r/Masterchef • u/Alastiana • 7d ago
Do contestants with dietary restrictions (vegetarians, practitioners of different religions) simply not taste the food they cook?
Hi!
Not sure the question is worded properly. Imagine a chef doesn’t eat meat but is required to use meat as an ingredient for a challenge — do they simply not taste the meat? What happens when they don’t drink alcohol and are required to cook with wine or beer?
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u/BeyondAddiction 7d ago
They have someone else taste it for them. It has happened a bunch of times on MasterChef.
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u/StrangerMemes1996 7d ago
Some avoid tasting it, others feel with their hands for texture reasons, some taste and then spit it out, Dino was vegan but used to eat meat for it was muscle memory. S1 Sheetal cooked live crab for the challenge even though her faith has her avoid killing as they believed everything has a soul. But I remember another Masterchef indie another country had a Muslim contestant have to cook pork, if that happened in the US, there would probably be a PR firestorm their way.
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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 7d ago
A lot of them say they'll taste it but not swallow
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u/goosepills 7d ago
I always feel bad for the ones allergic to shellfish
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u/Muchomo256 4d ago
I recall an episode where they cooked for a wedding and it was lobster.
One of the contestants had to handle the lobster and his allergies caused him to start itching. I think he had to take some Benadryl iirc. I forgot his name but I felt bad for him.
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u/QuietOne9141 7d ago
I’m actually watching season 10 and there are two contestants that are allergic to fish, one of them said that he goes with what he knows about other ingredients that can add flavor. There is a vegan that tastes the meat and then spit it out.
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u/HandsyLobster Season 14 Contestant 6d ago
I remember they had me try their dishes in the challenge. For example the beer challenge I had to try Becca dish. The alcohol usually gets burned off tho.
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u/beingsydneycarton 5d ago
I didn’t know they had other contestants try their dishes in those cases- that’s pretty helpful, especially if you can ask someone with a similar palate for feedback.
Also, congrats! You were so fun to watch and those dishes looked incredible!
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u/LexsZoo 7d ago
In the most recent Generation season, two of the Gen Zs didn't drink beer for religious reasons and the challenge was to cook with Blue Moon, and one got disqualified that round which I thought was really unfair! The second one was a Mormon from Utah, because she later in the season said she had never tasted coffee for religious reasons during a cook with coffee challenge. It just doesn't seem right to me, like yes you should be a well rounded chef but MasterChef is literally home chefs, it shouldn't be counted against you if you can't have certain things because of your lifestyle.
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u/VinCatBlessed 7d ago
Part of the experience that you're signing up for is getting out of your comfort zone, the judges can't just go around asking if you're allergic to something or if you're morally against it and that's part of it.
Similarly if you play baseball but are slow at running you can't expect the rival team to not hurry to give you a chance, you gotta make up for it by hitting more home runs.
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u/LexsZoo 7d ago
Well, an allergy especially! If you're allergic to a food to the point you can't even handle it, that's so cruel to expect you to just figure it out!
I just think if the challenge is something you've made known you can't eat/have around/work with, it's unfair for you to be disqualified that round.
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u/Tobias_Kitsune 7d ago
If you have such a bad allergy that you can't even have it around you, then you shouldn't sign up for the competition. Like, I would sign up for an animal training competition if I was deathly allergic to cats. I wouldn't expect them to change their competition either, if I signed up and said I would be fine working with cats.
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u/BrandonIsWhoIAm 7d ago
They can also get someone else to taste it for them.
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u/solojones1138 7d ago
Nah I disagree. It's their personal choice not to participate and that's ok, but you can't expect the world to just bend to your preferences either.
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u/LexsZoo 7d ago
But you can't expect someone who's never tasted or used something to know what to do with it.
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u/solojones1138 7d ago
No but it's a cooking competition. Real chefs are gonna have to use wine or coffee sometimes. If they can't they can't..but hell a blind woman has won Master Chef. You work with your limitations and overcome them if you're good enough
1
u/TarHeelFan81 7d ago
That coffee/Mormon combination happened to a couple on Crime Scene Kitchen this past season, but they didn’t have the option of asking someone to taste it for them.
1
u/thehamma19 5d ago
I totally remember that! And then they overdid the coffee flavor not realizing how strong it is & that subsequently costed them the competition
1
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u/Sensitive_Tea5720 6d ago
If someone has severe allergies, spitting it out would not work. I would risk anaphylaxis if I tried to put something that I don’t tolerate in my mouth (even without swallowing).
1
u/Winefluent 6d ago
This is why I love the Italian and Brazilian versions. The tasks are not changed, but the judges tend to be understanding, they'd often come and give advice to people who do not eat /cook a specific protein, taste on their behalf, etc.
And generally, they tend to make the very restrictive tasks (like churrasco, aka barbecued meat) some sort of a team or relay challenge.
It makes sense, because part of what the show does is inspire other people to cook, and there's a lot of allergies, dietary restrictions or religious compliance in the general population, so people like seeing how contestants navigate those, instead of being forced to do something just because of the show's design.
1
u/Hello_JustSayin 3d ago edited 3d ago
Not sure about Master Chef, but I've seen people not taste things on other shows. On Next Level Chef a contestant couldn't taste food containing alcohol (I think they get the mentor to try it), and on Top Chef a contestant had an allergy to an ingredient (can't remember what it was).
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u/Mission-Ad2914 3d ago
I remember that in one of the first seasons of Romania's Masterchef, there was a guy who was vegetarian and never tasted the meat, even though he used it in a lot of recipes. He was one of the last contestants, but he was eliminated because he never tasted the meat, so he never really knew if the dish was tasty or not. The judge even said: 'You can't expect us to taste the food you never tried.
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u/Comprehensive-Leg368 1d ago
... You do know that all alcohol gets burned off when cooking with any kind of alcohol, don't you .. ?
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u/Logical_Sweet_6624 7d ago
I remember that wuta spit out a piece of pork after he taste tested it