What Happened to Monica Galetti From MasterChef?

Renowned chef Monica Galetti, a familiar face on MasterChef: The Professionals for 14 years, shocked fans last April when she announced her departure from the beloved cooking show. The decision, she revealed, stemmed from a compelling need to prioritize her family and address challenges at her restaurant, Mere.

Juggling the demands of being a chef, running a restaurant, and raising a family proved to be an overwhelming task for Galetti. In an interview with The Times, she expressed the difficulty of feeling stretched too thin, as if she needed to be “split into four people” to manage everything effectively.

Mere, her London-based restaurant, faced its own set of challenges, primarily staff shortages that added to the strain of Galetti’s professional responsibilities. Despite the hurdles in her culinary career, it was her family’s situation that became the driving force behind her decision.

Galetti revealed that her decision to step back from MasterChef was significantly influenced by a heartbreaking family situation. Her nephew, Otis, residing in New Zealand, was diagnosed with desmoplastic small round cell tumor—an uncommon and aggressive cancer that forms masses in the abdomen.

The chef, deeply connected to Otis as he shares a similar age with her own daughter Anaïs (14), explained that while Otis underwent chemotherapy, it was not a cure but rather a means to buy precious time. The family rallied together in support, with Monica expressing the profound impact this situation had on her priorities.

In a poignant statement, Galetti shared, “It is with a heavy heart that I’ve made this decision to step back from filming this year’s series of MasterChef: The Professionals. My family needs me, my restaurant needs me, and trying to balance long filming days over the next three months with all these commitments meant that something had to give.”