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- What Happens to All the Leftover Food on Celebrity MasterChef? We Have the Answer
What Happens to All the Leftover Food on Celebrity MasterChef? We Have the Answer
Network Ten
It’s an all-star season of Celebrity MasterChef , and we’ve been glued to our screens watching our fave celebs go head-to-head in the kitchen. Sure, MasterChef Australia did just finish, but what can we say? In the MasterChef world, there’s no such thing as too many cooks in the kitchen. We can’t get enough!
Like so many MasterChef fans, we love to come home after a long day to the wholesome comfort of watching hopeful chefs plate up their best dishes. While our celeb contestants may be in the public eye, they’re no different in their desire to impress judges Jock Zonfrillo, Melissa Leong and Andy Allen.
The 10 celebrities who signed on for the season are Ian Thorpe, Rebecca Gibney, Dami Im, Chrissie Swan, Archie Thompson, Nick Riewoldt, Matthew Le Neves, Dilruk Jayasinha, Collette Dinnigan and Tilly Ramsay, daughter of famous chef Gordon Ramsay.
Of course, it’s still a competition, and we have to say goodbye to some of our faves each week. So far, we’ve lost Chrissie Swan, Dami Im and Matt Le Nevez. Gone but not forgotten!
While our celeb contestants might be amateur cooks, they’re still plating up some truly impressive dishes, so the real question here is not who’s going to win the comp, but rather, what happens to all that delicious food at the end of every ep?
According to Now To Love, it all gets eaten! After the judges have tasted the meals and delivered their verdicts, contestants can then devour the meals they’ve worked so hard on. They’re also encouraged to take leftovers home, to avoid any food going to waste!
If you’re wondering what happens to the abundance of food that never gets cooked up in the first place, though, don’t worry! The show does everything it can to minimise food waste.
In fact, through a partnership with the not-for-profit food rescue organisation SecondBite, the show has provided over 173,000 free meals for people who need them. And that’s just in the last year! The show has been donating to SecondBite since 2013.
In an interview with news.com.au, judge Jock Zonfrillo explained how it all works.
“We do what’s called the crew pantry where the crew nominate a charity to give to and put a donation into the jar then they take whatever they want from the crew pantry,” Zonfrillo explained.
“What’s left after that goes to SecondBite. Then there’s the waste. We’ve got a very fine composting machine which turns food waste into compostable material that goes into the MasterChef garden.”
The SecondBite warehouse receives pallet deliveries of food that’s been deemed damaged or not good enough by MasterChef or supermarkets like Coles, and Zonfrillo said it was “crazy” to see “how little is wrong with it”.
From there, Zonfrillo explained that “the volunteers sift through the pallet deliveries” and then send it out to the SecondBite centres for meal preparation.
“There is quality fruit and vegetables getting sent out to various centres to make meals,” he said, calling it “a great system”.
“Everyone is there voluntarily, doing something that’s good for the community and for people they don’t know who are in much less fortunate situation than they are,” Zonfrillo shared.
Celebrity MasterChef airs Sundays and Mondays at 7.30pm, on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.
