Agassiz chef Tammy Wood was eliminated from MasterChef Canada in last week’s episode. But this is just the beginning for Wood, not the end.
“It changed the whole course of my life,” says Wood. “It’s not a time to be sad, it’s a time to be excited.”
Wood made Agassiz proud on the show with her positive attitude, her work ethic and her culinary creations. She is a widow with six children who has a passion for hunting and game cooking.
“I’ve always been a very positive person in everything and especially after everything I’ve been through. All we have is our attitude. You have a choice about how to deal with things,” she remarks from Toronto Tuesday morning during a phone interview with The Observer.
Entering the show for the second season of MasterChef Canada, Wood says her expectation was to win the competition. But, for the most part, she says, “I’m very happy with the way I did everything. I was true to myself. “
She says if she could do it again, “I would have just allowed myself to be even more creative than I was.”
Not one to sit idle, Wood has been busy since her elimination from the show (pre-taped months ago), to put together a game cookbook. She has completed her first cookbook on venison, called Around the Woods in 30 Plates which should be available for sale around June.
Wood has also been connecting with various hunting magazines and will be doing some recipe column writing. She is also working on her own hunting and cooking show.
Since the airing Sunday night, Wood has had an outpouring of love and support from across the country, which she says feels amazing.
“There’s a lot of love in this country,” says Wood. “I appreciate the single moms and widows that have drawn inspiration from my story. And I’m happy I can bring hunting to the forefront again.”
When she was eliminated, judge Michael Bonacini told Wood, “Tammy, you are not just an impressive home cook. You’re a deeply impressive person. The dishes that you served us here were served with heart and inspired by your six children who are going to be very happy to have their mother back home.”
In he exit interview from MasterChef Canada, Wood said it was bittersweet to be leaving.
“I learned a lot from this competition and I’m just so grateful and so blessed that I could be part of it all.”
MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on CTV.
Story edited to reflect typo. Tammy Wood’s book is called Around the Woods in 30 Plates: Venison
