MasterChef contestant massacred. Facebook photo. Streetfoodnews.it
Humiliating contestants is one of the ingredients of MasterChef's success, but some are genuinely disappointed.
Since the first edition aired in 2011, MasterChef has captured the audience of cooking enthusiasts. The program actually started in 1990, but had little success and was initially put on hold. However, in 2005, the format was completely revised and began to spread in different countries.
A large part of the success of the Italian edition of the program is due to the apt choice of the jury, initially three: Bruno Barbieri, Carlo Cracco and Joe Bastianich, the latter having already completed a season of MasterChef USA. Antonino Cannavacciuolo also joins the tight-knit trio in the fifth season, which already had a large fan base thanks to the show “Cucine da Incubo”.
From the seventh season of MasterChef, the cards are reshuffled a bit, as Carlo Cracco's farewell was announced live in the finale of the previous edition. She is replaced by Antonia Klugmann, the first female judge, who, however, never really entered the hearts of the show's fans, and from the following season, Giorgio Locatelli, the chef who built his success abroad, takes her place.
In the ninth edition, another historical figure of the program leaves Joe Bastianich, who has been with MasterChef since the first season, but this time the production decides not to replace him and the number of judges returns to three, as in the first five seasons increase.
The MasterChef judges' outbursts
A fundamental characteristic of the MasterChef judges is their harshness, with dishes thrown in the bin, food spat into tissues and outbursts that leave some competitors speechless. Thanks to Bruno Barbieri, for example, words like “mappazzone” have rightly entered the vocabulary of fans of the show to define these truly poorly prepared dishes.
But many will also remember expressions like “Do you want me to die?” or “You disappoint me,” pronounced in Bastianich's unmistakable Italian-American accent, even going so far as to describe one of the dishes as “a piece of s* **t” and defining one of the competitors as “a**h” **e”.
Iginio Massari's opinions on MasterChef. Facebook photo. Streetfoodnews.it
The worst reviews from MasterChef guests
As if the judges weren't enough, it's also the guests who make the MasterChef contestants tremble. In fact, the format includes some episodes in which participants try dishes from other famous chefs. The test of this type most feared by the competition is certainly the pastry test in the presence of the very famous Iginio Massari.
Massari himself expresses his opinion bluntly, many will remember the episode dedicated to the Italian cake, which gave rise to a real riot full of insults. “To describe a bad thing on an aesthetic level, I'll use you as an example,” he said to one of the competitors, Salvatore. Gilberto, another contestant and finalist of MasterChef 8, fared no better: “You make me smile and I want to cry before this dessert” and concludes after tasting with “I feel sorry for the custard.” “I refuse calling it an Italian cake.”