MasterChef The Professionals Final: Five facts about Monica Galetti

How much do we really know about Michel Roux Jr’s right hand woman?

Jenn Selby
Thursday 12 December 2013 18:35 GMT
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Masterchef The Professionals Final: Five facts about Monica Galetti
Masterchef The Professionals Final: Five facts about Monica Galetti

She’s the stony-faced Samoan sous chef that leaves even the bravest MasterChef finalists quaking in their aprons.

She works in two-Michelin-starred La Gavroche under head chef Rachel Humphrey. And she can’t stand a cook who leaves a mess on their work bench.

But how much do we really know about Michel Roux Jr’s right hand woman, Monica Galetti?

Here are five things you probably didn’t:

She’s married to Michel’s wine expert.

That’s Le Gavroche’s Head Sommelier, David Galetti, to be precise. The couple have a daughter together, who she regularly refers to on the show as being tidier than half the chaotic cooks she puts through the paces during the inventions test.

When she first met uber nice guy Michel Roux Jr, she thought he was mean.

‘HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?’ we hear you cry, no doubt thinking of his kind, weathered eyes and rubbery facial expressions. But, Galetti said, “I realised, if he's hard on you it's because he believes you can do better ... That's the mentality I take with my team, I'm hard on them because I want them to do better and I want them to achieve.”

We’ll let her off, then.

She thinks the catering industry is selfish.

And that’s why there aren’t more female chefs. "It has to be your number one priority and everything else falls down around it," she told The Guardian. "There's always been more men than women in the profession ... I think at certain points young women think 'I want a family' and they can't balance the two."

She’s a long-time fan of the TV show Diff’rent Strokes.

Seriously. She even taught her daughter to say, “What’chu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” “She never got it,” she disappointedly said. And Dowton Abbey, too, because "the costumes are fabulous."

She can't stand watching herself on the box.

"I hate my smile," she told the Radio Times.

Her what? When does she do that?

MasterChef The Professionals 2013: Everything You Need To Know About The Finalists

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