You may recall that last week, Top 24 contestant Mario Montecuollo‘s beef cheeks were braised after it was discovered that he had previously worked as “head chef” at the Enmore venue Bar Racuda, which he owned.
While he should probably have been booted for that pun alone, the competition’s rules forbid that sort of experience, and so he was kicked off the show, in favour of next-in-line Jessie Spiby.
This week, doubts have been raised about another contestant on the show, Reynold Poernomo, aka the bloke that cooked last week’s fuck-off awesome apple dessert that human hands could seemingly never have assembled.
The judges wept at the sheer perfection of the dish, which, ICYMI, was made of frozen chocolate mousse, dipped in ganache and red coacoa butter, and made every other dessert look like a stale pop tart by comparison.
Per reports in News Limited, however, a number of the show’s fans are questioning whether the 20-year-old contestant is “over qualified” to be in a competition for amateur cooks.
The crux of the complaints seems to be that Poernomo comes from a culinary family – his mother owns the Sydney patisserie Artplate, while his older brother is a judge on the Indonesian version of Masterchef.
When it came to light that Poernomo had worked as a kitchen hand at the up-scale pastry restaurant, fans on social media began criticising Ten for breaking the rules of the show.
“You want to make us believe his mum only let him do the pots in her restaurant?” said one fan on Facebook. “This guy is more than just a home cook.”
The producers have called bullshit on these complaints, saying that they are aware of Poernomo’s background, and are happy to have him on board. They said:
“Both Shine Australia and Network Ten take the rules of the competition very seriously with regard to cooks being of an amateur status,” the rep said.
“Producers were made aware during the audition process that 2015 Top 24 contestant Reynold Poernomo’s family work in the food industry and that his elder brother Arnold is a judge on MasterChef Indonesia. The two programs are produced entirely separately and Reynold and his family have been very transparent in sharing all relevant information. All parties are satisfied that Reynold meets the criteria as an amateur home cook and is 100 per cent eligible to take part in the competition.”
Masterchef has experienced a return to form in ratings this year, so TBH, as long as Reynold keeps churning out dishes like the above apple (want) and Matt Preston‘s colourful pants choices remain on point, we’ll stay invested.
Images via Channel Ten
