The eighth season of MasterChef returns to Spanish Television in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. This Monday, April 13, the culinary talent returns to La 1 at 10:05 p.m. with an unknown question: when will they be able to finish the program? "We started recording after Reyes, so we had been working for three months," Macarena Rey, executive producer of the space and CEO of Shine Iberia, producer of the format with RTVE, tells EL MUNDO. “The program is not complete, but we only have the end, so we have time. Normally the MasterChef issue runs until the summer ”, so his intention is to finish rolling when the confinement is lifted. Taking the necessary precautions.
“We took sanitary, distance and cleaning measures when the alarm went off in Italy. And thanks to that, no one on the team has become ill, ” continues Rey, regarding the sanitary protocols adopted before suspending the recordings. "For the team, the obligation to wear masks and gloves, for the contestants and the distance judges, to wash their hands, to disinfect themselves ... And we will do tests to make sure that we are all healthy before recording," he says of his intention to continue with the three editions of the show.
“We have the MasterChef Celebrity and MasterChef Junior calendars closed . We normally shoot Celebrity in the summer and Junior between the end of August and September, when the children don't have school. The way of producing it is going to have to change, but it is a program that has no audience, so our limitations are more organizational than what the viewer will perceive at home, "Rey concludes. In total, 200 people work at MasterChef, about 80 on set and the rest outdoors.
First contestant with a disability
Having said all this, the eighth edition of MasterChef promises spectacular tests, new dynamics and a very special casting with nearly 30,000 applicants. Among them, the first contestant with a disability. "We had been searching for many years because it is very difficult to find a person with a disability who wants or can face such tough tests as the ones we are proposing," confesses Rey. And Pepe Rodríguez, one of the three judges of the format along with Samantha Vallejo-Nágera and Jordi Cruz, insists that he will compete under the same conditions saying: «It must be like this. Not because of us, but because this person asked us strongly. And it is not valid. Good luck is useless and in the kitchen you can play with many weapons, "says the cook, who adds amused:" he also takes his anger. "
With almost twenty MasterChefs behind him between the three versions of the program, the drift of the format towards reality, discussions and conflicts is a risk that Rodríguez tries to weather with humor. «I personally think that I get serious and that I say things as they are. But I give my arguments with a horny point because I do it with all my life, "says the chef of the restaurant El Bohío, with a Michelin star. “It is true that television is sometimes very harmful. Because to record a third of the program we need eight or nine hours. And in that time many things happen: the contestant does not listen to you, hesitates you, takes you out of your boxes and they just put that image on you. We already know what we play, but since what happens in the program is so real, they hunt you at your best or worst moment. MasterChef has that pulse. And we play in that balance, "he admits. And speaking of the future of the program, with his usual sincerity, Rodríguez concludes: "the program is what worries me the least, what worries me is the restaurant."
Among the others selected, the spectators will find an Air Force commander who dreams of being a girl Almodóvar ; a Cuban who wants to make her hobby of cooking a profession; a musician who has had several businesses where he has sold from spices to erotic toys; a teacher of oratory with much lip; a caretaker who is similar to Chus Lampreave and who cooked for Adolfo Suárez; or a former truck driver and former hairdresser expert in traditional cuisine. The winner will take the trophy, 100,000 euros, the possibility of publishing their own recipe book and a Master's in Cooking, Technique and Product at the Basque Culinary Center Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences.
Among the spectacular outdoor tests, one of the hallmarks of the program, the applicants will cook for some of the actors of La Casa de papel, they will travel to Frigiliana (Malaga) to visit the only cane honey factory in Europe, they will visit in Gran Canaria a coffee plantation and they will honor elite athletes at the High Performance Center.
In digital, MasterChef Spain continues to grow with two million followers on its different accounts and a new profile on TikTok, the social network for the youngest. To continue inspiring the kitchens locked at home, the Instagram profile offers live recipes during quarantine and the MasterChef Online School expands its content every month with more than 300 classes with new recipes and tricks.
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