• Television The power of Macarena Rey, the 'mamma' of MasterChef: "People should not compete if they do not know how to lose"

"Let's hope that RTVE does not ask us again," say the judges of MasterChef when asked about this new MasterChef with double everything. Exhausted, with "life 1" -the family- absorbed by "life 2", that of MasterChef. "It is not sustainable over time mainly because of a physical problem," they insisted with the staff of RTVE present in one of the new sets modified and enabled to accommodate the mammoth edition that Shine Iberia has prepared by order of the public entity.

When Shine and RTVE were negotiating the new season of culinary talent, the chain made a request to which it could not say no – Macarena Rey, the CEO of Shine would not have thought to say no because one of her mantras is to always give the customer what he asks for-: the 11th edition of Masterchef It had to go in a double broadcast, two days a week and, therefore, with twice as many contestants, twice as many tests, twice as many sets and twice as much effort and sacrifice. "A MasterChef XL," they say.

Pepe Rodríguez, Samantha Vallejo-Nágera and Jordi Cruz have lived during all the months of recording, and it has not yet finished, in Shine's studios. Hours and hours of recordings, hours and hours of travel, hours and hours of outdoors and hours and hours of patience, a lot of patience. "There is a contestant who has lost 10 kilos since the recordings began. You can hardly see him," explains Macarena Rey. And it is that if a program like MasterChef with 15 or 16 participants is already demanding, it is not necessary to imagine much how it should be with 30.

The reason for doubling everything is that MasterChef will be broadcast two days a week: Mondays at 22.00 and Tuesdays at 22.30. Mondays are the day of testing on set. There will be two, one of them eliminatory. Tuesdays are the day of the outdoors. First there will be an introduction on set, then the outdoor test and then another elimination test. That is, every week two aspirants will leave, because many things change in this MasterChef, but the duration of the edition has to be the same which means concentrating twice as much of everything in the same number of weeks as in the size M editions.

There are contestants who in this edition even seem human

Pepe Rodriguez

"At first we got a little scared, but we're completely in life 2," Samantha explains. "We see Jordi or Macarena Rey more than our families," he insists, to which Pepe Rodríguez cannot avoid adding a "I have not argued with my wife and children for a long time."

The request of RTVE, risky also because nobody knows how the audiences will respond, led the program to recover one of the largest castings in its history, which will open tonight the program: 1,000 people gathered on the esplanade of the Royal Palace cooking for MasterChef. But it also led to having to search among more people, more people, worth the redundancy.

"The diversity of Spain is all on a set and the pressure is maximum. It's like a pressure cooker, when the spout jumps it jumps. It is life itself: extravagant, varied, but at the same time very human. There are contestants who in this edition even seem human, "says Pepe Rodríguez laughing, but pointing out a truth like a temple. In MasterChef 11 we will find a Dominican friar, "who has taken us years to find a religious," says Rey, even a tiktoker who as he enters the program takes away his mobile and "learns to relate to others face to face."

Some 70,000 people, of which 60 will fight tonight for the white apron, signed up for the casting: former MasterChef Junior contestants, an air traffic controller who wants to launch an air catering, a judge, Harleys fan and the number 1 fan of the format, able to remember everything about the format.

The MasterChef studio has been completely renovated for this edition, in which two sets are premiered. The first, which includes the supermarket, the living room and the kitchens, has been expanded by more than 600 square meters and in the kitchens more jobs have been installed so that the 30 applicants can compete at the same time. The gallery of contestants, the privileged place where the saved climb, has six meters more and has been decorated with an incredible library with more than 2,000 books.

The second set has almost 300 square meters and consists of the new restaurant and a multipurpose area, with a walk of fame with photos of all the winners, where some tests are presented. Here there will also be impressive scenery, such as an American promotional dance, a rodeo with a mechanical bull, a divination stand, a wedding banquet and a performance by the Sakura Duo.

The kitchen has 12 fixed cameras, a hot head and eight robotized ones. The other set is equipped with 10 fixed cameras and a hot head. In this way, the controller is capable of simultaneously recording up to 16 signals.

MasterChef "curls the curl more"

And the tests also change, "the curl is curled even more," says Samantha Vallejo-Nágera. More complicated tests to understand and do as it is to prepare a sandwich without bread. "A sandwich without bread does not interest me at all," says Pepe Rodríguez maintaining his line of 'the traditional' because there will always be things that never change in MasterChef.

RTVE asked us to do the program two days a la semna and has promised us that it will not happen again

Macarena King

The aspirants will face all kinds of challenges: prepare a gourmet delivery, develop with ancestral conservation techniques, compete in the beef race or the battle of honey, cook all kinds of international dishes and even make a cocoa tree completely made of chocolate.

"We have left our skin," says Pepe Rodríguez. "That's how they demanded it from us and that's how we charged it too. Those of us who come from the hospitality industry have more or less assumed how hard this is. It's a very fat beating," he says.

It is such a beating that if they asked him again today, surely the answer would be no. It is such a beating that for the first time the shortest presentation in the history of MasterChef was given and the reason was none other than having to go to record. Today it premieres, but the program is still being recorded, there is still no winner. Macarena Rey seems to say it jokingly, but there is some serious: "It is not easy to make this program two days a week and that is why RTVE has promised us that it will happen again."

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more

  • Masterchef