Fans of Masterchef have noticed that a lot of the finest dishes ever cooked on the show come from recipes first learned from someone named Nonna. The Masterchef judges are fed up, and have finally taken action to address the unfair advantage obtained by using such recipes.
Matt Preston met with us to explain why recipes supplied by Nonnas are such a problem for the show.
“Yes look most contestants have some sort of grandmother or gran on the scene during their childhood. If they’re lucky, maybe their gran will teach them how to make scones or something. But Nonnas are in another stratosphere.”
“Nonnas are making pasta from scratch with 8 year old grandkids for God’s sake. It’s just not a level playing field. Gran’s pav, although cooked from the heart, can’t compete with Nonna’s Schicciata Siciliana.
We inquired as to how the new rules would work. Matt advised that having a Nonna in your upbringing will not rule you out of the competition per se. What will instead happen is that, off-camera, each contestant will need to pass a polygraph test after each cook to confirm that the dish was not learned from anyone referred to as Nonna.
Concerns have been raised that this new rule could be seen as unfairly targeting the show’s Italian-Australian contestants.
Matt has advised that the judges shared that concern. But such is the advantage gained by using Nonna’s recipes, it is analogous to using performance-enhancing drugs. Something simply had to be done.
You can catch the new series of Masterchef starting tonight at 7.30 on Channel 10.