Dad, daughter compete on ‘MasterChef’

Whether it’s playing a board game, sharing a conversation or whipping up a meal in the kitchen, the Travers family is admittedly on the competitive side.

That trait could play in their favor this summer, when Bill Travers, 63, and his daughter Ashley Travers, 30, compete against each other and 38 other contestants on the cooking series “MasterChef.”

The Travers of Pauma Valley are among four San Diego-area contestants competing in the reality series, which debuts its seventh season at 8 p.m. June 1 on Fox. Home chefs from 15 states — including Trisha Crivello of San Diego and Diamond Alexander of Chula Vista — will vie for this season’s grand prize of $250,000 and a cookbook deal. The series is hosted by chefs Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi.

All four local contestants will attend a viewing party at 8 p.m. June 1 at the Tipsy Crow, 770 Fifth Ave. in the Gaslamp Quarter.

Although Ashley has been cooking since childhood, her dad came to it late in life. The retired golf pro said he took up cooking in earnest after his wife died three years ago. It was good for his heart and for his self-esteem.

“When I get passionate about something, life is good and all is well. Discovering this new passion in my 60s really got my juices flowing again,” he said.

Three years ago, Bill won a barbecue contest and more recently, he and Ashley teamed up in a chili cookoff. When they heard about the “MasterChef” auditions last summer, they eagerly applied. And when they were cast in the show, she said they hit the kitchen for months to train side by side like golfers gearing up for the U.S. Amateur Championship.

“I helped him with baking, side dishes and vegetables, and he taught me how to get the proper grill temperatures. Going into this competition, we had an advantage. We had each other,” she said.

Ashley and her husband, Myles Golden, run a web optimization company named CaliStyle Technologies. She also has a private chef business called The Grain Free Chef, where she specializes in gluten- and sugar-free dishes. She said she started cooking in high school, when the family lived in Michigan, where making big meals was a favorite family pastime.

“My mom always taught me to do what makes me happy and cooking has always made me happy,” she said.

Whether it was sports, trivia or cooking, there was always a healthy competitive spirit in the family. Even during a shared interview last week, Ashley and Bill simultaneously competed to deliver answers to the questions.

Ashley said she and her dad have “found a good flow” when cooking together in the evenings. Bill lives in a guest house on the property she and her husband own in the Pauma Valley Country Club. The duo enjoys experimenting on dishes with the citrus, avocados and berries grown on their property and with organic produce from a market down the street.

Although they can’t talk about how they did on the TV show, which wrapped up filming months ago, they did describe the experience as invigorating and it fueled their desire to take their father-daughter show to a higher level.

On June 1, they’ll launch their website “daddaughterduo.com” and they’re already making appearances as a pair, first at the Bacon & Barrels Festival last weekend and coming up June 11 at the Taco & Tequila Music Festival in downtown San Diego. Bill is also organizing a golf tournament for the charity Warriors 4 Humanity.

Both said they made many lifelong friends during the competition, which will cut the 40 chefs down to 20 in just the first two episodes during the “Battle for the Apron” segment. Bill said being part of the contest with his daughter was one of the best experiences of his life.

“I walked her down the aisle at her wedding, and when we entered the MasterChef competition together and I looked over at her, it was another special walk and a wonderful experience,” he said.

Profiles of other local “MasterChef” contestants

San Diego native Diamond Alexander knows all about competing under pressure, after winning the title of Miss San Diego 2015. During her reign, 24-year-old Chula Vista resident said her mission was promoting healthy nutrition and life choices.

Alexander, a freelance web designer and food blogger, said she started watching cooking shows starring Sara Moulton and Emeril Lagasse when she was 3 years old. When her parents signed her up for cooking camps and candymaking classes, she was always the youngest student.

Although she says she makes “the world’s best chocolate chip cookies,” Alexander said her specialty is vegetarian and vegan cooking. For her “MasterChef” audition, she wowed the judges with a vegetarian Bolognese with rigatoni noodles.

Alexander said her dream is to have her own TV baking show, but in the meantime she’s focused on the field of sports nutrition for athletes. She’ll be promoting her own healthy recipes on her new website, which will launch (along with the “MasterChef” season) on June 1: diamondalexander.com

Growing up in a Sicilian family, Trisha Crivello was making pasta sauce practically from the time she could walk. The dish that earned her a slot on “MasterChef” was a shortrib ravioli with mushroom horseradish sauce.

“Italian cooking is in my blood. If you give me 10 ingredients, I will make a risotto or a ravioli,” she said.

The 32-year-old insurance broker, who lives in downtown San Diego, has seen every episode of “MasterChef” and is a big Gordon Ramsay fan. She loves that even amateur chefs can win a cooking show.

Crivello said she was halfway through medical school four years ago when she was forced to drop out to deal with the deaths of three family members over a two-year period.

Now her dream is to honor those and other family members by preserving their heirloom recipes in a cookbook. That’s one of the prizes being offered to this year’s “MasterChef” winner.

“I absolutely loved being on ‘MasterChef,’” she said. “These people were unreal and I made so many friends. I love every single person I met.”