Welcome to EnGAYging Conversations

I’m Michael Jamrock, co-owner of EnGAYed Weddings, Inc. I had the pleasure of sitting down with D’Andre from MasterChef Season 7. 

 

For those of you who don’t know, MasterChef oversees the largest and most popular culinary competitions in the world hosted by Chef, TV personality and restauranteur Gordon Ramsay and pastry chef Christina Tosi.  This season Gordon and Christina will welcome celebrity chefs as guest judges including:

 

Wolfgang Puck -

A name synonymous with the best of restaurant hospitality. He has established an international culinary empire that comprises fine and casual dining restaurants.

 

Aarón Sánchez -

One of the most recognized and respected chefs in the U.S. and Latin America. Sanchez is not only a chef but also a restauranteur, James Beard Award-winning television personality, philanthropist and author.

 

Edward Lee -

This Brooklyn-born chef has five James Beard Award nominations and currently owns two restaurants in the US.

MasterChef Airs on FOX Wednesdays 8/7c

We Wanted to EnGAYge With D’Andre beacuse He is Part of the LGBTQ Community - & He is Speaking Out for LGBTQ Youth

EnGAYged Weddings: 

Good afternoon D’Andre

 

D'Andre: 

Hello

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

When you were exiting the MasterChef kitchen you said you wanted to start working with LGBT Youth.  In what capacity did you want to work with LGBT Youth? Was it to teach them all about cooking or just the struggles of being LGBT.

 

D'Andre: 

It was very important to me very early on in the competition to get the word out that I wanted to work with LGBT Youth.  It is my goal to teach LGBTQ Youth cooking skills hopefully to instill them with some confidence and some job skills.

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

So primarily you want to teach LGBTQ Youth cooking skills, so what is your main goal, what do you want to accomplish.

 

D'Andre: 

My goal is to hopefully prevent the same situation that I went through as a young person. I’d like for LGBT Young people to know that they matter and that their stories have a place here, and to hopefully give them what they need to find work and to keep going even if other people don’t want them to.

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

What advice can you give to LGBTQ Youth that maybe going through some of the things you went through

 

D'Andre: 

I would tell them first and foremost that this is not permanent.  Things seem really rough right now, but they won’t be forever, and if you just hold on and if you believe that you’re going to see your way through this, then you will. 

 

As far as following your dreams and being on MasterChef for me, I’d tell them that if there is even a little piece of you that feels like you could do this then go for it. 

 

Mostly surround themselves with people who cheer them and root for them because those are the people that are going to be there for you, win or lose.

 

Just to let everyone know that I had some problems when I came out to my family and they did not take it as well as I wanted them to.

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

So was it both your parents?

 

D'Andre: 

It was actually just my step father, but you know, both my parents were military and their both kinda religious and I did come from a pretty heavy conservative background and they didn’t take the news very well. So I decided for the best, for my own sake I should probably leave and that’s what I did.

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

How old were you when you came out to your family?

 

D'Andre: 

I was going on 17 years’ old

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

So you were 16 going on 17

 

D'Andre: 

MmHmm

I could tell by D’Andre’s tone and the softness of how he said MmHmm, this is still an emotional part of his life, but I also felt that no matter how emotional for D’Andre he wanted mostly to tell his story if it in any way helps LGBTQ Youth

EnGAYged Weddings: 

And that’s when you left home.  When you were homeless where were you? 

 

D'Andre: 

I was in Vegas

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

When you were homeless in Vegas how long did that last

 

D'Andre: 

It was an in and out process I did have friends that I met in school that would let me couch surf or stay with them for a week or two, um but in general I didn’t have my own place to sleep and there were nights where I had to sleep in my car and lasted for maybe six or seven months

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

Were you able to cook during that time or was that were you initially started to cook

 

D'Andre: 

Cooking was always very important with my family at home, so I grew up cooking, I stopped cooking in Las Vegas, because it was very difficult to find a proper kitchen and to be able to afford ingredients so I was not cooking much but when I did I found that people really enjoyed it and people really valued me for that.

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

You had the opportunity to live in many foreign countries, can you name a few

 

D'Andre: 

to name a few, Korea, Japan, Portugal, Guam, Germany, my parents were military and so they took me wherever they went, and I got to taste and experience other countries.

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

And you also speak multiple languages D'Andre:  I speak Three well (English, French, Japanese) and I got a pretty ok grasp on two others

 

EnGAYged Weddings: 

What are the two others

 

D'Andre: 

Tagalog & American Sign language

 

Tagalog is the basis for Philipino, the official language of the Philippines

EnGAYged Weddings: 

Let’s talk a little politics.  The Official Republican Platform has been released and it is probably one of the most controversial and anti LGBTQ platforms we have seen in maybe decades. Your thoughts

 

D'Andre: 

What makes this country great is the ability, the privilege to be able to believe in what you want to believe, and to throw your support behind what you think is important.

 

Regardless of who wins the presidency or regardless of who the candidates are, we can’t go back.  The country cannot go back, we have come too far.

 

I think I have faith that the American people will see how important progressing forward is. LGBT people have been part of American history, we are a part of this rich tapestry that makes the story of the country. 

 

We’re not new, we have been here for a long time.  If you look back on history there are a lot of things we wouldn’t have without LGBTQ people. I’m not looking for a parade, I’m not looking for a party, I’m looking for respect, I’m looking for tolerance, and if that’s all I can get, then that’s all I can get.  But I’ll take it. 

 

I look forward to the day where I can choose to love who I love and how I choose to love.

EnGAYged Weddings: 

Ok let’s talk fun and the show.  My favorite line so far this season was from the show that you got booted from.  It was from contestant Nathan Where he had to cook cow testicles, and Gordon asked his thoughts about cooking balls, and Nathan responded by saying “They are the Best part.”

D'Andre: 

A fun behind the scenes moment was that everyone was laughing so hard when Nathan said that, even the judges, the crew, the camera people, the people on the culinary team. We actually had to stop filming for a couple of minutes, so that everyone could fix their makeup, get the tears of off their faces, and to let everyone get back to serious again.  It was like the first time in the competition where we got to be like actual people instead of just super focused cooks.

EnGAYged Weddings: 

Who did you get along with and who not so much

 

D'Andre: 

I got along with everyone. Our living situation when you film a show like this is very compressed.  We’re spending a lot of time with each other and talking to each other you don’t really get a chance to go out and get space. 

 

So we can all get on each other’s nerves. Even when we are not filming we are still around each another. 

 

You don’t really get to leave whenever you want, like Oh this is really frustrating I have to go to the mall or something. You see each other and only each other for the entire time you're there. 

 

I became very close to Diamond actually right off the bat I don’t know what is was, I’m not sure what it was, but Diamond and I became really close.  It’s at the point now, my mom considers her a daughter.

 

The game can defiantly wear you down. For a couple of days after the wedding challenge when Terry threw me off of his team when he was captain, I couldn’t talk to him for a good day or so, it wasn’t personal, it was all about the game and that’s what it about.  None of us didn’t get along as a result of any personal beliefs or anything.

EnGAYged Weddings: 

We all have our favorites we love Andrea Florida Girl.  We are based in Orlando so we have to root for our own, and Big Giant Terry he is just surprising the hell out of us.