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The tip on Junior MasterChef challenges

The father of one the Junior MasterChef entrants says the kids on the show have had advance notice of what they will be cooking.

The father of one the Junior MasterChef entrants says the kids on the show have had advance notice of what they will be cooking.

He said the children had to choose from various categories and advise the show of several recipes they would prepare.

“While everything looks spontaneous the reality is these kids have cooked the dishes 50 times. It’s not reality – it’s all staged,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

At face value such claims don’t sound in the spirit of the show, but I expect adult contestants would have also been asked about what dishes they would prepare too. This would be a basic function of casting.

A Shine spokeswoman said: “Our priority is to create a safe and fun environment for our kids so they do get some information about the challenges in advance but they do not get sent recipes.”

Maybe they are clairvoyant enough to go on The One.

17 Responses

  1. This is the first series of Junior Masterchef I have watched thoroughly. I think that it is not good to praise even undercooked food, if it was normal Masterchef they would be told the truth.

    The kids have to learn sometimes. An IMO it is cheating being helped by the judges to plate up and at some stages re-cook your food.

  2. @ rick. I agree! I think most of the people here should just stop being so serious about it and just enjoy watching the kids do what they love doing and that is cooking!

  3. This is no suprise i already knew that this show was seriously staged. So this story has definetly vindicated my position on the show. Having adults on is ok because they can make judgments and if they stuff up or melt on air its their own fault, but kids i dont think so.

  4. @alvinc, yes, thanks to Poh I now know what that particular item of Asian cuisine is. That wasn’t the point of my post. My point was that we are told ad nauseam that all pantry items used by the contestants are available at Coles. I’m calling BS on that assertion. I’m pretty damn sure the ingredients for a Century Egg aren’t available at the Coles at my local Westfield.

  5. @Allie:A century egg, which is what it’s called is an Asian cuisine. It’s common knowledge if you are of course Asian descent, or is knowledgeable of Asian food.

  6. @Njk, indeed. Remember Poh’s 100 year old egg? If I went to my local Coles and tried to find the ingredients for that, I’d be plum out of luck.

    I’ve always suspected the mystery box and invention tests were set-up well in advance as the pantry is always so conveniently stocked with very left-of-centre ingredients and the contestants can produce the most complex meals without giving them any great thought or following any written recipe.

  7. Take this garbage fake show off air. It was good for 2 seasons. Little kids acting like they know everything in the kitchen, and telling us what herbs they used in their crust- just so unatural and disturbing. The biggest demise of this show became its judges during season 3, they just became sad caracatures of themselves. I find George and Garry so off putting, I wont even bother with season 4. Just like I havnt bothered with this Junior version. Next seasons ratings should endure we dont have this garbage back in 2013. 10 Should have rested Masterchef in 2011 after 2010’s record ratings and interest in a 2012 season 3 would have been huge. I predict a 2012 season 4 will strugle to get 750k viewers daily

  8. This much is obvious in all MC formats. How else could the pantry in past series been stocked with some of the most random weird ingredients for, say, poh’s Asian dishes. Some of the stuff she used even the judges had never heard of and it just happened to be sitting in the Coles pantry. Yeah right!

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