Convicted man was never a MasterChef finalist…

Some media have reported on a ‘MasterChef finalist’ Paul Douglas Frost guilty of 43 charges in a majority verdict by a jury in the NSW district court.

Acording to reports, “Frost was a finalist on cooking competition show MasterChef in 2009 and his father coached Olympic champion Ian Thorpe.”

The former swim coach has been found guilty of 43 child sexual abuse charges relating to 11 different children at a swimming school in Sydney’s south-west during the 1990s and 2000s.

However linking him to MasterChef in reportage is arguably unfair to the 10 show.

Frost was never a finalist in 2009, the first season of the show.

He didn’t even make it to the Top 20.

Earlier seasons of MasterChef usually featured 3 episodes in which the judges Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston, and George Calombaris (plus host Sarah Wilson in S1) famously ‘auditioned’ hopefuls who competed for an apron and a chance at the then Top 20.

In Season One 7500 people applied to be on the show.

Paul Frost did have brief camera time in the cook-offs staged at Carriegeworks in Eveleigh, but he failed the grade and never set foot inside the first MasterChef kitchen then in Alexandria, NSW.

Over 15 seasons (and spin-offs) the show has had its share of controversies and contestants in trouble with the law, but media reports are incorrect to refer to this man as a ‘finalist’… they were Julie Goodwin, Poh Ling Yeow as the country well remembers.

Frost will face a sentencing hearing in August.