MasterChef series 22 viewers were left scratching their heads during Thursday night’s quarter-final
MasterChef viewers were left puzzled by Thursday evening’s quarter-final challenge.
The 22nd series features renowned chef Anna Haugh and restaurant critic Grace Dent replacing Gregg Wallace and John Torode as judges. The duo will put 48 of Britain’s finest amateur cooks through their paces with a series of demanding challenges.
During Thursday’s opening quarter-final of series 22, the initial task required the home cooks to prepare pancakes, making full use of the available fresh ingredients.
Yet it was the second challenge that confused audiences. Throughout the programme, distinguished food critic Jay Rayner appeared as a special guest to set a task for the contestants.
Jay, 59, said: “The challenge I’ve set you sounds very simple. I’ve asked you to make a salad. But we do not want a limp bowl of lettuce, we want structure, texture, we want a killer dressing… something that will rock us back on our feet.” The contestants were subsequently given 90 minutes to prepare their salads, reports the Mirror.
Nevertheless, audiences were perplexed by the salad challenge, taking to Twitter, now X, to express their views. One viewer posted: “#masterchef A salad …, a salad, are you for real” while another account responded: “Salad? Or a mix of things #MasterChef.”
Meanwhile, another fan made a reference to The Simpsons, joking: “#Masterchef You don’t win friends with salad, you don’t win friends with salad…” Another puzzled viewer simply wrote: “A salad?! #MasterChef” while a different fan joked: “No good story ever started with ‘I was having a salad and then’”.
After the task, Jhané and Sabina impressed Anna, Grace and Jay with their outstanding salads. Jhané created a Thai-influenced salad featuring grilled pork, pork skin, sugar snap peas, lettuce, mint, fennel and Thai basil. She accompanied it with deep-fried rice paper and a lime sesame dressing, which received praise for its ‘clever’ presentation.
Guest Jay was thrilled, saying: “This is exactly what I was hoping for when I set the salad challenge!”
Sabina also wowed the judges with her ‘harmony salad’, comprising of spiced black pea falafel, gem lettuce, carrot, pomegranate, salted chicken skin, beetroot quail eggs, puffed rice and curry leaves. It came with a confit garlic and mustard oil dressing. Jay described the salad as “amazing”.
Once all the competitors had presented their dishes, Jay acknowledged: “It was a tough challenge asking them to make a salad, some of them embraced it brilliantly!”
At the programme’s conclusion, Jhané and Sabina were confirmed as progressing to the next stage, alongside fellow competitor Jim.
MasterChef season 22 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
You must be logged in to post a comment Login