We’ve reached finals week on MasterChef Australia and emotions are high. But during Monday night’s episode, fans questioned the critique that front-running contestant Nat Thaipun copped from judge Andy Allen.
Throughout the competition, Nat has been leading the pack, consistently cooking dishes that impressed the judges. But last night, during a mystery box challenge to win a golden ticket to the semi-finals, she struggled.
Initially, Nat aimed to present a sweet and savoury dish, despite the judges saying that was biting off more than she could chew. In the end, they were right. The custard in her dessert dish didn’t set, so she opted to only present her savoury Hung Lay Lamb Shank Curry to the judges.
For the first time in the competition, Nat plated up a dish that she, or the judges, weren’t happy with.
“Yeah that was probably the worst cook I’ve ever done,” Nat said.
“The dessert doesn’t even exist anymore, so I’m very disappointed.”
When it came to the judging — and she didn’t have the two dishes promised — Andy asked her what was more important; being a risk taker or winning the competition.
“I definitely would rather win for sure,” she said.
“You need to find that sweet spot,” Andy said.
“You being a risk-taker is what makes you great. but if you take the wrong risk, at this time in the competition, like today, there ain’t no more competition for you. You’ve got to straddle that line.”
“I just see the potential in you so hard,” Andy continued.
“You can achieve so much, but now I’m just starting to go, am I right about Nat? Today makes me question that because it was the wrong decision and this plate of food has totally suffered.”
Listening to his critique, Nat started to get emotional.
“What I see there, does not seem like Nat. Please go back to square one, please,” urged judge Jean-Christophe Novelli.
While they were some pretty fair critiques, fans have called out the judging panel — and especially Andy — for how harsh they were towards her.
“That’s very harsh feedback from Andy, it’s comments like this that make me think the judging is a bit unfair and others get off easy… what a cruel comment,” wrote one Redditor.
“Andy you don’t have to be such a dick,” said another.
“We get it you didn’t like the girl to do two dishes no need to belittle people on national TV.”
“This is Nat’s ONLY bad cook and they absolutely ripped her to shreds. How rough,” commented another.
But the reason that the critiques towards Nat felt so pointed were because of the double standards we’ve seen throughout the season.
Nat has been consistently great this season, and I don’t think the judges would have been so harsh had she been at a lower culinary level. Some contestants are constantly encouraged to push the envelope on their creations, while others make it through on basic dishes.
Earlier this week, we even saw Mimi Wong go home after she failed to present her dish on freshly baked bread, while Josh ‘Pezza’ Perry managed to skate by presenting his dish with pre-made bread.
As we head into the final few episodes, fingers crossed that the contestants will be held to the same standard.
The post MasterChef Fans Reckon Andy Allen Was Way Too Harsh On Nat Thaipun In Last Night’s Ep appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
