UAF摄影:Leif Van Cise.
Lizzie Hartman and Sean Walklin plate their final meal of the day in the UAF Community 和技术学院烹饪艺术厨房在和记黄埔中心. 24, 2023.

Wearing her signature headband and brilliant smile, Lizzie Hartman waited nervously 在《澳门新葡新京在线》中得知她的命运.”

She had just spent “the best 45 minutes” of her life cooking in a competitive on-camera 试镜. 她的菜会是烤阿拉斯加大比目鱼配花椰菜泥，用平底锅煎吗 mushrooms and fresh herb oil — pass muster to earn her an apron and a spot on the 显示?

“我有点目瞪口呆，”名厨兼评委乔·巴斯蒂亚尼奇说.

“我从来没有吃过大比目鱼的味道像这道菜做的那样……. 这 碟子值得被复制. 这是我通常不会说的赞美.”

How did a preschool teacher’s aide from Fairbanks 找到 herself on national television, competing as “Alaska Lizzie” against 19 other talented home chefs from all over the 国家?

Hartman credits the culinary arts and hospitality program at the UAF Community and 技术学院和院长肖恩·沃克林. 她学会了做比目鱼 他的美食烹饪课上的食谱.

Walklin also taught her a life lesson that helped her get through that 试镜 and 该剧于5月24日在福克斯电视台首播.

“I remember one night in class,” 哈特曼说, “I was really struggling with something, 肖恩主厨说:“丽齐，用心去做吧. 不要太担心 照着食谱做就行了.’”

接下来的一周，她接到了《澳门新葡新京在线》的试镜电话.

Contestants on the weekly 显示 face a series of cooking trials, including mystery boxes of unfamiliar ingredients, tag team events and special themed challenges, such 为101名消防员和急救人员做饭. 只有一个赢家可以带回家 25万美元的现金奖励和美国厨艺大师的头衔.

“这是强烈的. 澳门新葡新京在线没有食谱，所以我很着急，”哈特曼说. “然后我就想起了肖恩大厨. 什么是正确的感觉? 我的心感觉如何 关于这种食物? 我怎样才能把爱放进我的食物里呢?’”

2022年10月底，哈特曼接到了试镜的电话. 海选继续进行 这部剧是在2023年1月和2月在洛杉矶拍摄的. 的 显示 drew an average audience of just over 2 million from May through the final episode 9月. 20.

Before becoming a household name, Hartman spent years on social media 显示casing the 费尔班克斯社区的小企业、艺术家和当地美食. 她交了朋友 with shop owners, led Small Business Saturday tours and wore clothing made by local artisans, including those distinctive headbands that made her stand out on the 显示.

Her social media savvy paid off: MasterChef invited her to 试镜 after seeing photos 从美食烹饪课开始 她Instagram 账号，标签#alaskachef.

“我能有今天是因为这个烹饪项目，”她说. “整个原因是 《澳门新葡新京在线》找到我是因为肖恩主厨和美食烹饪课.”

Hartman’s uplifting vibe and joyful smile make it hard to imagine now, but her cooking 旅程从一个黑暗寒冷的地方开始. 她的家人从宾夕法尼亚州搬到了费尔班克斯 when she was 15 years old, and the teenager found herself lonely and depressed without 她的朋友们. 父母的新工作安排意味着她也有了新的责任: 把晚饭放在桌子上.

哈特曼说:“我这辈子从来没做过饭。. “我在YouTube上打字 在“如何烹饪”中.“所有这些戈登·拉姆齐(Gordon Ramsay)的视频都出现了. 我看着他，试了试 复制他所做的.”

Ramsay, creator of MasterChef and other televised cooking competitions, is a charismatic celebrity chef known for his fiery temper and blunt, sometimes sarcastic, critiques 的选手.

As a MasterChef contestant more than a decade later, Hartman expected Ramsay to be 很难，但惊讶地发现，他实际上“非常慈父”.”

“He reminded me a lot of my dad, and my dad is one of my best friends,” 她说 “We 开得开心吗. 他喜欢谈论阿拉斯加.”

Asked to compare cooking for Ramsay to cooking for Walklin, who received his own culinary training in Italy, Hartman was emphatic: Walklin is a tougher judge, but not because 性格暴躁的. 

“我随时都愿意为戈登做饭，”她笑着说. “我认识肖恩，也看过 从我十几岁起我就一直听他的. 在我看来，他是世界上最好的厨师之一 的意见. 我只是很尊敬他. 有时这让我有点 在他面前做饭很紧张. 

“戈登，你知道——他就是戈登. 但肖恩主厨更上一层楼!”

As a teenager, watching Ramsay’s videos gave her an idea: Why not have cooking competitions 她自己的?

“我经历了煎蛋卷阶段. 我学会了如何做每一个我能做的煎蛋卷 找到. 然后我开始在家里和女孩们进行烹饪比赛 来自邻居.“每个女孩都准备了自己的煎蛋卷，然后她们会上传照片 在Facebook上，哈特曼爸爸的朋友们会投票给谁的照片最好.

的 following year, 16-year-old Hartman had her first experience with CTC’s culinary 她获得奖学金去参加一个蛋糕装饰班. 她相信 baking and decorating cakes for class and then giving them away changed her life.

“I remember being 15 and being completely depressed, angry at my parents, struggling 季节性抑郁. 我不可能吃掉所有的蛋糕，所以 我会找个人把蛋糕送给朋友，小生意，谁都可以. 通过 烹饪和与人分享，我找到了快乐，”她说.

“从那以后，我再也没有感到过那种沮丧. 一次都没有.”

Hartman returned to CTC a couple of years later and earned a certification in pastry 烘焙艺术和烹饪艺术. 这段经历改变了我.

“这改变了我的生活. 它开启了新的大门，新的机会，新的友谊. It 滋养了我的灵魂，”她说. 

Walklin said Hartman exemplifies the attitude of service necessary for success in 烹饪和招待领域.

“你必须想要帮助别人，为别人服务. 你要想想那个人 吃你的菜，”他说. “否则，如果你除了薪水之外没有别的理由， 每天做同样的食物会让你精疲力竭.”

Hartman’s biggest triumph at CTC was learning to make French macarons, the diminutive 还有出了名的难做的蛋白酥三明治饼干. 

“Chef Luis [Martinez] handed me a recipe 10 years ago for the CTC culinary arts scholarship 晚饭后说，‘我需要200个这样的东西. ’”哈特曼说. “这让我 还有澳门新葡新京在线的团队一整周都在为他准备合适的小饼干. 但是因为他，我学会了 烘焙它们，我就着迷了.”

One of her first ventures after culinary school was starting her own small business 做马卡龙. 现在她在费尔班克斯夏季艺术节教马卡龙课.

《澳门新葡新京在线》最具挑战性的部分不是戈登·拉姆齐.

“的 hardest thing was cooking and having two or three cameras on you, having a producer standing there asking you to talk, having the judges ask questions while you cook,” 她说. “这部剧是实时拍摄的. 是45分钟. 没有回旋的余地 在所有. You have to answer questions, look at the cameras, look at the judges, acknowledge 他们在说什么. 思考，烹饪，集中注意力.”

Hartman won her spot on the 显示 on the strength of her halibut, a quintessentially 阿拉斯加的食物. 具有讽刺意味的是，她在第10名的时候被淘汰了 用另一种标志性的阿拉斯加海鲜即兴创作. 在挑战中创造一个高架 version of stadium food, her king crab hushpuppies failed to impress the judges.

Just as she had as a teenager, Hartman gathered her community around her to share 在她的《澳门新葡新京在线》之旅中跌宕起伏. 整个赛季，她都在邀请 her social media followers to join her for watch parties in front of a big screen 在费尔班克斯市中心的会场. 在她最后一集的活动中，她还邀请了同事 《澳门新葡新京在线》选手Donut夫人和James来到费尔班克斯. 他们在会场和她会合 为毛伊岛大火的受害者准备一顿美食.

Although she has hung up her MasterChef apron, Hartman spends more time cooking than 过. 她是一名全职私人厨师. 她仍然与其他小企业合作 owners, artists and community groups and works hard to share Fairbanks and Alaska 和她的社交媒体粉丝.

And while she’s no longer a preschool teacher’s aide, Hartman is pursuing another 梦想:创建一个儿童烹饪营. 她正在完成一个未完工的小屋 在费尔班克斯. 这个夏天是一个模糊的活动与志愿者，家人和 承包商推进项目.

“We are paying for the progress as we go and leaning on donations and volunteer help,” 哈特曼说. “能感受到支持者们的慷慨真是太棒了!”  

“I specifically want to work with kids who are struggling, who don’t have access to 资源来支付烹饪营，”她说. “我需要一个地方来安置我所有的 想法，这里似乎就是最佳地点. 澳门新葡新京在线拭目以待.”