Home cooks line up in S.F. for their chance at TV stardom

William Allen organizes ingredients for a tonkotsu ramen dish that he will prepare for judges at an audition for the MasterChef reality television show in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015. William Allen organizes ingredients for a tonkotsu ramen dish that he will prepare for judges at an audition for the MasterChef reality television show in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Home cooks line up in S.F. for their chance at TV stardom 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

On the long folding table where the nervous contestants sign in sits a thick stack of bumper stickers reading, “I am the next ... master chef.”

The contestants’ eyes linger on it. No. 188 with his au vin pot pie. No. 190 with the pork tenderloin he woke up at 4 a.m. to make. No. 101 with the cinnamon buns — her mom’s Christmas special. They lined up at San Francisco’s Parc 55 Hotel on Saturday morning to audition for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to compete on Fox TV’s “MasterChef.”

But will any of them have what it takes to become the next master chef?

“I think I could make it,” said Julie Ferrari of San Ramon. “I’ve been cooking my entire life. But everyone here probably thinks that.”

“MasterChef” is a competitive cooking reality show featuring home cooks and amateur chefs. It’s based on the original British version and includes three judges: spitfire Gordon Ramsay, co-creator of both “MasterChef” and “Hell’s Kitchen,” along with Christina Tosi and Graham Elliot.

The contestants are selected through nationwide auditions. Those picked from Saturday’s pool of candidates will receive a callback. Once on the show, they compete against each other to win the “MasterChef” apron. If a cook’s dish gets a thumbs down from two of the judges, the contestant is out.

“I’m confident it will go OK,” Ferrari said. “But Gordon can be really intense. I know that from watching the show, and I would be anxious to present something to him.”

At the hotel, groups of contestants gathered in the holding room, toting black metal pots, blue coolers, Trader Joe’s paper bags and wheeled cases. All were waiting for their 40 minutes in the tasting room, hoping it would propel them to TV stardom.

Tight security

Once through the doors, they interview with a personal story team and then have three minutes to plate their dish and present it to the producers in the tasting room. Show producers treat the process with the utmost security — no one but the contestants is allowed inside the tasting room, and no information comes out. Toes nervously tapped the ground, and Tupperware containers were triple-checked. It was 20 minutes until the next wave of contestants was escorted to the tasting room.

Amber Johnson of Port Hueneme (Ventura County) smiled at the other contestants in her row, revealing two parallel lines of braces. “Hello, my name is 202,” the sticker on her shirt read. She drove up from Southern California for the contest, lugging a grill in her trunk. Nothing could go wrong when it came to preparing her rib eye steak and green spinach salad — not even a faulty hotel grill.

“It’s beautiful and colorful when put together,” she said, clutching the registration form in her hand. “It said to make a dish that is your own. This is uniquely different and very mine.”

Nervous excitement

A few rows over, Yvette Zeno of El Sobrante tugged at her white chef’s coat. She’s in culinary school at Contra Costa College. Earlier, her aunt, Savannah Milhaeux, snapped photos on her iPhone of a smiling Zeno filling out the registration form and holding her food.

But now, Zeno is sweating. What if her dish — skewers of beef tongue and heart, plus shrimp — doesn’t impress them?

“I’m so nervous,” she said. “My husband and I have always been avid fans of ‘MasterChef.’ He told me I should do it, that I could win. I think I was made for this, but I’m also so nervous.”

Now they’re lining up. One by one, a production assistant leads this group of 29 contestants through the doors.

Ready to take off

“Are you excited?” she asked the group. When the room didn’t cheer loud enough, she repeated the question. “I know it’s 11 a.m., but let me hear you again. Are you excited?”

Cheers erupted. A few contestants looked like they were going to faint. Ferrari strode to the front of the line and adjusted her jacket and name tag.

“I feel like I’m boarding an airplane,” she said, clutching the handle of her wheeled cooler a little tighter.

Behind her, Seth Hodge of Santa Cruz took a deep breath. He adjusted the container of pork tenderloin and gravy resting on his hip.

“I’m going to do this,” he said. “If it is supposed to be, it will happen. I think it’s going to happen.”

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @lizziejohnsonnn