r/MasterchefUK

What people tend to forget about reality tv stars on the show is that unlike the tv presenters or pop stars etc this is their day job and they are very professional about it.

A case in point was Joey Essex; a vapid jack-the-lad who goes in proclaiming they can't even boil an egg...

...fast forward 4 weeks and they are cooking beef wellington with truffle shavings and a port reduction.

I always wonder who is training/coaching them and whether it is stage managed by the show itself (or their agent)? There is just no way they are growing into self taught chefs this quickly.

Absolutely nothing wrong with taking it seriously but it makes it feel a little bit hollow when you realise they are almost certainly just repeating recipes that've been drilled into them by a cookery coach.

I think the same probably goes for a lot of the sports stars that excel in the show too.

I don't necessarily mean who's your favourite personality. I'm talking about who you think gives the most useful criticism when a dish goes wrong. The best feedback is the stuff that actually teaches the contestant something.

As the title says I’m loving the one liners and his culinary expertise

I had no idea who she was. Obviously she's rather easy on the eyes, so wasn't surprised she's a contestant on a reality dating show and she's just 23.

But she's nothing like that would suggest. Much more mature than her age, well spoken and not loud, works well with others, and she looks like a proper cook, both savory and desserts. She was easily the strongest in week 1 by a mile and should be a strong pick.

The cook-a-long was great. GL and GD get along like a house on fire. Loving all the badges!

Georgio Locatelli as new judge is fantastic! proper cook, funny and a big name.

and it may be just luck of week 1, its still early days. but they seem to have toned down on the wacky celebs and picked a set of sane, reasonably good cooks.

Locatelli actually cooks, there seems to be more focus on the food than the celebs, its all good so far.

I really miss the segments where John or Monica actually broke down a core technique step-by-step - like jointing a chicken, filleting a flatfish, or making a perfect souffle base from scratch. It added a proper educational element to the show that helped home cooks improve.

Between the Critic’s Table (having Grace Dent or Jay Rayner tear into your soufflé), Chef’s Table in a 3-star Michelin kitchen, and the classic 20-minute Skills Test, which challenge do you think carries the absolute highest pressure?

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Looking back across all the years of the BBC reboot, there have been some truly unforgettable characters walk through those doors

Who is the one contestant from past seasons that still lives rent-free in your head, and what did they cook?

Sometimes the food jargon gets so out of hand you genuinely can't tell if they're serving you dinner or a science experiment. What’s the funniest piece of menu-speak you've seen a contestant try to pitch?

In the heat stages, contestants can get just 15 minutes to raid the market before having around 70 minutes to plan and cook their dish. Trying to come up with a balanced concept, prep raw meat or fish, execute complex cookery and still plate everything neatly feels wildly tight.

Half the time, it seems like a good idea can fall apart simply because a thick cut of lamb needs a little longer in the oven or a dessert hasn't quite set by serving time.

Would you prefer to see contestants given a bit more cooking time to show off better execution, or is the time pressure part of what makes MasterChef work?

Gregg Wallace can forgive a slightly overcooked fish or a messy plate, but if there's raw red onion in a salsa or an unrendered strip of pork crackling, he acts like it's a personal insult

I actually enjoy it when someone serves something that looks almost too simple for MasterChef and then the judges absolutely love it. There's something more impressive to me about getting a few ingredients completely right than putting twelve different elements on a plate just to demonstrate technique. It must take quite a lot of confidence in a competition to stop adding things and trust that what you've made is enough.

Do you generally prefer the simpler dishes done brilliantly or the really ambitious ones?