‘Masterchef’ overcomes the barrier of the tenth season with an important revolution never seen before in the program. The TVE format, which it produces in collaboration with Shine Iberia, opens its stage with the eleventh edition in which there will be a new mechanic and twice as many applicants, who will also face the largest number of tests in history. For the first time, the contest doubles its emissions and, every week, it will broadcast two consecutive installments, on Monday nights and Tuesdays. An XL extension of the most watched format on the public channel, which premieres tonight at 10:00 p.m. –the second chapter tomorrow at 10:30 p.m.–, and in which the three veteran judges repeat: Pepe Rodríguez, Samantha Vallejo-Nagera and Jordi Cruz.
“The casting has been a nonsense: half of Spain is on the set, life itself recorded and taken to the world of cooking, everything has been very beautiful, extravagant and very human,” explains chef Pepe Rodríguez, about a selection process of contestants to which, in this edition, some 70,000 amateur cooks registered, of which 60 will fight for the white apron. For her part, Samantha Vallejo-Nágera is “very happy with the experience” of dubbing programs. “This is our life two, which has eaten life one, but a very fun life of work, of having a good time, it is a very entertaining edition, like a series that you get hooked on,” says the cook.
For Jordi Cruz, this eleventh season means “twice as many hurdles to jump, twice as much effort to make, and offers an analysis of how cooking is today.” “And on a social level we have learned a lot and they have been very gastronomic programs and very interesting due to the social mix”, values the winner of three Michelin stars. Thus, the CEO of Shine Iberia, Macarena Rey, assures that this year’s ‘Masterchef’ has been one of “contrasts”. “It has been a very hard edition, it has not been easy to do this program two days a week,” reveals the directive.
new mechanics
The new stage of the most popular cooking contest on television begins with a new mechanic that will change the program to a certain extent, but will maintain its essence. To begin with, two weekly programs will be broadcast with only two tests, instead of the usual three. In the first weekly installment there will be two challenges on the set, one of them a knockout, and, in the second weekly installment, an outdoor test and another elimination. The applicants must give 100% in each challenge because two contestants will say goodbye each week.
Among the candidates for the new edition, for the first time in the history of the format, there will be a 19-year-old cooking student, a former participant of ‘Masterchef junior’, who will return to the kitchens.
A Harley-Davidson-loving judge, a Venezuelan Dominican priest and a technician from a Spanish multinational telephone company, number one fan of ‘Masterchef’, capable of remembering everything about the format, will also try their luck. The winner, as usual, will win a cash prize of 100,000 euros, the program’s trophy and the chance to publish their own recipe book.
But to get to the last gala, the applicants will face all kinds of challenges, such as preparing a ‘gourmet delivery’, dealing with ancestral conservation techniques, competing in the veal race or the honey battle, cooking all kinds of international dishes, presenting a sandwich without bread and even making a completely chocolate cocoa tree.
In addition, ‘Masterchef’ will once again take the kitchens off the set located in the Madrid town of Fuente el Saz de Jarama. Their dishes will be served in the cloister of the Toledo cathedral, in the depths of the Oceanogràfic in Valencia, on the snowy Andorran slopes of the Grau Roig station, in the last show of the Circus of Horrors, in a residence for the elderly and in Cuenca, Spanish capital of gastronomy 2023.
surprise guests
The program will reopen its kitchens and restaurants to popular guests. In ‘Masterchef’ the singer Miguel Bosé will sit; the presenter Toñi Moreno; the winners of the ‘celebrity’ version Miki Nadal, Juanma Castaño, Tamara Falcó and Lorena Castell; other ex-participants of the ‘talent’, such as Anabel Alonso, Mario Vaquerizo, Terelu Campos, Carmina Barrios or María Escoté; the journalist Mercede Milá; or the impersonator Carlos Latre.
In addition, the ‘Masterchef’ recording studio has been reformed for editing, with the premiere of two sets. In one of them there will be a walk of fame with all the winners of the program, where tests will be carried out.