How a Shaker Heights mom went from home cooking to ‘MasterChef’ appearance

Ever thought about appearing on “MasterChef?” Here’s what Jonida Morelli of Shaker Heights went through to get on the show.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Jonida Preka Morelli’s journey has taken her from her native Albania to Cleveland to an appearance on an audition episode of the current season of hit foodie TV series, “MasterChef.”

Cooking was a side thing for Morelli, a musician. It was a hobby, but one she loved. And her passion and support of family and friends led her to the Fox show, hosted by judges Gordon Ramsey, Joe Bastianich, and Aarón Sánchez

Morelli, of Shaker Heights, was born and raised in Albania. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the communist bloc began crumbling, Morelli’s family immigrated to Northeast Ohio in 1996. She was 17 and didn’t know English.

“We have a small Albanian community in Cleveland,” she said. “When it comes to the Midwest it doesn’t get any better than Cleveland.”

What Morelli brought with her was not skills honed in the kitchen but behind the piano starting at age 7.

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“I was part of the Albanian communist regime with music,” she said. “They pick musicians and train them nine, 10 hours a day so they can become the best of the best and show communism really works, which is really insane.”

She performed in Europe before attending Lakewood High School and Baldwin Wallace University.

But deep down, she had another passion: Food.

“It’s more my love,” she said. “Growing up in Albania, there isn’t a lot. I actually had my kids complaining about my snack options. I literally thought about it. We did not have snacks. There were three meals, very simple. If you didn’t eat those meals you were done. That’s it.

“My mom was not the greatest cook. I remember sitting down in fourth or fifth grade, and I remembered I did not like what she made. She didn’t have a lot of options. I would get up as long as I ate what I was given, then I could find myself something to make. It became my thing. I would have about five bites of whatever my mom made, then I would go make my own little invention. It was kind of this signal between my dad and I. He would kind of wink at me, like, ‘If you’re making something, make me something.’ I always wanted to pursue it.”

In the United States, she cooked for her family and said friends would constantly text her about recipes, saying ‘Hey, I’m doing this, what should I make?’ I was in the midst of redoing my kitchen, and I had this tiny kitchen I created in my living room for about six months. A friend came over – ‘How can you create a full meal with nothing? You should share this.’ It started something so simple: I want to share what I’m doing, simple recipes for the everyday cook.”

That feedback and support “lit a fire under me,” Morelli said.

She started a food blog a couple of years ago. Then in July 2022, she and her oldest son Matteo found a show they could watch together - “MasterChef.”

Geared for home cooks, the premise is cooks go on the show to gain training to become a master chef. Prior professional training, even cooking school, is not allowed. Mom and son bonded over the show. He would ask what she would make in certain situations.

“When you have a teenage son who wants to connect with you - he knows I love it – he paused (the show) and said, ‘Mom you should do this, you can win it.’ "

So they took a minute, made a video for the application on her phone, and then went back to the show.

“If it wasn’t for Matteo reaching out to me to say, ‘Let’s watch a show,’ I never would have tried it.”

The involved process continued with “Send us another video of you” along with a video of Morelli at home, at work and cooking.

“You have to prove you have cooking skills,” she said.

Every couple of weeks potential contestants would be contacted for a psychological evaluation, other questions, background checks.

“It was a lot,” Morelli said. “Every step of the way there’s no guarantee.”

Then came the call.

“I was at my daughter’s basketball game. There was no reception. I get a text, ‘Will you please call us back, this is ‘MasterChef’ producers.’ They said: ‘You’re in. We need you to fly out.’ "

There was a catch, though. Her other son, Nico, was diagnosed with pectus excavatuma, a condition that involves the chest wall pushing into the heart and lungs.

“My older son and I had applied for the show, thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, let’s do this, it’s cute and funny.’ I didn’t think it was going to happen. But … in the meantime, my son has to have surgery. I had to navigate whether I have to go to L.A. and the surgery. He had surgery Dec. 12. I literally had planned his surgery around the time of potentially going to the show. It was a lot.”

Then came time to leave.

“It’s really happening. It’s actually kind of surreal. … I was so focused on my kid I wasn’t really thinking about it or waiting whether it was going to happen every second,” said Morelli, who added she had to pack quite a bit because contestants don’t know how long they will be gone.

“You’re basically there with people who love food as much as you do, who are very creative. And you get to be part of this fun show. It was what I really wanted to do. But I realized how much stress I was carrying; I left my kid behind. It was hard.”

A certain number of people fly out, then producers narrow the field. Chosen contestants get to cook for Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich, Aarón Sánchez and others. Contestants are broken into regions and given a theme to represent where they are from.

For Morelli, she made pasta from scratch with simple tomato sauce. She appeared on the “Regional Auditons -- The Midwest” segment, episode 2 of this year’s “MasterChef” season 13. It aired on Fox on May 31, 2023.

You can check her performance out at the 24-minute market of the video below.

“I think about food in the Midwest,” she said. “It’s very simple, it’s home and it’s warm. It’s food you want to share with your neighbors, your family.

“Those 45 minutes, when you are on that stage and there’s lights and cameras and people, you see the judges,” Morelli said. “I performed on stage my whole life so I really don’t get nervous, but I wanted to have that moment of, ‘Oh my gosh here I am and I am cooking for these guys.’ I wanted to take that moment to say, ‘I want to soak this in because it might not ever happen again.’ "

And Morelli made sure she did just that.

“It’s pretty surreal,” she said. “I did take it in. I’m friends with these people. Not only are you there for food and this new opportunity, but you meet people who are incredible. That was the biggest gift for me, the people and friends I made. Because you’re always together, like it or not. You’re at adult camp. You get to learn about new cultures, you get to learn about new cuisines. It was a lot of interacting.”

The whole experience, she said, “pushed me.”

Of Morelli’s original group of 10, five advanced and five didn’t. She was part of the latter group.

“But to have screen time, to cook for Gordon (Ramsay) and all those guys and have them try my food, it was so exciting,” she said.

Check out more of Morelli’s takes on cooking on her @tricksinthekitchen Instagram page.

I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. For my recent stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursdays. Twitter: @mbona30. My latest book, co-authored with Dan Murphy, is “Joe Thomas: Not Your Average Joe” by Gray & Co.

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