“It feels great to be back on the show with a whole new round of home cooks competing for the title,” Sanchez said. “I’ve really honed my ability to be a mentor through this show and feel like I am part of a family with the cast and crew, so it’s great to be back again this season.”

“This new element is so much fun because Joe, Gordon and myself are now competing with each other. I still have to be as unbiased as possible when judging, but it is really hard when someone on my team lets me down, but on the flip side it makes it that much better when someone really succeeds,” Sanchez said. “Being a mentor has been so fulfilling and it’s great to take this journey with the contestants and impart as much knowledge on them as I possibly can. It definitely deepens my investment because I put my own name on the line for all my team members and it really reflects on my judgement when they fail or rise to the top.”

“Well, we always had fun but now we are really playing around with taking digs at each other and fighting for our team to win,” Sanchez said. “Is there anything else that will surprise audiences in what remains of the season? I mean the challenges are just getting more and more difficult as the show progresses and we put these home cooks under extreme pressure. The real life experiences are getting so authentic and there are so many shocking moments as to who rises to the occasion and who falls flat.”

“I have the Aarón Sánchez Scholarship Fund and this is really another place where I get to empower cooks through education and mentorship,” Sanchez said. “I am extremely passionate about helping the next generation of Latino and Latina chefs rise up and become the next wave of culinary leaders. You can get more information at aaronsanchezscholarshipfund.com“