Dear ‘MasterChef’ Producers, Twist Week Sucks And Everyone Hates It
The forced drama is not only unfair to contestants, but to the fans who come to 'MasterChef' for its food-focused positivity.
In case you missed it, fan-favourite, absolute ball of sunshine and one of the series best cooks, Amina Elshafei, was booted out of MasterChef: Back To Win last night.
The shock elimination happened at the hands of what is likely MasterChef’s worst theme week ever: Twist Week. As the name suggests, despite every challenge this season already having some form of twist to make each episode different, Twist Week has resulted in some very dumb decisions that have angered fans.
Can we all agree twist week is the worst and it should never happen again? #MasterChefAU
— ViVi B (@ViVi_RFObsessed) May 12, 2020
This anger peaked last night as fans watched MasterChef producers torment the contestants for the sake of manufactured drama. For yesterday’s Pressure Test, Darren Purchese’s had the contestants recreate his mango passionfruit pavlova with a recipe that was genuinely about 10 pages long.
Despite Pressure Tests famously being about a contestants ability to exactly replicate a complex dish, step-by-step, to a recipe, producers flipped the concept on its head. Instead of letting the cooks demonstrate their skill and ability, the judges took away their recipes and had them recreate the dish based solely off memory — which totally went against the spirit of the show and challenge at hand.
This “twist” left the contestants flustered as they tried to remember pages upon pages of instructions and measurements for a dish they didn’t even know existed an hour prior — which again, proved this challenge was really a test of memory and not skill.
People watching found it uncomfortable to see a normally chipper and confident Reynold sink into himself during a dessert challenge, and watch Poh slowly unravel and break down. In short, it was just mean and unenjoyable.
I hate this challenge because look at the contestants, look at their reactions, this isn’t a genuine test of their skills, I’ll be heartbroken for anyone who goes. #MasterChefAU
— Daryl (@xwickedmindx) May 12, 2020
I thought this show was about trying to find the best chef… No chef in real life would be given a 75 page recipe and then have it taken away and expected to deal with it. This isn’t a “twist”. It’s a massive “fuck you”
— Dave (@davey0511) May 12, 2020
Imagine getting eliminated from #masterchefau not because of your own recipe but because you couldn’t remember someone else’s recipe off by heart… I love you Masterchef but this challenge blows.
— Basic Masterchef Quotes (@BasicMasterchef) May 12, 2020
This forced drama particularly angered the fans of MasterChef who have enjoyed this season for its focus on good cooking over dramatic storylines. Unlike other cooking shows, like My Kitchen Rules, that have shifted focus towards personalities clashing over the cooking itself, MasterChef always prided itself on finding Australia’s best cooks.
Sadly, the choice to do Twist Week has reverted the show back to the tired, modern take on cooking shows. The joy of MasterChef is knowing that it doesn’t need gimmicky challenges to stay interesting — and really, people watch the show because it’s a nice, positive escape from sad news updates and all sad tv shows about the world ending.
Fans of the show have loved seeing the camaraderie between the contestants, who are meant to be in competition with each other. People have enjoyed hearing the judges give constructive critiques that actually help the cooks thrive and grow. And above all, everyone appreciates the drama-free focus on good food — at least, they did before Twist Week happened.
This was a bad challenge for #MasterChefAU. For a show that is always praised for how food-focused, positive and drama-free it is, this felt like the contestants were intentionally set to fail for added drama. All the contestants are upset and stressed for not much reward.
— Lucia (@lfsleigh) May 12, 2020
I think my main gripe with this challenge is that it is very much not in the spirit of what #MasterChefAU usually stands for. Just too much injected drama… there’s a reason why I don’t watch any other reality shows!
— Fiza Zali (@fizawanders) May 12, 2020
Twist Week is the worst. Please never do it again, @masterchefau.
It just feels like ‘Mean Spirited Prank’ week or ‘Torture the Contestants’ week.
I watch Masterchef for TV that feels like a warm hug not like a bully making me slap myself in the face. #MasterChefAU
— J Kaul (@j_kaul) May 12, 2020
But even if we were to judge the twisted Pressure Test for what it was, the judging criteria should’ve changed too. Instead, Jock made the snarky comment that chefs “cook with ingredients, not recipes” — which makes little sense when the critiques of the dishes were held to the standard of Darren’s original dish.
Being told to cook a pavlova and being given the general ingredients to do so is very different to asking contestants to literally recreate a dish that’s set in front of them. The contestants could easily use the ingredients to whip up something similar, but by the rules of a Pressure Test, that wouldn’t be, and evidently wasn’t, enough.
The most ridiculous twist I’ve seen on this show that caused an early exit of amazing cook. You can’t say they have to be ready to go with guts in the kitchen AND STILL expected them to have every elements on the plate! #MasterChefAU
— Leanne (@ennael37) May 12, 2020
“We cook with ingredients not with a recipe” Really! Total B.S. Maybe if it’s your own invention but not when you are trying to duplicate someone elses dish for appearance, texture and taste. #MasterChefAU
— Lettuce Lady (@LettuceDaze) May 12, 2020
To put into perspective just how dumb the concept is, the Pressure Test resulted in the elimination of Amina — one of the season’s most talented cooks — the same contestant who literally just won the previous sushi train immunity challenge.
And, yes, sure, Pressure Tests are about how well a chef can cope with a pressure. But is not having a photographic memory really something that someone should be punished for? Is this a cooking competition or a memory retention test?
Even as Amina walked out of the competition last night, it was evident how unexpected and unbelievable her departure was. Even Melissa broke down in tears while thanking Amina for her contribution to the show, and with that it became very clear that this was not an elimination that should’ve happened. At least not while chefs like Hayden — who literally served nachos with store-bought chips for one challenge — are still hanging around the kitchen.
Amina is an incredible human and it was a distinct honour to have met her and experienced her food. True soul can never be faked. https://t.co/QyjOBuG0UC
— Melissa Leong (@fooderati) May 12, 2020
But sadly from what we’ve seen already, we can only assume that Twist Week is going to get worse before it gets better. After all, the first twist of the week literally rewarded contestants for being unprepared and disorganised.
During Monday night’s service challenge, the first twist saw the two teams switch menus and kitchens in the middle of prep time. Then, in another terrible twist, the judges surprised the teams with the information that they also had to cook vegetarian options too. With the switch of kitchens and menus, Jock explicitly said that the teams could either start fresh or use what was already prepared.
But when it came down to judging, despite setting the rules himself, Jock complained over how Reynold and Jess didn’t use the other team’s pre-exisiting choux buns — proving that these “twists” are way more complex, and well, dumber, than the competition needs.
So here’s hoping that the MasterChef producers are listening and taking note because I think we’ve all had enough of Twist Week already.
MasterChef, you sit there. You sit there and think about what you’ve done today. Amina is gone. Reynold is embarrassed and upset. Everyone’s stressed, and for WHAT?! tWiST WeEK? BAD PRODUCERS 😠VERY BAD. GO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE DONE 😡 #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/VAGp4ICk5k
— Michelle Rennex (@michellerennex) May 12, 2020