Refrigerated meals, bored contestants and ‘cooking helpers’: MasterChef’s surprising behind-the-scenes secrets are revealed by an audience member
MasterChef Australia’s biggest secrets have been exposed by an audience member who attended the live taping of Monday’s episode.
During the episode, the contestants were asked to cook inside a warehouse in front of a crowd of screaming spectators.
Melbourne mother Donna De La Rue told Yahoo Lifestyle on Tuesday she had been surprised by how things really worked behind the scenes.
Behind the scenes: MasterChef Australia’s biggest secrets have been exposed by an audience member who attended the live taping of Monday’s episode
Donna apparently witnessed a handful of assistants racing around the set helping the contestants complete their meals.
‘Every single one of those contestants had a cooking helper. Every single one of them,’ she claimed.
‘There were people running around in black T-shirts everywhere. There were people telling them whether it needed more spice et cetera.’
Production secrets: Melbourne mother Donna De La Rue said on Tuesday she had been surprised by how things really worked behind the scenes
The cooking helpers also cleaned up after the contestants, Donna said.
Interestingly, several contestants finished their dishes much earlier than others – which wasn’t shown on TV – and spent the remaining time just standing around.
Monday night’s episode was edited to make it seem like all the competitors were cooking until the last second.
The magic of TV: During the episode, the contestants were asked to cook inside a warehouse in front of a crowd of screaming spectators
‘Poh [Ling Yeow] finished really, really early, she probably stood around for 15 minutes and did nothing,’ Donna said.
‘And then when they started the countdown she fussed around a little bit, but none of them were right on the buzzer for the countdown – that was all crap.’
After the contestants had finished cooking, crew members collected their dishes and stored them in an oven or a fridge until the judges’ tasting session, which lasted for 90 minutes.
During the tasting, the judges spent far longer discussing some dishes than others.
Down to the wire? Several contestants, including Poh Ling Yeow (pictured), finished their dishes much earlier than others and spent the remaining time just standing around
Bizarrely, the studio audience was told to respond with applause and cheers even though they didn’t know what was going on.
They weren’t given any information about the challenge or the dishes being made, said Donna.
And to make matters worse they could barely hear anything over the roar of the crowd and some couldn’t even see what was happening.
Clever editing: Monday night’s episode was edited to make it seem like all the competitors were cooking until the last second – but this wasn’t actually the case
Donna also described her experience as ‘unpleasant’, saying the audience had to endure hours of sweltering heat because the air conditioning wasn’t working.
Lastly, she revealed that crew members had held up signs directing the audience when clap, shout and sigh throughout the cook-off.
This is a common practice for shows that are recorded in front of a studio audience, however.
MasterChef continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel 10
Tune in: MasterChef Australia continues Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel 10