamiliar face to fans of foodie television. Here's
everything you should know about one of TV's favorite personalities and chefs.
In 2019, Sanchez visited The Dr. Oz Show and spoke about his relationship with his father,
who was an alcoholic. He admitted,
"It's very challenging when you grow up as a young man thinking your dad's your hero,
he's indestructible. When you start finding out all these dark aspects
of his life and his behavior, it kind of disappoints you."
Because Sánchez was just 13 years old when he lost his father,
there was much left unsaid and many issues that remained unresolved. He went on to say,
"I never had a chance to confront him as a man, and say, 'Why did you do those things
and why did you suffer those sort of ailments that really hurt our family?'"
Sánchez also opened up about his cousin, who passed away of a drug overdose at 25.
As he explained, his cousin's untimely death led him to get his own life together.
He realized that if he continued down the same path, he'd meet a similar fate.
"It taught me a lot about who I am and what I need to do better and put my priorities in order."
Sanchez not only works alongside Gordon Ramsay on MasterChef,
he's also his biggest fan. In an interview with Yahoo's Build Series, Sánchez admitted,
"There's only one person that's the OG, that guy you want to [grow] to be, and it's Gordon Ramsay.
[He has] 30 restaurants, he's maintained three Michelin stars for 15 years in England,
[and] he backs up everything that he says."
"The winner is me!”
“Really? No he's not."
Ramsay's commitment to excellence, Sánchez explained in an interview with Insider,
extends beyond his restaurant empire and into MasterChef. He said,
"But what really makes the show so special, and what people don't realize, is that Gordon is an
executive producer on the series. So you have one of the most decorated chefs anywhere in
the world controlling the creative process on the show, and making sure it's authentic and
as close to restaurant quality as we can get in a MasterChef kitchen capacity. Gordon curates
challenges and makes sure we're going in the right direction...I think that's really important."
"He's very inspiring for me, that's what I want to be."
Chatting with New You Media at the 2016 Los Angeles Wine and Food Festival, Sanchez was
asked to pinpoint a few of his healthiest go-to recipes. He suggested a variation on tacos,
using a thinly sliced piece of jicama in place of a tortilla, which he would then stuff with shrimp,
spicy salsa, and garnish with pickled cactus. While Sánchez admitted he's not averse to healthy
eating, he also advised not to get too caught up in counting every single calorie, saying,
"Out here in L.A., people are concerned with two extra calories. Let me tell you,
you want to have fun, indulge, love life - don't stress that."
During the interview, Sánchez was also asked to share any health advice
he'd recommend to a millennial. He responded,
"Think about something that's just gonna be meaningful - and just get off the phone."
He did, however, admit that health was becoming
an increasingly important concern to him as he grew older, saying,
"You know, once you pass 40, you start thinking about energy a lot."
Sanchez, who was born in Mexico and grew up in Texas,
spoke Spanish as his first language. He told Latin Times,
"I had one foot in Mexico and one foot in
the states. I spoke Spanish at home and spoke English."
He told Yahoo's Build Series that even as an adult, he speaks Spanish more than he speaks
English. He encouraged second-generation Latinx people to continue speaking Spanish
and recommended finding some friends who predominantly speak the language. He explained,
"If you're worried about holding onto it, surround yourself around
people who are in touch with the culture." "When you lose your tongue, you lose your country,
so you really got to keep up with that, that's what I would tell somebody if they want to
really hold onto their Latino roots, you know, continue to speak."
Back in 2011, Sanchez teamed up with Canadian chef Roger Mooking for the Food Network series
Heat Seekers, which reveled in the glory of all things spicy. Given that he was raised
on traditional Mexican cuisine, Sánchez has a healthy tolerance for hot chili
peppers - and yet he revealed there's one pepper that commands both respect and fear.
Comparing different types of chili peppers during an interview with Lossip,
he mentioned a hybrid of the dreaded ghost pepper, which in 2013 was dubbed the-then
world's hottest pepper on the planet by the Guinness Book of World Records. He joked,
"You eat that and your lips puff up, man, you look like Mick Jagger."
He revealed that eating such spicy fare throughout his life had started to take a toll, saying,
"It's hard man, because that stuff's hard on your stomach,
bro. As you get older it's a little rough."
In an interview with Channel Guide magazine,
Sánchez admitted that the ghost pepper is essentially his "kryptonite," adding,
"I always have trouble with it. Roger does a good
job of eating it. But I have trouble eating that one, for some reason."
Judging the culinary creations of home cooks on MasterChef requires a different set of skills
than running a restaurant or cooking for customers, yet there are some aspects of
Sanchez's day job that overlap with his role on Gordon Ramsay's televised culinary competition.
Just as he'll serve in an advisory role for up-and-coming chefs in his restaurants,
he enjoys doing the same thing with the talented amateurs he guides through the show.
In an interview with Insider,
Sánchez described the one aspect of the show that he enjoys the most, saying,
"I think, for me, getting a chance to mentor is what makes it amazing. The fact that,
whether you win the whole competition or not, this experience is what can give you
that confidence to do this for a living. I love being a part of that. I love bringing people up."
His least favorite aspect of MasterChef was having to bid contestants farewell. He explained,
"After you form a bond with them in a contestant/judge relationship...you're
endeared to them. They have a bad day, and then they have to go home. That's the hardest part."
In addition to his two cookbooks, 2003's La Comida del Barrio: Latin American Cooking in the U.S.A.
and 2011's Simple Food, Big Flavor: Unforgettable Mexican-Inspired Recipes From My Kitchen to Yours,
Sanchez published a very different type of book, a memoir, in 2019.
In Where I Come From: Life Lessons from a Latino Chef, Sánchez candidly opened up about his
personal life and the journey that took him to the top of the culinary world. As he explained
in an interview with InsideHook, he felt it was of utmost importance to remain, quote, "100 percent
transparent" while writing his memoir. However, he admitted the book became something of a balancing
act as he had to remain, in his words, "mindful that other people are involved in your life."
As one of the few celebrity chefs of Latinx heritage,
Sánchez admitted that he embraces being a role model and takes the job very seriously. He said,
"The idea that having myself be an example and a source of inspiration is
a big responsibility. It's very much on my mind."
When renowned chef Anthony Bourdain took his own life in 2018, it was devastating for many,
including Sanchez. This wasn't just because he both looked up to and was influenced by him,
but because they'd been friends for nearly 20 years. He told UpRoxx,
"I've known Tony - I knew Tony for...he wrote the book [Kitchen Confidential] in 2000.
We were hanging out three years before that."
Sanchez described Bourdain's passing as "a big
wakeup call" for people to find balance in their lives. He added,
"I think most chefs nowadays that are starting out want to fast track it
and that's the biggest part of it."
Sánchez expressed his hope that other chefs who suffer setbacks in their professional
and personal lives don't decide to, quote, "go that route." As a result, he declared,
"I really want to do what I can to address the mental health issue of chefs.
I think it's a big problem that they need to be more conscious of."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts,
please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​
1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.
Anyone who's ever seen Sanchez on MasterChef has undoubtedly noticed the multitude of tattoos
lining the celebrity chef's hands and forearms. Not only is the chef a serious tattoo aficionado,
he's also the co-owner of New York City's Daredevil Tattoo - and his obsession with tattoos
is not new. In fact, he told UpRoxx that he became friendly with the ink artists who worked at a
tattoo parlor across the street from his first restaurant back in the late 1990s. He explained,
"I befriended these tattooers, became dear friends with them, and we would barter food for
tattoos. So, I was ahead of the curve. Now it's cliché for a chef to be plastered with tattoos."
He elaborated in an interview with The Hattiesburg American,
explaining that there's a natural affinity between "chefs and the tattoo world." Sánchez admitted he
was drawn to the, quote, "anti-establishment way of life" that tattoos represent,
which is ultimately what led him to go into business on a tattoo joint.
However, he also insisted that the trend of chefs sporting
edgy tattoos has grown "out of control." He added,
"If I see another young chef with a pig tattoo I'm going to puke in my mouth."
Becoming as successful as Sanchez in the notoriously competitive restaurant field
requires a single-minded devotion to excellence.
While attaining that goal may result in rave reviews and Michelin stars, it's not always
conducive to nurturing a relationship. In a candid interview with Entertainment Tonight,
Sánchez confessed that placing such a strong focus on his career led to divorce. He admitted,
"It's extremely difficult. My career has cost me my marriage, it's cost me spending time
with my family. It's been a hard road, it's not easy. There's been many moments of self-doubt
and asking myself if I'm doing the right thing. You just try to put that aside and go forward."
As Sánchez told InsideHook, becoming a television personality was more of an
accident than an aspiration, explaining that his ultimate goal was to have his own restaurant.
When he began appearing on the Food Network,
it was simply another tool to get people into his restaurant. He went on to say,
"I guess I did a good enough job to have kept being invited back
and it started to take off from there."
In an interview with The Austin American-Statesman,
Sánchez shared the most important piece of advice he received from his mom, which was:
"Develop your own style...[Work with] a bunch of different chefs that have different styles and
cultural points of view, and then disseminate that to find your own culinary voice."
Learning to cook from his mother and grandmother - who were both pioneers in popularizing Mexican
cuisine in the United States - it's safe to say that Sanchez knows his way around an avocado. And
when it comes to preparing one, his key message is that getting too fancy and using too much heat
is simply wrong. He told Taste of Home that he was, quote, "more of an avocado purist," adding,
"The magic of avocado is that it should be eaten fresh."
According to Sánchez, the worst thing you can do to avocados is to bake them, as the heat will turn
them from firm and green to a sickly brown mush. He is, however, not averse to lightly
grilling an avocado or even lightly frying it in a batter. But one of his favorite techniques is:
"Simply taking an avocado, scooping out the flesh and serving a crab salad over it."
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