Season 17 of Masterchef Australia has started from April 28th onwards. In India the telecast is a day later. We were able to watch the first episode on April 29th. The new episodes become available only later in the evening. The telecast is happening on Jio Hotstar, since Disney Hotstar has been bought out by Jio.
Back to Win
This time all the contestants are alums from other seasons of Masterchef Australia. Some like Callum, Laura and Sarah are coming back for the third time, but for most of the folks it’s their second outing to try and win the competition. I have mixed feelings about ex-contestants coming back to the competition, especially trying for the third time !! Can totally understand why some folks like Declan, Savindri and Rue may want to try one more time, but coming back for the third time seems a bit too much.
Episode 1 – A Service Challenge
Gordon Ramsay kicked things off for this season. He may be foul mouthed, but his commitment to his craft is 200%… he could just figure out that something was raw just by looking at it underneath a mound of salad !
The 24 contestants were broken up into three teams and they had to make a main and a dessert for firefighters. The three captains were Callum, Sarah and Laura. Callum was fantastic as a captain – totally organised and played to the strengths of his team members. No surprises that the green team that he led, won the service challenge.
We have never liked Sarah much. It could be because she comes across as being aloof and not a team player. They had huge issues in the blue team that she was leading. Not much communication between the team members and Sarah. It’s probably her blind spot. She had strong cooks as part of her team but they couldn’t pull off a spectacular main. The dessert which was Carrot halwa made by Depinder and rough puff pastry made by Theo was rated outstanding.
Laura should ideally not be a captain. Not much of communication happening in the red team and they under delivered despite having strong cooks like Sav and Declan. Could it be because Laura was leading a team that had Andre, (her ex-boss) and she was not comfortable with that ? Whatever it was, they couldn’t deliver either the main or the dessert to the judges’ satisfaction.
Episode 2 is about winning a major advantage and one person from the green team will get that. Will write about it after watching the episode.
Happy to have Masterchef Australia back.