S14.W01 (E01-E04)

[Snazzy Daisy]

MasterChef Australia: Fans & Faves

Season premiere on April 18, 2022.

Welcome back‼️

E01: Strengths Immunity Pin Challenge

E02: Service Challenge - Featured Ingredients

E03: Team Challenge - Food Pyramid

E04: Immunity Challenge

MasterChef Australia Fans & Faves: Meet The 24 Contestants

Edited April 22, 2022 by SnazzyDaisy

[Snazzy Daisy]

This is a bit awkward… 🤦🏻‍♀️

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

First Immunity Pin winners for the season‼️

Edited April 19, 2022 by SnazzyDaisy

[Snazzy Daisy]

Harry’s Burnt Cabbage reminds me of Pete’s Carrot Steak from last year… 

 

 

[ppl]

Back this season only for some of the faves. Billie! Sarah! Michael!

When I first saw the Burnt Cabbage dish, I was like 'Are you serious? You spent 90 minutes to make that?!" but on second thought, if the judges loved it, it might have come down to her puree on the bottom.

Spoilers for those interested

Spoiler

Top 15/16 Team Challenge (hard to tell from side camera angle)

Faves still in the competition:

Billie
Sarah
Michael
Julie
Alvin
Aldo
Mindy
Tommy

Unsure:
John

Missing:
Sashi
Minoli
Christina

The editors did a very good job this year of not spoiling much. This was the only thing that I could see that would be somewhat spoiler-y. John may or may not be in that team challenge clip but I'm leaning more towards missing at the moment.

I don't really know which of the "Fans" are still there at that point.

Ratings for the first episode have come in. #9 for the night with a 545,000 viewership launch losing to The Voice AU and Lego Masters AU. That would make it the lowest premiere in all 14 seasons, however, they also premiered the episode on their other platforms including 10 Peach and 10 BOLD and per OzTAM simulcast rules, they allow all three #s (overnight + 10 Peach + 10 BOLD) to be added together to generate one final number. It still seems like a disappointing number all around. I wonder if the season will be shortened if it continues to drop in the coming weeks.

[katisha]

So, it turns out I couldn't stand to watch Masterchef AU without being able to edit out the interminable recaps and ads, so I got a PVR today and tuned in for my first episode.

I have a few random thoughts.

• Calling the past contestants "favourites" is really quite a misnomer because 75% of them aren't!  They should be called "Three actual favourites and nine people who were still money/fame-hungry enough to bother coming back when we asked".
• Apparently there was a lot of commentary on Twitter last night about the complete absence of the three former judges in any of the footage from the seasons of past contestants.  You would hope that's for contractual reasons because deliberately editing them out entirely seems very "cancel culture".  They were a big part of how some of those contestants got where they are today.
• Why is "favourite" John still SO obsessed with white chocolate?  You'd think he'd have learnt after what happened last time.
• Sashi absolutely owned that main course part of the challenge tonight.  And why wouldn't he, since he's got a restaurant in which that's one of his dishes!
• I feel like I should remember Mindy, since I did watch the season that Andy won, but I'm drawing a blank.  It doesn't help that she looks like a skinnier version of Billie.

 

2 hours ago, ppl said:

Ratings for the first episode have come in. #9 for the night with a 545,000 viewership launch losing to The Voice AU and Lego Masters AU.

I used to watch The Voice but I just can't handle all the duck voiced girls AND guys interspersed with the overly melismatic and overly praised wannabe R&B singers anymore.  Maybe others will make that choice too - it's early days yet. 

[Aerobicidal]

Episode 2 was kind of halfwatchworthy. The editing is already so repetitive, and adding an extra dose of heavy-handedness to it irritated me. 

I'm in agreement with several comments above: the "favorites" (forgive my U.S. spelling) are mostly not, and Harry's burnt cabbage from episode one is very clearly inspired by Christian Puglisi. I've had burnt/charred vegetable dishes like that and, not to generalize, but the ones I've had have mostly been extremely buttery and rich, which is not my thing.

Also, even though I actually stopped watching the show for several seasons due to the past judging panel, I agree that they shouldn't be erased or canceled. (I could go into a bit more nuance regarding George, but I won't because . . . BORING!)

I'm still happy to see Billie and Alvin back and my final thought is that I want Sri Lankan food. I don't think I've had it since the pandemic started so I'm going to ask friends about making a reservation at the one Sri Lankan place in a five mile radius of my house.

I'm going to skip tomorrow's episode, but if Tommy competes and wins a second immunity, pin you may never hear from me again.

[ppl]

Team Challenge:

Are you telling me John agreed to return on the condition of exercising his white chocolate veloute demons? Why didn't anyone stop him? Or why didn't they tell him to pick 'white chocolate' as the feature ingredient?

It's already been two episodes and already I remember why I disliked Aldo and Mindy so much back in their respective seasons.

I'm glad that Minoli finally spoke up and said something. It's too bad that it took her right before service started to say something truthful.

I'm happy we got to see a little bit more from Michael this challenge.

As far as fans go, I'm not really a huge fan of Harry. She seems resourceful though but come meat protein time, she might have some trouble. Ali tried to step up as captain but failed as she was surrounded by 3 useless blokes. I like Chris Tran so far.

[katisha]

2 hours ago, ppl said:

It's already been two episodes and already I remember why I disliked Aldo and Mindy so much back in their respective seasons.

I don't really remember much about Mindy at all, which is weird because normally people who come across as bossy as she does annoy me and I therefore remember them.  But I can't say I'm a fan of hers this time around based on her performance in that challenge yesterday, where she was so convinced she was right, she thought she knew better than the judges about how much to feature the feature ingredient.  Aldo, I can see why he'd bug a lot of people but I don't mind him so much.  

But speaking of people who annoy you... uggh, I was so bummed when Montana was picked as one of the challenge winners.  She's such a bloody millennial and what sort of job is "TikTok influencer", anyway?  Yes, I know - I'm a grumpy old woman!  I didn't watch S1 so I don't have any memories of Julie but her meltdowns/crises of confidence are going to get tiresome very quickly.  Speaking of which, this is a genuine question - if Melanie said once in yesterday's challenge that she couldn't taste a single thing because it wasn't wheat-free, she said it 50 times. I get that she's coeliac but would a tiny mouthful of something which has gluten really cause her that much of an issue?  You don't have to eat an entire loaf of bread to know what it tastes like - a tiny little piece will tell you that!

Finally, the more times John said how freaked out he was to be cooking against Sashi because Sashi is a Masterchef legend etc etc and how intimidating it was to be at the same bench, the more certain I was that he'd beat Sashi.  A bit of actual suspense would be nice, editors.

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

For the first two episodes, there are too much Julie, Sashi and Harry. I don’t know for how long I can tolerate Julie (and Tommy) dominating my screen. TBH, am also a little worried for Harry as people who peak early won’t go that far in this competition.

I want to see more of my Favs - Billie, Sarah, Alvin and Michael. I hope John, Aldo and Tommy will leave soon, cannot stand all of them. I was waiting for negative comments from the judges on Favs’ artichoke entrée with camera focusing on Mindy’s face but it wasn’t shown. She maybe a CEO IRL but she isn’t a team player and a miss know-it-all. Ugh.

There are some interesting personalities in Fans team and so far I like Max the most - the peach cobbler guy from S13 audition. I thought Montana is going to be suffocating since she is a Tik-Tok influencer but surprisingly Melanie is more annoying than her. Just stop it with the coeliac story and its association. Dulan unable to answer Qs from Jock and Andy re the main dish is so cringey. Obviously he is trying to be bubbly and all, Juzzy 2.0 wannabe? Chris Tran and Steph seem sweet, can’t wait to know the Fans team more.

It’s year 3 and Andy’s wardrobes are still all over the place. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Why is he wearing a collar t-shirt? He is in a Masterchef show, not a golf tournament. Yes, the show wants him in Highstreet style, then do it properly.

Edited April 20, 2022 by SnazzyDaisy

[babs1226]

I am really not sure why they brought John back, unless they could not get a more popular former contestant to return.  Since he did get another chance, I would think he would have steered clear of white chocolate.  He chose raspberries for the feature ingredient, and then decided that the best way to highlight raspberry was with a huge mound of white chocolate?  Nobody on his team had a better idea?  If I were on that team, and I knew how he screwed his team with white chocolate the last time, I would have strongly suggested another idea.  Oh well.

I barely remember Mindy, but she is probably not the same person now as she was then.  I would have remembered her more if she was as obnoxious then as she was in the service challenge. 

I am happy that they didn't waste any time on the auditions this season.  They are the most boring part of the show.  

Welcome back, MCAU!

[limecoke]

Well, while enjoying what comments there are, I’m feeling sorry for myself because my source for MCAU (I’m in the US) has completely brought down the hammer on the copyright issues & the 10Play website keeps detecting my VPN.  So far, I can’t find a reliable source online. Frustrating. I was looking forward to seeing Billie compete again along with others. Part of me understands the copyright stuff but in the end it’s all about $$$$$ and really, who does it hurt if I watch it?  So, this will be the first season I’ve missed ‘cause it hasn’t been easy but I’ve always managed. 🥺

[Snazzy Daisy]

1 hour ago, limecoke said:

I’m feeling sorry for myself because my source for MCAU (I’m in the US) has completely brought down the hammer on the copyright issues & the 10Play website keeps detecting my VPN.  So far, I can’t find a reliable source online. Frustrating. 🥺

Go to Reddit, under r/MasterchefAU, there’s a link for you to stream or download each episode. Enjoy! 😉 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Chris Tran @ team challenge (E03)...

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by SnazzyDaisy

[SnideAsides]

On 4/19/2022 at 10:18 PM, katisha said:

So, it turns out I couldn't stand to watch Masterchef AU without being able to edit out the interminable recaps and ads, so I got a PVR today and tuned in for my first episode.

I have a few random thoughts.

• Calling the past contestants "favourites" is really quite a misnomer because 75% of them aren't!  They should be called "Three actual favourites and nine people who were still money/fame-hungry enough to bother coming back when we asked".
• Apparently there was a lot of commentary on Twitter last night about the complete absence of the three former judges in any of the footage from the seasons of past contestants.  You would hope that's for contractual reasons because deliberately editing them out entirely seems very "cancel culture".  They were a big part of how some of those contestants got where they are today.

Most of the favourites already came back two years ago. And I assume Marion and Adam were busy having actual careers still.

They had no issue highlighting the judges at the start of All-Stars. Maybe they decided not to undercut the closure of that montage.

[katisha]

Right now I'm confused about what I'm watching - is it 'Masterchef - Fans vs Favourites' or 'The Julie Goodwin Show'?  Seriously, I get that she's popular, that she was the original winner, that they hope having her on the show is going to ensure healthy ratings but I'm already tired of seeing her so much in every episode and it's only the first bloody week!  And it's not even that I dislike Julie or even have any negative feelings towards her, because she seems a really nice lady.  I just think it's a much more interesting show when more than one contestant is constantly featured.  I doubt I'm the only one who feels this way!

That's about all I've got after tonight's episode, when I was starting to wonder if they were going to award Julie with a sainthood, let alone immunity from the elimination on Sunday.

[Snazzy Daisy]

Drama! Drama! Drama!

MCAU 2022 should be renamed as Masterchef Australia: Just Julie

Enough with Julie Goodwin, geez! 🙄

Can we have other Favs now please… 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by SnazzyDaisy

[TVbitch]

I've only watched the first episode. They did focus WAY too much on 2 or 3 contestants who had 5 minute tastings while others flashed by so fast, I could barely see their dish. I mean, I like caramelized cabbage as much as the next guy, but sheesh!

Also, being deep into the current season of the blissfully stoic Masterchef UK, I am finding it hard to deal with all the clapping, whooping, tears and OTT music that lets me know when a moment is super majestic and poignant. I guess I will see how it goes...  

[babs1226]

Harry is a talented cook, but her arrogance may do her in.  I do think the right person went home.  I was happy to see in the previews that Shannon Bennett will be making a visit to the MC kitchen at some point.  I've missed him!

[ReallyRealReality]

On 4/20/2022 at 1:18 PM, limecoke said:

Well, while enjoying what comments there are, I’m feeling sorry for myself because my source for MCAU (I’m in the US) has completely brought down the hammer on the copyright issues & the 10Play website keeps detecting my VPN.  So far, I can’t find a reliable source online. Frustrating. I was looking forward to seeing Billie compete again along with others. Part of me understands the copyright stuff but in the end it’s all about $$$$$ and really, who does it hurt if I watch it?  So, this will be the first season I’ve missed ‘cause it hasn’t been easy but I’ve always managed. 🥺

I'm also in the US and I've been watching AU TV shows on SHVideos dot net.  There's no need for a VPN there, even though I have one for other stuff.  Enjoy the show(s)!