Veronica Wu on Winning MasterChef Canada Season 8
Written by Fête Chinoise Editorial Team
IMages Courtesy of Bell Media
Toronto-based data engineer and home cook Veronica Wu has been crowned the winner of MasterChef Canada Season 8, after an intense 11-episode journey in the MasterChef kitchen!
Born in Tianshui, a remote and historic city in Northwest China, Veronica grew up with traditional Chinese cooking, learning foundational techniques and flavours from her parents and grandparents. After immigrating to Canada to pursue her education, she continued cooking as a way to stay connected to her roots, transforming family recipes into refined, technically precise dishes.
Throughout the series, comfortable with both baking and savoury cooking, Veronica consistently impressed Mary Berg, Hugh Acheson, and Craig Wong with her thoughtful approach, bold flavours, and willingness to take culinary risks.
That risk paid off in the season finale, where Veronica delivered a cohesive and ambitious three-course menu inspired by her Chinese heritage. While fellow finalists Liz Worndl and Marianne Smeaton presented exceptional dishes, it was Veronica’s vision, execution, and storytelling through food that ultimately secured her the win, making her Canada’s 8th MasterChef.
To celebrate her Season 8 victory, we caught up with Veronica for a short Q&A:
Fête Chinoise: How did your Chinese heritage inspire your dishes on MasterChef Canada?
Veronica: A lot of the Chinese cooking techniques and dishes come to me naturally. I’ve learned a lot from my grandparents and my parents — but I’ve also grown a lot in terms of my cooking skills since I moved to Canada. I was so happy when I got my first kitchen in undergrad, that’s where I started experimenting a lot with different types of cuisines, baking all types of pastries and cakes. I’d bring a lot of dishes and my baking to my friends to try - some was good, some was bad, but it was all a great learning experience and helped shape the cook I am today.
Fête Chinoise: What motivated you to compete on MasterChef Canada, and what does winning Season 8 mean to you as a home cook representing your culture?
Veronica: I have always been a huge fan of MasterChef Canada, I watched all the previous seasons, but never did I think I’d be competing on MasterChef Canada. I always knew I wanted to pursue a potential career in the food industry and when I learned about the casting announcement, I thought, this is the time! Winning season 8 has been so special — I think it helped me to gain confidence in my cooking skills to realize maybe this is a valid career path that I can transition to. It felt heart-warming to hear all of the great feedback from the judges, and it boosted my confidence knowing I don’t have to shy away from the food that was passed down to me by my family.
“It felt heart-warming to hear all of the great feedback from the judges, and it boosted my confidence knowing I don’t have to shy away from the food that was passed down to me by my family. ”
Fête Chinoise: Which family recipe do you always return to for inspiration?
Veronica: Braised pork ribs is a classic recipe that my dad has shared with me — the braising liquid is very versatile — you can use the same formula to braise beef, to braise tofu, to braise anything really. You can add potatoes, carrots and they’ll soak up the sauce and they’ll pick up the flavour really well.
Fête Chinoise: What is your favourite childhood dish made by your parents/grandparents?
Veronica: My favourite dish I learned from my grandparents is dumplings. My grandfather used to sit in the middle of the room with a gigantic wooden chopping board, he would hand chop all the protein and vegetables. He’d normally do a pork and cabbage filling.
My mom’s homemade stir fry vegetables with rice is a childhood favourite. It’s nothing fancy but they’d take the time to prepare the meal and now it’s a special, nostalgic dish to me.
Fête Chinoise: Looking back at the finale, what was the boldest move you took, and what gave you the courage to follow through with it?
Veronica: I would say the number of components I had to execute really well was probably the boldest move. I had to make two different types of dough, one for the dumpling, one for the pancake — that’s a lot of kneading . The dessert also has a lot of components, five to be exact. It was the last challenge of the season and had this complex menu I designed. I knew I had to keep pushing myself because it was not the time to play it safe.
Fête Chinoise: Bonus question! If you design one dish for our Signature Event at Lunar New Year, what would it be?
Veronica: If I were to design one dish for the Signature Event at Lunar New Year it would be an Asian take on risotto with beef shank!
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