text: MasterChef Canada's Jordan Levin plans to stay away from tuna casserole | Toronto Sun
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  Jordan Levin, the 22-year-old who was eliminated from the top-10 on MasterChef Canada in Thursday's episode was listed as a "server" by occupation, at a Winnipeg chain restaurant as it turns out.
  "I can tell you that, in my restaurant, the servers make way more than the chefs do," says Levin, who was tossed over a challenge to "elevate" a tuna casserole. "That's why I'm still working there for the moment until I can get things started up."
  Levin is dreaming big, and has already been collaborating with still-competing contestant Justine Joyal, with an eye toward starting a cross-country chain of comfort-food restaurants. (It keeps alive a tradition of MasterChef Canada contestants teaming up on food projects outside the show).
  So it was ironic that it was a comfort-food challenge – inspired by a recipe from guest/reigning MasterChef Canada champ Mary Berg – that was his undoing. "Elevate" can mean a lot of things. Apparently, it doesn't mean replacing pasta with a couple of curls of cooked taro and also eschewing the cheese. "Demon Chef" Alvin Leung lost his temper over it.
  Still, it seemed more likely to me that Edmonton plumber Trevor Connie would be going home for mistakenly putting Scotch Bonnet peppers in his sauce, turning it into cream-coloured rocket fuel.
  "Honestly I don't really know what I was thinking," Levin says of his own dish. "I didn't want to put cheese with raw tuna. That really didn't seem appealing.
  "But you know what? What it really came down to was the level of skill and technique. I think Trevor used more technique and what proved most fortunate at the end. He used homemade pasta and a nice cream sauce. Of course it was too spicy, but the flavour was still really good and his dish was just beautiful.
  "The critique was just and the elimination was just as well. I'm not happy I went home, but I think it was the clear choice."
  At 22, Levin is the same age as first season winner Eric Chong was. And it underlines how good a chef Chong was in the first place.
  "I think one of the biggest things about being younger is simply the experience gap," Levin says. Barrie (McConachie, from Vancouver) is 54 and he has cooked for like 30-some years. I've cooked for five. It does make a difference."
  Experience might have been a strength in the opening "replication challenge," in which contestants were blindfolded and had to figure out the ingredients in a four layer cake by taste and smell alone.
  "That was really, really hard," Levin says. "None of us got the blueberries. When you're eating the cake, you're eating little bits and you have to stumble upon a blueberry in order to taste it."
  As for Levin, he's philosophical about the elimination. "It's awesome being so young and being recognized for the talent that I have. I'm looking forward to cooking food that people crave and come back again and again for.