Studying food, nutrition and health at UBC meant relentless lectures and the odd meltdown over the Canadian Food Guide. My escape? Dreaming of competing on MasterChef while binge-watching Food Network. Suddenly, as if the universe had heard me, a MasterChef audition invite arrived in my inbox.
Huddling with my roommates, we transformed our kitchen into a chaotic culinary playground. My signature dish? Mercante’s authentic pizza, representing my identity as a UBC student.
Much to my dismay, my experience on MasterChef wasn't a treat. Gordon Ramsay didn't hold back:
"This crust is a culinary disappointment!"
"You’ve captured student dining: ambitious, but unrefined," Joe Bastianich added.
Angered and crushed, I left the set screaming. I returned to UBC, my cooking dreams in ashes. I went to bed hungry, hoping that this was all just a bad dream.
My 7 a.m. alarm woke me up with a jolt. As I looked around, I was surprised to see my PSYCH 101 prof and classmates in my room. Horrified, I asked them what they were doing here. My professor looked shocked, shook his head and simply asked, “Did you forget you signed up for the Human Subject Pool?”
I was spiraling (but not literally) — why were they in my room? What Human Subject Pool? But then my questions were immediately answered.
“Your MasterChef meltdown? An experiment for our class on student stress.”
I was mortified — I would be the subject of every psych student's paper, but more importantly, I’d become a meme.