With a spot in the Top 5 on the line, it’s fair to say every contestant was feeling the pressure in the MasterChef kitchen as Level Up Week kicked off.
Throughout the week, each judge will take their turn to set a challenge for the contestants, and food writer and critic Sofia Levin was up first. Tasked with a one-ingredient Mystery Box challenge, the contestants could choose between onion, yuzu, beetroot, or almonds to create a dish worthy enough to score them immunity ahead of the next elimination.
To his delight, Vinnie secured his spot in the Top 5, while Luke had a disappointing cook that ended in tears.
Before the judges even gave their feedback, Luke admitted to fellow cook Aaron that he “embarrassed himself” with his Yuzu Meringue Crepe Cake dish, with the dish falling apart as soon as he tried to assemble it.
Despite Aaron’s kind words of encouragement, Luke was deflated as he brought his dish to the judging panel.
Poh asked Luke why he didn’t use more yuzus in his dish, to which he said he used ten.
However, evidently, that wasn’t enough, and Andy wasn’t impressed.
After looking at the disassembled dish, Andy asked Luke if he wanted his feedback “soft and fluffy or hard and real”, to which Luke opted for the latter.
The judge then levelled with the 20-year-old, confessing that both he and Poh had hard days in the MasterChef kitchen. However, he pointed out that Luke needed to take responsibility for his mistakes and told him that it “wasn’t good enough” to say he had used ten yuzus when 50 were available.
The comments left viewers divided over whether they were “too harsh” for the young contestant, while Luke told WHO what it was like to receive feedback from people he “looks up to so much and aspires to be so much.”
Fans call out Andy’s ‘appalling’ behaviour
Despite Luke requesting the “hard and real” feedback from Andy, many fans still believed the judge went too far, comparing his comments to Poh’s more balanced feedback.
“It was lovely to hear Poh give an honest critique of Luke’s cook,” one viewer wrote online. “It was disappointing that Andy chose to critique Luke, the person.”
“Who on earth does Andy think he has become? Gordon Ramsey? The way he stood over Luke was the reason most chefs have breakdowns,” another commented.
“I agree. Appalling behaviour from Andy to Luke,” a third seconded.
However, other viewers were more balanced in their observations, pointing out that “it was not harsh” and that Andy is simply “trying so hard to get through to Luke because he really cares”.
“Andy is a judge. And a good chef. Luke’s dish was a disaster and [it] needed the honest feedback,” one viewer commented on social media. “And Andy also made it clear that he wanted Luke to put this behind him and get this out of his head. This is what the judges are supposed to do. Give honest feedback even when it seems cruel.”
Luke agrees that it was what he ‘needed to hear’
When reflecting on receiving negative feedback from the judges during his time on the show, Luke admitted that it was “hard” at times, but also necessary.
“The judges feedback… it certainly is hard hearing any negative feedback from people you look up to so much and aspire to be so much,” he told WHO. “But knowing who they are and their credibility, it’s impossible to ever disagree with anything they say.
“Even if it might seem harsh at times, the majority of the time they can be soft, but in general I think they try to cater their feedback to what the dish deserves and what you need to hear.”
Luke added: “It really varies from situation to situation, I certainly hated getting bad feedback – doesn’t everyone! – but I always used it as fuel to come back and deliver in eliminations.”
With an elimination on the horizon, let’s hope Luke takes Andy’s feedback on the chin and implements everything he’s learned!
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