Around four years ago I was lucky enough to be selected to take part in Series eight of MasterChef UK. To this day, hands down, it remains the most challenging thing I have ever done. If you are thinking of applying yourself then read on, but please don’t let this post put you off. Boy was it grueling, but I enjoyed every minute of it! And although I no longer work in the food industry, the experience truly confirmed my love of cooking.
The process begins with a simple online application form – what a doddle! If you are shortlisted, a friendly member of the team will call you with some more questions. At the time, this simply sounded like a friendly chit-chat about my original application. I didn’t discover until after that this was actually the second stage of application, and clearly, I was being ‘judged’ on said chit-chatting as to whether I had included enough of the notorious clichés required of a MC candidate. It turns out that I did - slightly mortifying!
I was then invited along for a filmed interview and I was asked to prepare a dish at home and bring it along with me. So off I trotted to the studios in Primrose Hill with my Pork Cheek Rillete tucked safely in my bag. I answered their questions - mainly about my preferred style of food and my type of personality, and not about my ability to, well...cook - and then went home and waited eagerly by the phone to hear if I had made it through to the next stage. At this point I had no idea how many applicants I was up against (Only a few tens of thousands), or how many stages there would be before filming would begin. But alas, I got the call.
The final stage before filming began was for the ‘chosen 100’ (which actually turned out to be only 80) to cook a dish for John and Gregg to taste ‘blind’. I maintain that this was the best dish that I cooked on the show. I went for a dessert – yes, we all know how much Greg Wallace loves a pudding – and I was given only one hour and fifteen minutes to get it on the plate. I went for a twist on ‘Boule de Berlin’ – ginger sugared doughnuts, with rhubarb jam and custard filling. Apparently it was one of their favourite dishes! (yes, that old chestnut). But I did note when my plate returned to me, it was so clean that it could’ve been put straight back in to the cupboard. Again, more waiting for the phone to ring...and it did! I was in the final 24 and would begin filming a few weeks later *cue yhe sleepless nights.
And here is where it gets a little controversial...Filming days are purposefully long, tense and tedious. It felt as if the producers intentionally created an atmosphere where the contestants felt immense pressure to compete with each other – yes, I know it is a competition – but I felt that I had spent the day in a pressurised container. We were prompted to begin discussions about x, y, z and then told to stop talking and not look at each other so that those infamous ‘staring-off-in-to-the-distance’ shots could be captured. And if a spontaneous conversation did happen, we were then asked to repeat it over and over again, word for word; so that they could capture it on camera – it’s no wonder contestants never look natural.
The next thing to address is a question that I get asked most often...”How do John and Gregg manage to taste all the food whilst it is still hot?” The simple answer is - they don’t. Lunch is normally served immediately after each cooking challenge so that all of the birds-eye stills can be taken of the food. The judges then taste all of the food STONE COLD (an important detail that is not revealed too often) meaning contestants need to be quite strategic in their menu choice; Whilst meat dishes are simply given more resting time, a piece of fish can very easily over-cook and dry out in the two hours it takes for filming to commence. Still, I suppose it keeps a level playing field if ALL dishes are tasted at the same temperature. And if anyone dares argue that their dish really would be best eaten warm, the judge’s defence is simply “we have been doing it this way for years” and of course this is true.
I had a bit of a disaster in my final round on the show and ended up going home after a classic ‘soggy bottom’ situation (yet another cliché I managed to conform to). I was devastated to be out of the competition but I also felt an immense sense of pride in having even taken part in a show such as MasterChef - It was practically an institution in my house growing up.
If you are thinking about applying, then my suggestion would be to just go for it! If you’re lucky enough to make it through, there will be intense highs and devastating lows, but you will have culinary opportunities that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
There is one downside...You will probably no longer be able to watch the programme once you have appeared on it. To me, it now seems like a spoof or parody of a superb show that I once loved.
The process begins with a simple online application form – what a doddle! If you are shortlisted, a friendly member of the team will call you with some more questions. At the time, this simply sounded like a friendly chit-chat about my original application. I didn’t discover until after that this was actually the second stage of application, and clearly, I was being ‘judged’ on said chit-chatting as to whether I had included enough of the notorious clichés required of a MC candidate. It turns out that I did - slightly mortifying!
I was then invited along for a filmed interview and I was asked to prepare a dish at home and bring it along with me. So off I trotted to the studios in Primrose Hill with my Pork Cheek Rillete tucked safely in my bag. I answered their questions - mainly about my preferred style of food and my type of personality, and not about my ability to, well...cook - and then went home and waited eagerly by the phone to hear if I had made it through to the next stage. At this point I had no idea how many applicants I was up against (Only a few tens of thousands), or how many stages there would be before filming would begin. But alas, I got the call.
The final stage before filming began was for the ‘chosen 100’ (which actually turned out to be only 80) to cook a dish for John and Gregg to taste ‘blind’. I maintain that this was the best dish that I cooked on the show. I went for a dessert – yes, we all know how much Greg Wallace loves a pudding – and I was given only one hour and fifteen minutes to get it on the plate. I went for a twist on ‘Boule de Berlin’ – ginger sugared doughnuts, with rhubarb jam and custard filling. Apparently it was one of their favourite dishes! (yes, that old chestnut). But I did note when my plate returned to me, it was so clean that it could’ve been put straight back in to the cupboard. Again, more waiting for the phone to ring...and it did! I was in the final 24 and would begin filming a few weeks later *cue yhe sleepless nights.
And here is where it gets a little controversial...Filming days are purposefully long, tense and tedious. It felt as if the producers intentionally created an atmosphere where the contestants felt immense pressure to compete with each other – yes, I know it is a competition – but I felt that I had spent the day in a pressurised container. We were prompted to begin discussions about x, y, z and then told to stop talking and not look at each other so that those infamous ‘staring-off-in-to-the-distance’ shots could be captured. And if a spontaneous conversation did happen, we were then asked to repeat it over and over again, word for word; so that they could capture it on camera – it’s no wonder contestants never look natural.
The next thing to address is a question that I get asked most often...”How do John and Gregg manage to taste all the food whilst it is still hot?” The simple answer is - they don’t. Lunch is normally served immediately after each cooking challenge so that all of the birds-eye stills can be taken of the food. The judges then taste all of the food STONE COLD (an important detail that is not revealed too often) meaning contestants need to be quite strategic in their menu choice; Whilst meat dishes are simply given more resting time, a piece of fish can very easily over-cook and dry out in the two hours it takes for filming to commence. Still, I suppose it keeps a level playing field if ALL dishes are tasted at the same temperature. And if anyone dares argue that their dish really would be best eaten warm, the judge’s defence is simply “we have been doing it this way for years” and of course this is true.
I had a bit of a disaster in my final round on the show and ended up going home after a classic ‘soggy bottom’ situation (yet another cliché I managed to conform to). I was devastated to be out of the competition but I also felt an immense sense of pride in having even taken part in a show such as MasterChef - It was practically an institution in my house growing up.
If you are thinking about applying, then my suggestion would be to just go for it! If you’re lucky enough to make it through, there will be intense highs and devastating lows, but you will have culinary opportunities that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
There is one downside...You will probably no longer be able to watch the programme once you have appeared on it. To me, it now seems like a spoof or parody of a superb show that I once loved.
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