Engineering Student Caps Off Senior Year on MasterChef

Before celebrating his graduation this spring, Nico Cosereanu has one other life-changing experience he will check off his bucket list.

On April 15, the School of Engineering student will appear in season 16 of MasterChef, Gordan Ramsay's competition show featuring amateur cooks, which airs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays on FOX (streaming on Hulu).

The moment is part Cosereanu's personal evolution since starting at Rutgers, where he gained the confidence to go after what he wants.

"A lot of it is belief,'' Cosereanu said. "I was always obsessed with food. We always hosted in our house, and I grew up feeding people and getting joy from that. I believe you can transform yourself into anything you want to be.'''

He came to Rutgers after a health crisis-he fell while fishing and ended up in the hospital with a severe infection. He required several rounds of antibiotics and spent much of his first-year in college fighting illnesses. That experience pushed him toward biomedical engineering.

The summer after his first year, year he landed a coveted internship in California with aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman, but decided the experience wasn't what he was looking for. With no plans the following summer, he returned to cooking, which he enjoyed since childhood.

Cooking was how he connected with his mother, who grew up in Italy before leaving for grad school in her mid-20s. His friend's family owned a popular ramen house in Milburn, and the two started collaborating on pop-up restaurants. The first was at Cosereanu's house, where they cooked a 3-course meal for 35 people, and they then moved to the restaurant, Sum Ramen. Cosereanu and his friend blended their Italian and Chinese heritages in their cooking and invited other top chef's in New Jersey to join them.

From there, things moved quickly. He was invited to host pop-up restaurants in New York. After meeting with a group of venture capitalists about AI apps he was developing with some friends, the investors asked Cosereanu if he would cook for them, which led to several high-profile opportunities in New York.

"I kept cooking and networking,'' he said. "I was at the right place at the right time.''

Cosereanu started thinking he needed more formal training. He had been watching YouTube videos of Timon Michiels-the youngest Michelin-star chef in Europe and co-owner of the Belgium restaurant Carcasse-and decided to reach out through social media.

"I said 'I love your stuff. Do you have any student opportunities over the summer,''' Cosereanu recalled.

They chatted at 4 a.m. because of the time difference, and Michiels offered Cosereanu a job and housing for the summer before his senior year.

"I leaned so much more than cooking at that place,'' Cosereanu said. "I learned how to manage relationships and organizational skills. It was an open kitchen, so everyone is watching you.''

When he returned home for his senior year, he was wondering what to do next when he saw an ad for MasterChef, a show he remembers watching as a kid. He took another leap of faith and applied to compete. He thinks his mixed Romanian and Italian cultural background and fluency in four languages gave him a leg up for the season focused on global fare. One of the members of the production staff spoke fluent Italian, and they ended up conducting his interview in Italian.

The show was filmed over winter break, although Cosereanu can't provide any details about what to expect when it airs except that he will be competing under his mother's last name, Savore.

"It was the most stressful, the most anxious, the most fun and rewarding experience I've had,'' he said. "I genuinely grew so much as a person.''

He said he went in thinking he was just there to play the game, but ended up making lifelong connections and has already traveled to visit a friend from the set who lives in Miami.

Despite host Gordon Ramsay's reputation for being hard on contestants, Cosereanu said his experience with the famed chef was positive.

"He's one of the most caring, charismatic people I've ever met,'' Cosereanu said."You can feel his presence in the room like a heavyweight, but he makes me feel so seen. He's genuinely one of the nicest people I've ever met, but at the same time, he took it upon himself to be extra hard on me because I think he knew my potential.''

As graduation approaches, Cosereanu finds himself as a crossroad, trying to determine if his future is in engineering or cooking. But he said he wouldn't have been able to get to this point if it weren't for his experience at Rutgers.

"I needed school to show me who I was,'' Cosereanu said. "I am grateful for Rutgers because it gave me the platform to explore my own ideas.''

He launched a club in the School of Engineering help students find internships and offer networking and resume building tips. He said there were a few success stories from students in the group.

"That gave me some responsibility and the belief I can do anything,'' he said. "If I have an idea in my head, nothing is stopping me. If I want to be a chef, I can be the best chef in the world. That is the good stuff that Rutgers gave me.''