“We thought that Jesulín was not going to cook a single pepper”

2023-09-07 00:04:03

Jordi Cruz tells, with a certain sarcasm, that this year skepticism reigned among the members of the ‘MasterChef Celebrity’ jury. “We thought that Jesulín was not going to cook a single pepper, that Los Morancos were going to be the funny ones… Terrifying,” he admits. However, the first minutes of the eighth edition of the gastronomic ‘talent-show’, which begins today on La 1 at 10:35 p.m., put an end to prejudices. «They are very good people, zero problems, very funny, they take criticism and are hard-working. They have also become very good friends », he explains from the Vitoria Festival where the new edition was presented yesterday.

The list of contestants, as always, overwhelms. Together with Jorge and César Cadaval, from Los Morancos, and the right-handed Jesulín from Ubrique, the wife of Feliciano López, Sandra Gago; the film director Eduardo Casanova, the journalists Toñi Moreno and Tania Llasera, the models Daniel Illescas and Palito Dominguín, sister of Bimba Bosé; the rider and reality contestant Álvaro Escassi, and the actors Blanca Romero, Laura Londoño, Jorge Sanz, Miguel Diosdado and Genoveva Casanova, ex-wife of Cayetano Martínez de Irujo.

The fifteen celebrities will face the challenge of conquering the palates of Pepe Rodríguez, Samantha Vallejo-Nágera and Jordi Cruz in an edition in which, says the last one, «we have laughed a lot. It is to enjoy her because she has been very healthy and very pretty ».

At his side, Vallejo-Nágera corroborates it. “It’s not that there have been other more problematic castings, it’s that they were less fun,” he says. And he gives an example: “There are times when recording programs is hard for you, but this year we didn’t want to finish, we were delighted.”

The ‘celebrities’ will face the usual tests of the format, such as robberies, battles or following the chef, and new challenges: preparing an authentic pizza dough using the Italian boleo technique, replicating a typical dish from another country making ‘ match’ with the ingredients that are part of the gastronomic culture of said place or face the ‘MasterChef’ switchboard, with some of the funniest telephone operators who will have the keys to the recipes to prepare. And there will be a bingo to cook with the ingredients that are in their cartons.

In outdoor tests, ‘MasterChef Celebrity’ will travel to Ceuta for the first time to cook in the Mediterranean Sea Park. In addition, the participants will prepare a menu made up of traditional dishes from the Golden Age designed by chef Carlos Maldonado at Puy Du Fou, in Toledo, and will visit the palace of the Marquises of Luján to offer a gastronomic feast to the ‘La promesa’ team. , the La 1 series. They will also visit La Pérgola del Mediterráneo, the restaurant founded by Antonio Banderas, with the guest actor.

The winner will receive a prize of 75,000 euros, which will go to a charitable cause. In addition, both the first and second classified will enjoy a cooking course at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián. Meanwhile, over the course of the contest, viewers will be delving into the personality of the contestants. “It’s easy to put labels, but the beauty of ‘MasterChef’ is that it undresses people a lot and shows how people really are and serves to get to know them more openly,” Cruz points out.

This time, everyone seems to have taken it seriously. «Not even Jorge Sanz himself has come for a walk. You can’t dodge the bulge here,” says Pepe Rodríguez, aware of the fame that precedes the actor. “It is that the one who comes for a walk lasts us three minutes,” answers Cruz.

Two months paid

Among the curiosities of this edition is the preparation that Jesulín has undergone. “Everyone has been ruined with their cooking classes -Vallejo-Nágera says-, but Jesulín left for two months to work on a payroll at a restaurant.” «But to work, huh? To wash dishes and whatever it took”, confirms Jordi, who acknowledges that, before having a baby, recording ‘MasterChef’ seemed “very hard”. “Now it seems like a walk on the clouds,” he says with a laugh.

The same laughter that caused the kiss that the actress Anabel Alonso planted on Cruz in one of the programs and that these days has gone viral as a result of the “piquito” of Luis Rubiales to Jenni Hermoso. “Too much has been said about Anabel’s kiss and little about the one that Tamara (Falcó) gave me,” Cruz warns amused. “Was that desired?” Vallejo-Nágera asks him. “Tamara did not ask me for permission,” Cruz jokes. “And you haven’t denounced it?” asks Pepe ironically.

Asked about how much of a script there is and how much of spontaneity in cases like that, Rodríguez replies that “it is impossible to script Anabel.” “We do that because we are having a good time, we want to have fun and we do it jokingly and with love,” explains Cruz. In fact, in this season “Jesulín was very kissy,” advances the cook, who settles the controversy by making it clear that the image of Rubiales and Anabel’s are not comparable. «You cannot mix a moment of entertainment and having a good time, where these things arise, with the other. It has nothing to do with it, although aesthetically it may seem so.