Just like all reality TV shows, MasterChef Australia has copped a massive revamp since its earlier days. After all, it’s been on Aussie screens for 17 years. However, there’s one change that Andy Allen reckons was for the best.
Back in the earlier days of MasterChef Australia — before we feasted our eyes on Poh Ling Yeow and Sofia Levin‘s gorgeous gowns, and saw Jean-Christophe Novelli‘s table slams — contestants used to live in one house.
Think of it like Big Brother, but with a bunch of home cooks who are stressing about the next elimination or pressure test and only had one kitchen to practice.
Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV, Andy Allen reflected on his time in the MasterChef Australia sharehouse and how his season was the last batch to experience such intense living conditions in the iconic cooking competition.
“My season was the last year. We talk about it all the time, because it’s very different these days,” Allen shared before revealing the strict rules they lived under.
“To give you a bit of an insight, when we say you live with the other contestants, we’re talking 24 people that range from the age of like, 19 through to mid-50s. Males, females, all walks of life. Back then, it was a lot more strict. So we literally went from the house to the set, and we were bound in those four walls. We weren’t allowed to go out and have dinners,” he continued.
“Back then, the show was massive, but also, the rules were very strict. We weren’t allowed our phones inside, we weren’t allowed the internet, and we weren’t allowed TV. The TV wasn’t allowed on because they didn’t want us to, like, I suppose, have any distractions.”
Allen admitted that these rules were “tough” for his fellow contestants. However, he did find comfort in cookbooks, which seemingly paid off as he won the season.
“It forced me to non-stop be flicking through cookbooks, cooking things. Like my whole life was those four walls and then going to the studio,” Allen said.
“It was the best thing and the hardest thing for someone like me, because if I, at the age of 23 in Sydney, could have gone out and seen my mates and had a couple of beers, I would have done that. But there wasn’t an option for me.
“It was literally just like, immerse yourself in this experience. So I often think that if the rules were like that back then, I probably wouldn’t have won because I wouldn’t have just gone as headfirst as I did back then.”
Would MasterChef Australia bring back the contestant sharehouse?
While the experience helped him focus on his culinary skills, he believes contestants wouldn’t be able to handle it nowadays.
“I don’t think people would cope these days. It all kind of went away. They didn’t live in a house, but everything got relaxed after COVID, for obvious reasons,” the MasterChef icon shared.
“I feel it brought the best out of people, and sometimes it brought the worst out in people. Whereas now it is really up to you how much you want to dip your toe in.”
While current contestants don’t live in a sharehouse that was reminiscent of a boarding school for cooking, Executive Producer Marty Benson confirmed they now live in an apartment block.
“There are two people per apartment, and each bedroom has its own en-suite bathroom. They share a kitchen, which is a massive change to 24 contestants living in one house with one kitchen,” Benson revealed to TV Tonight.
“In the old days, they used to roster through the night to get practice time in the kitchen. Nowadays, I know it sounds a bit wanky, but they do become MasterChef family. Obviously, not everybody loves everybody, but they are very, very tight.
“They have their own little dinner parties. They practice at the weekends. They can go home at the weekends if they want to. They can have their phones as well. So absolutely, the rules have changed from the old days.”
While the sounds of the OG MasterChef sharehouse sound spooky dooky, if I had to pick between that or the Married At First Sight apartments, I think the sharehouse with the tiny kitchen will suit me…
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The post MasterChef’s Andy Allen Calls Out Major Change That Completely Flipped The Show: ‘Very Strict’ appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
