Juanma Castaño's parents saw him as “misplaced” on “Masterchef”: “Mom, how do you make white rice?”

Above all, she, who is still surprised that her son won the contest. “Look, I said that this (her son) couldn't last three weeks. But he had never stopped to cook in her life! At most, white rice with tomato, and from a can. When he went to Madrid to work he called me: 'Mom, how do you make white rice? Isn't that right, Juan Manuel?” Juan Manuel Castaño (Benavente, 1949), retired national police officer, is the father. “He inherited his mother's taste for cooking, but he didn't develop it until very recently.” The Castaño couple was the protagonist in the grand finale, encouraging his son on the set alongside the Gijon native's girlfriend, the journalist Helena Condis.

Juanma Castaño, the “grumpy smurf” who has earned a lot with “Masterchef”

His mother had already attended “Masterchef” before and was her son's assistant in one of the twelve contest programs. Menéndez remembers how bad the journalist had it during filming. “He called me after each episode. I saw him completely out of place. He told me: 'Mom, this is not for me. Where did I go? Today I made a cake that looked like cow dung.' I told him to be calm, that 'Masterchef' is very demanding and complicated.” The man's father from Gijón agrees. Juanma Castaño's mother remembers the details of the programs perfectly. “They started filming on May 10, on his (Juanma's) birthday, and they finished on July 31, on hers (Ana, the journalist's sister).” She also remembers the woman from Gijón, who worked “her whole life” in a supermarket and is now retired, when they called her to go on the program and cook with her son. “I was on the beach and I had several calls from a strange number. I didn't pick him up because I thought he was from some phone company or some insurance company, whatever. To the fifth, I answered. They told me: 'We are going to do the program giving the contestants a surprise and we want you to come to Madrid.' I was shocked. “I told them I would consult with my husband.”

The Castaños, yesterday, in a video call with the man from Gijon. | J.P.

And Juanma senior, a very calm guy, took it calmly: “I told him to do whatever he wanted.” Teresa Menéndez gives more details. “He stayed so calm. Don't you see it? I decided to go down and it was the best thing I did in my life. We had a phenomenal time”. Castaño Sr. agrees with him. “It is a spectacle to see all those people working. “There are more than 100 people.” The man's mother from Gijón admits that she has been more attentive to her son's adventures in the kitchen than to her programs on the radio. “I like football… At night my husband puts on his headphones to listen to it and I put on the TV,” she jokes. The Castaños will never forget their time on the program because it was also the day they finally met their son's girlfriend, the journalist Helena Condis. “She had already been here (at Juanma's house), but we had not met her. She is very nice,” says Juan Manuel Castaño. His son even said that if he won “Masterchef” he would ask her to marry him. His mother downplays it. “That was part of the show. Nothing, nothing… Come on, I don't think so! “Says the amateur cook, who after her appearance on “Masterchef” has received a call from some television program. Pay attention to her screens.