Former MasterChef contestants and judges are spilling some shock secrets about the show, just days after it made a return to our screens for the 2020 season.
WATCH: MasterChef trailer for 2020 season featuring guest Gordon Ramsay
Ex-judge George Calombaris spilled several secrets from the show to Daily Mail Australia back in 2015 – including the fact food is served to them cold and that judges have picked a winner before even tasting the dishes.
‘It has always been cold and it always will be cold, but we taste everything hot off camera,’ Calombaris said at the time.
‘So at the end of the cook, you [viewers] don’t see that – no one sees that apart from the three of us and the executive producer. We will go around the room and the three of us will taste everything hot out of their [contestants] pot first.
Calombaris went on to explain that judges decide on a winner early on as they have already tasted the food.
‘It looks sexy on TV, but it takes time to film. So when you see us tasting at the end – it’s cold, but I’ve already made the decision, I already know what it tastes like,’ he explained.
Furthermore, former contestant Alice Zaslavsky told Domain’s Weekly Review in 2018 that cooking challenges can often take days to film.
‘A shooting day can be up to 17 hours, sometimes at least four of those hours are spent driving up and down, from the house, to the studio, up the driveway, out of the driveway; and at least another seven spent waiting around, some interviews can take like 3 hours – sometimes more… and then one of those hours is spent cooking,’ she said.
A former runner-up on the US version of MasterChef said in a 2014 blog post that contestants were given cooking classes ahead of challenges where certain skills were required.
‘The entire show is not at all how it seems. Each home cook is given professional training before the challenges to ensure they can cook something decent when they start recording,’ a source told The Mail on Sunday at the time.
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