A Lawyer Attempts to Slice, Dice, and Julienne Fry All of the Competition on 'MasterChef'

Yet another attorney has decided to make a foray into the wonderful world of reality TV. Meet Jason Maur, a lawyer appearing on this season of MasterChef.

Here at Above the Law, we frequently write about lawyers and law students who have put their legal careers on hold to compete on reality television shows. In the past year or so, we’ve profiled two former Bachelor contestants whose hearts were broken (one from Illinois Law, and one from Houston Law Center); a Harvard Law student who tried to win over his tribe on Survivor; a Northwestern Law student who attempted to weasel his way out of getting fired on The Apprentice; and a former Biglaw attorney whose health-food dishes made the judges want to choke on America’s Next Great Restaurant.

That being said, imagine our surprise when we found out that yet another attorney had decided to make a foray into the wonderful world of reality TV. If you recall, back in May, we brought your attention to a job advertisement for an attorney chef. We thought that was a unique career alternative, but apparently someone had already beaten us to the punch. The latest lawyer turned reality competitor actually is an attorney chef — one who will appear on the new season of MasterChef, which is set to premiere tonight on Fox.

So who is this attorney chef? Was he able to roast the competition like he would have during oral arguments?

Before we get all of the details about our attorney chef, let’s learn some more about this season of the show. From the MasterChef website:

Nearly 30,000 hopefuls auditioned at MASTERCHEF’s open casting calls. MASTERCHEF also hit the road for the first-ever food truck casting tour. Only the best amateur cooks were flown to Los Angeles for a chance to compete for the coveted title of MASTERCHEF and the $250,000 grand prize. This season will feature contestants from all walks of life representing 23 states, all with the hopes of turning their culinary dream into a reality.

Thirty-thousand people may have auditioned, but only 100 are chosen to represent the Top Amateur Chefs in the nation. The Top 100 is whittled down to 36 finalists, after which half of the competitors are cut to reveal the Top 18. Thereafter, one chef is eliminated each week, until the winner of the show is named. To be honest, this sounds a lot like today’s legal job market — except the odds of winning MasterChef are probably higher than that of landing a lawyer job.

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Thus far, our would-be MasterChef, Jason Maur, was selected to be a member of the Top 100. Maur is a 2010 graduate of Quinnipiac University School of Law, and after passing the Connecticut bar exam, he started his own general law practice, the Law Offices of Jason M. Maur and Associates. Maur, however, isn’t the only legal eagle who made it that far. He’s joined by fellow lawyers Laurence “Larry” Hing, of California, and Thomas Wright, of Florida. Alas, even though MasterChef held a food truck casting tour this year, no lawyers from the Temple Law “lunch truch” made the cut.

Maur, whose mother taught him how to cook, decided to audition for MasterChef because to him, cooking is like an art form — it’s a passion that he cannot live without. He loves to come up with new recipes, and he started making his own sauces and sides, and smoking and slicing his own meats. He even has his own food blog, MaurPowerFoodie, where he displays instructional cooking videos, writes restaurant reviews, and provides readers with his own recipes.

While at first all the cooking Maur did was on the side, it quickly became much more than a hobby, so auditioning for MasterChef seemed like the right move for him to make. For Maur, making it to the Top 100 was a validation of his talents as a home cook, and he says that it was an honor to be able to cook for the MasterChef judges, Chef Gordon Ramsay, restauranteur Joe Bastianich, and Chef Graham Elliot.

We reached out to Maur for comment on his career path, and for all the details about his appearance on MasterChef. Let’s take a look at what he had to say….

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