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Where is Annai Gonzalez now? 'MasterChef: Legends' contestant booted out for cheesecake in mold

'I hope Annai gets her job back and isn’t left completely jobless after #MasterChef.,' wrote a fan

Annai Gonzalez, 25, took a huge leap of faith when she decided to quit her job as a legal assistant and compete on Fox's culinary competition show 'MasterChef: Legends'. The Dallas native walked into the MasterChef kitchen determined to show the world that Mexican food can be elegant. Although she managed to impress the judges during her auditions with her incredibly delicious flank steak chili relleno with rice and beans, tomato sauce, Oaxaca cheese and Mexican crema, lady luck ditched her once she got into the competition.

For the first challenge where she had to work with monkfish to impress the legendary chef Masaharu Morimoto. She, unfortunately, found herself in the bottom three after she used store-bought tortillas for her dish. On the recently aired episode, the top 14 contestants had to bake a yummy dessert to impress the guest judge Sherry Yard and the other judges- Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich, and Aaron Sanchez. Annai once again decided to take inspiration from the Mexican cuisine for whipping up a bold avocado "no bake" cheesecake with dragon fruit cream and mango sauce. 

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Although Annai took on the challenge feeling very confident about the dish's ability to impress everybody, unfortunately, it didn't work out for her. The 25-year-old ended up serving a raw cheesecake in the cheesecake mold to the judges. Since the macadamian nuts base that she used wasn't completely set in time, she had no choice but to serve it in the mold, the result was the dessert ended up looking more like a dip than a cheesecake. Gordon Ramsay was very upset and disappointed at the idea that he was served a dessert in its mold and didn't seem ready to give her a pass for it.

While the other judges too agreed that the dessert would have certainly tasted a lot better had it set properly. So, Annai ended up being eliminated from the 'MasterChef' kitchen after being in the bottom three two consecutive times. When fans watched it they were sad and wondered about her job and what she would do. A fan tweeted, "Yeah I feel bad for Annai, but hopefully she will take the safer route of culinary school or something, in light of her having no job to return to. #Masterchef." Another fan wrote, "Annai saying that she wants to show people that Mexican food can be delicious- girl what? Nobody is arguing with you! Everyone knows Mexican food is delicious! Sorry you quit your super important legal assistant job to come here and tell us all what we already know! #MasterChef."

Another fan commented, "I hope Annai gets her job back and isn’t left completely jobless after #MasterChef." Another fan shared, "Poor Annai! She clearly has talents and great ideas, but just couldn’t pull them off. Keep cooking and creating, young lady! #MasterChef."

But looks like Annai has managed to use her experience in the MasterChef kitchen to hone her skills further and continued to cook and bake even after exiting from the show. She is even started her own baking business called Oakcliff Baked, which is filled with pictures of delicious desserts whipped up by Annai. In a recent Instagram post, Annai expressed how cooking is all about trial and error. She wrote, "About last night... Never take yourself seriously 😂 Cooking is all about trial & error. It’s honestly how I learned & ultimately got my apron 😉 🔥 If you are afraid to fail then you will never succeed. I’m not going to lie, anxiety was EATING me up knowing SO MANY people would see me fail making tacos on national TV 🤦🏽‍♀️ How EMBARRASSING 🥵😅😂 But hey, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger 💪🏽😤 Life is too short to take so seriously. Make mistakes, go after your dreams, and live a little 😜." 

'MasterChef: Legends' Season 11 airs every Wednesday at 8/7c on FOX.