MasterChef contestants are given cooking classes For those of us who are sitting at home watching these home cooks tear it up in the
You're given cooking lessons before some challenges.
If a challenge involves a particular skill or technique that isn't well-known by a home cook (remember, there are no pros on this show), production will bring an expert in to teach contestants.
But some skeptical fans have long wondered how realistic of a portrayal the show provides since not everything that takes place in the studio makes it to the edits. Nonetheless, the contestants are highly unlikely to receive a copy of the recipes in advance.
It's up to each contestant to memorise any recipes they hope to use on the show, as well as spend any spare time practising new techniques and dishes as the competition progresses. "We can't take recipes," Mupedzi tells Refinery29 Australia. "I did a lot of studying and a lot of practising."
All the ingredients are ordered in advance
According to reports, contestants send the producers their recipes beforehand and they get all the ingredients. This is different in the Invention Test, where the aspiring chefs have to make meals out of random ingredients given to them by the judges.
ONE MAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CLEAN-UP
Dishwasher Leigh Dowling is one of over 200 crew that make the MasterChef dream a reality. "Leigh washes everything you see," executive producer Margaret Bashfield reveals. "He's the happiest bloke on the team, even when he gets pots that are horribly burnt on the bottom."
MasterChef US and UK
Of course, we're all curious where that veritable smorgasbord of delights ends up after filming is over. As it turns out, the crew gets first dibs, Marketplace reported. All leftovers and unused pantry items are then donated to MEND – a support service charity based in LA.
"The truth is, things get just as hot in the bedroom as they do in the kitchen," our source tells. "Behind the scenes, there's so much hooking up, clique-forming and bitchiness."
Contestants are told about the challenges ahead of time.
From mystery boxes to immunity challenges, MasterChef is all about putting contestants under pressure. But it turns out contestants are actually told about the challenges beforehand.
Refinery29 Australia reported last year that contestants have previously been put up in a serviced apartment, with two people in an apartment with their own bedrooms. In 2020, news.com.au revealed that contestants usually live in "a multimillion-dollar mansion".
While former MasterChef: The Professionals star Rosanna Moseley told the Birmingham Mail: "The food stays there for a bit after you've finished so they can get good shots of it. "So it can be cold by the time the judges get to it - especially if you're last to be judged - but they take that into consideration."
Masterchef host Gregg Wallace revealed in an interview with The Sun that the food on the show isn't thrown away and is put to good use. Usually, after the filming process is done, the leftover food is shared between all the crew members, who get to enjoy some amazing meals prepared by the contestants on the show.
With the judges rumoured to be taking home around $500,000 a year with Ten, the show's rampant popularity and critical acclaim could see bigger fees negotiated for future seasons.
We did some digging, and according to reports, Network Ten generally pays contestants a little more than the legal minimum wage to appear on the competition reality series.
Contestants have to buy any ingredients they require to practice dishes to make at home and aren't given any money towards it - but ingredients and a full pantry are provided in the MasterChef kitchens.
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They just cook. They wash their hands after handling raw meats, but otherwise gloves aren't really needed unless they have a cut or something. I saw Ashley wearing gloves in one of the recent episodes.
For the time they're on the show, they have a 6-day workweek - they get Sundays off to do what they want. The other six days, they're either filming for the show, or they're taking cooking classes. That's why you see their cooking improve from week to week.
You get to tour the pantry beforehand.
So that contestants know what ingredients are available to them in the pantry, each one is given a walk through before filming or cooking starts.
Personality. Krissi is unarguably the most hated contestant in the history of the show despite her resilience and strong cooking abilities.
In 2013, "MasterChef" judges and producers were accused of sexual, mental, and physical harassment by former contestants. Many accusations came from a blog post by former contestant Marie Porter, where she describes how friends she met on the show were allegedly sexually and physically harassed by judges and producers.
He was a decent cook, but was infamous for serving food from another home cook that wasn't cooked by himself. Despite the understanding that the incident was an accident, he made history for being the first contestant ever to be disqualified from MasterChef, although he took his elimination gracefully.
The chef probably won't eat the food you see, and neither will the judges, both for their health and because, as mentioned above, it's probably not edible. Specifically, the food that gets cooked and plated eventually gets tossed. Instead, a new version of the same dish is actually cooked for judges to taste.
Since the warehouse is stocked with fresh produce, meat, fish, and other items that eventually will expire, unused food is donated to local food banks. "The contestants have thousands of items at their disposal for the cooking challenges. But nothing is allowed to go to waste," Food Network states.