The blood, sweat and tears might be genuine, but are the drool-worthy meals plated up on MasterChef Australia real?
As MasterChef Australia: Foodies vs Favourites gets underway, we’re reminded just how talented the cooks are when they whip up dishes out of thin air.
Or do they?
A production source from the hit cooking show told So Dramatic! With Megan Pustetto that every meal is “actually approved a few days before” they’re made in the challenges! Sorry, what?!
“[They] are cooked by Channel 10 chefs first so they can make sure the meal will ‘suit and taste’ for the episode,” the source said in episode 89 of the pod.
They also added that the chef-made meals are also what we see in photographs featured in the episodes.
Our entire lives are a lie! Just when we thought we could get away without being manipulated by this wholesome show, the producers have us fooled.
So, what else is really going on behind the aprons and Michelin-star quality meals that we aren’t seeing?
One MasterChef Star Lifts the Lid On Production
Former MasterChef contestant Alice Zaslavsky, who appeared on the show’s fourth season, spilled all the behind the scenes tea to Domain in 2018, including details of the peculiar filming process surrounding challenges.
“The challenges are definitely a scramble, they will not compromise on the time you are given [for the challenge],” Alice said.
“They still need to get all of the shots from different cameras, so we would finish cooking and then have to step away from the bench, put all of our utensils down, stop touching the dish,” she said. “Then the next two to three minutes, [we] just pretend to fuss around our plates.”
Are the Meals Hot When the Judges Eat Them?
And have you ever wondered whether the food is cold by the time the judges taste the dishes? We have!
According to Alice, it’s “the first thing” people ask her about the show. But yes, the judges are “100 per cent” eating cold food by the time we see them tasting it on screen.
“The judges would walk around and taste the food as soon as the challenge was over, while everything was still hot,” the now-co-host of Short Cuts to Glory revealed.
“When your name was called, you’d walk up and put your dish on the bench, then they’d show that overhead shot,” she recalled.
“The judges put a fork in, eat a mouthful of the cold gloop for the cameras and pretend it’s the first time they’ve tasted it.” Mmmm, yummy!
With MasterChef Australia back on our screens, we’re just not sure if we can ever watch the famed reality show the same way ever again! BRB, going to gorge ourselves on ice cream to ease the pain.
Want even more goss? Listen to episode 89 of the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!
Know something that we don’t? Spill the tea here!
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