MasterChef Australia finalist-turned-mentor-turned-judge Poh Ling Yeow has spilled some major behind-the-scenes goss about the beloved competition show. BTW, you might wanna clutch onto your tea cups for this one because it’s piping hot!
As someone who’s casually watched MasterChef Australia since its inception back in 2009, I’ve always wondered, how the heck do the judges get through all that food plus critiques in one episode?
In this year’s season of MasterChef Australia, the competition was jam-packed with 22 multi-talented contestants and four judges. In some weeks, the judging panel will grow from four to five, as celebrity guests — such as Jamie Oliver and Curtis Stone — will join the OG four.
So, if you really do the math, it would take yonks for every single contestant’s dish to be tasted and critiqued.
How do the judges taste all the food on MasterChef Australia?
In a cheeky tea spill with Punkee, MasterChef Australia icon Poh has revealed that the dishes are stone cold, not only because they physically can’t eat all those dishes in one go, but because of food safety.
“[The dishes] are mostly stone cold,” Poh shared.
“So basically what happens is — if you think about it, if there are 20 contestants and there are four judges, at the beginning of the season there was five because Jamie was in the mix, it means that there are over a hundred tastings.
“At some point, the dishes are gonna get cold and in fact, they get spirited away into a fridge for food safety.”
To make up for the food not being at the right temperature, the judges will go around to each counter to have a little nibble on the contestants’ final products to get an idea of how the food was intended to be served before it gets whisked away.
“Straight after their cooks, you’ll see us milling around with our spoons and we taste everything straight off the stove or oven just so we know the texture and the flavour of things,” the MasterChef judge added.
Following the big revelation, MasterChef Australia viewers flocked to the comments questioning why they just don’t use heat lamps, while others thanked Poh for her insightful piece of behind-the-scenes tea.
“Can’t they just microwave it? Or put it in a warmer,” one TikToker asked.
“Even if you taste things before it’s put in the fridge, there’s no chance you can remember the texture and taste accurately for 20 dishes,” another viewer commented.
“This is what I’ve been wanting to know!! I can rest peacefully now,” a third wrote.
Prior to Poh’s tea spill, an insider told Yahoo! Lifestyle that the food was dished up cold and that “filming averages 9-12 hours a day”.
With filming hours like that, I wouldn’t be surprised if the food went stone cold without the special fridge! It’s definitely an interesting piece of tea and makes me wonder how that process really affects the tasting process.
Also, the idea of tasting stone-cold soup or stone-cold spagbol is sending me. Maybe I’m not cut out for the food-judging lifestyle after all.
Image source: 10Play / MasterChef Australia
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