I’m a better journalist than before, says Ana Paula Padrão after 10 years on MasterChef

Anyone who sees her for more than an hour on top of a small elevation putting pressure on the participants and, sometimes, bringing bad news to them has no idea that Ana Paula Padrão currently considers herself a better journalist and interviewer than she was before presenting MasterChef .

“Today I get involved in the stories and allow myself to get emotional. Before, I was very good at getting a sentence out of someone for the news, but I didn’t get involved”, she says in an interview with F5. “Today I feel emotional. I feel more capable of interviewing someone in a way that people either love or hate them, but because I made them that person.”

The presenter defines herself as a “vehicle of emotion”, as she tries to transmit, through the screen, more reality to the viewer. Understanding was easy, but changing the key took time. It was only after two years of hosting the culinary competition she judges that she was able to put the rigidity of journalism aside.

The 11th edition starts on Tuesday (28), at 10:30 pm, on Band, with a record prize of R$350,000. Sometimes, fans of the reality show wonder if the presenter tries the dishes. She says yes and says that her job also involves understanding which of the cooks is most likely to leave based on what they deliver.

The journalist explains that the break shown on television after the fateful “for everything” serves to clean the counters, but also to bring together her, the program’s management and chefs Helena Rizzo, Henrique Fogaça and Erick Jacquin for the first time they try the dish.

By studying the profiles and tasting the food, she gathers information about each cook and is able to understand whether they are doing well or not in the competition. “It’s also a time when the chefs fill out a spreadsheet with grades, according to various criteria. It’s the bible of the program.”

The journalist laughs when asked if she has ever cooked for the trio of judges on the program. According to her, not even under torture or on the verge of death would she welcome them to dinner at home. “I won three great consultants, but I want them to judge here. I would never enter that competition.”

Regarding the competition, she also reveals a curiosity: one of the selection stages is psychological tests. “A lot of people leave at this stage because they will use knives, fire, they have to be people who don’t have any syndrome, who are minimally centered. We need a psychologist’s report to know this”, she says.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Before the program, Ana Paula worked for almost 30 years in hard news (journalistic jargon to designate facts and events relevant to political, economic and everyday life). On her CV, she has spent time at some of the biggest stands on Brazilian television, such as Jornal da Globo, Jornal da Record and SBT Brasil.

During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, coordinated by the Islamic fundamentalist group Al-Qaeda against the United States, she spent hours on the air live on Globo. “I deeply loved journalism, but there was a moment when I didn’t want to have this stressful schedule, I couldn’t put 100% of my energy into it anymore, I didn’t want to work on holidays anymore”, she says.