Not even Gordon Ramsay might seem intimidating to someone who spent much of his youth being bullied.
“Growing up, my entire life since I was 10 years old, I was bullied a lot,” said Nathan Barnhouse, 20. “It was really depressing and for quite a while made me not want to try anything. I was afraid of sports, singing in the choir. I just knew I’d get bullied about it.”
Mr. Barnhouse said following his parents, who are Baptist missionaries, from Slippery Rock to Africa changed his life. He learned to embrace what made him quirky, and that’s something he hoped would impress the TV producers when he tried out for “MasterChef.”
Season seven premieres Wednesday on Fox, with Mr. Ramsay and Christina Tosi as permanent judges.
There’s no guarantee Mr. Barnhouse win a white apron to compete against 19 other home chefs in the regular season, but just getting to the premiere episode was quite a journey. He and his four siblings were home-schooled, and the family moved to Kalulushi, in the Copperbelt province of Zambia, when he was 16. He lived there for three years.
“During that time, Africa gave me the confidence I really needed. No one was judgmental. I grew to accept how God made me and who I was.”
Although he returned stateside to attend college, he deferred going to school: “I decided to do life on my own.”
He has worked for a tuxedo company, coordinating rentals. Given his love for cooking and the Fox program, Mr. Barnhouse decided to give “MasterChef” a try.
While rushing around the “MasterChef” kitchen was no doubt hectic, Mr. Barnhouse was no stranger to culinary challenges. In Kalulushi, he said, he had to be “really versatile,” making his own pasta, bread and cheese. The nearest town for supplies was a two-hour drive, and for the first six months the family had no running water, no electricity and just two hours of generator power a day.
Wearing a bow tie to stand out, he cooked and interviewed through audition rounds to reach the premiere episode. Half of the original contestants will be sent home without an apron Wednesday.
“The experience was so surreal. Just throughout the audition process, and the apron battle, I remember thinking, ‘What if I fail?’
“Then I thought about the very first time I was bullied — I was actually thrown in our church dumpster. Then it hit me: I [survived] everything else. It gave me the power to do whatever I want.”
Also on reality TV
• People isn’t quite Dance magazine, but it is noteworthy the popular weekly named the “Hall of Fame” contemporary number by Steelers receiver Antonio Brown and Sharna Burgess as the second-best performance of “Dancing With the Stars” season 22.
Ranked first was a tango by eventual champions Nyle DiMarco and Peta Murgatroyd to “Unsteady.” It was a song title perhaps too on the nose, given Mr. DiMarco, who is deaf, danced part of it while blindfolded.
In related “DWTS” news, former Steelers Super Bowl MVP and Mirror Ball champion Hines Ward begins a new gig with HLN July 1. He will join “Morning Express With Robin Meade” as a sports commentator. Mr. Ward also will be contributing across CNN’s various platforms.
• Both Radar Online and TMZ reported drama at the Abby Lee Miller dance studio in Penn Hills. According to reports, an unauthorized man who told a witness he just wanted to “read poetry” to the girls tried to get into the building. Penn Hills police arrested him, according to the websites.
In other “Dance Moms” news, the show has been nominated for a Teen Choice award (live on Fox July 31). Maddie Ziegler, who is done with “Dance Moms” and has moved on to multiple projects (including playing muse to singer Sia), will be a judge on yet another reality show premiering Monday.
“So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation” features talented young hoofers between the ages of 8-13 paired with all-stars.
• It has been a long wait, but “American Ninja Warrior” returns to NBC with a special on Wednesday, featuring teams of five on a supersized course.
Regional qualifying for season eight individuals is underway; at least two local men participated in one held at Philadelphia’s Richmond Power Plant Thursday and Friday. Scott Carslaw is a gymnastics coach who also mentors “ANW”-style workouts, and Mike Shuck is a fifth-grade teacher at Aiken Elementary in Green Tree.
The Philly regional is scheduled to air June 27, with the national finals from Las Vegas Aug. 22. Esquire Network broadcasts repeats of the NBC shows soon after the original airdate.
Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1478 or @MariaSciulloPG.
First Published: May 28, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
