After months of filming, with the largest casting ever experienced in an edition of MasterChef, with the judges “exhausted”, next Monday, March 27, the 11th edition of MasterChef arrives at prime time on RTVE. And it will not be much less an edition like the ones up to now.
At the request of RTVE, Shine Iberia, the producer of the culinary talent, has embarked on a mammoth adventure: twice as many contestants, twice as many days, twice as many tests and twice as many broadcasts. Yes, MasterChef 11 opens this Monday, but only the first installment, since the second, and this will be the case for this entire edition, will be broadcast the next day, on Tuesdays.
The idea is to shorten the MasterChef broadcast that has always lasted until dawn. To do this, RTVE asked the production company to duplicate everything. In the new edition, 30 applicants participate, divided into two groups, who will have to face more tests than their predecessors.
On Mondays, with the exception of this first one, which will last longer due to the pre-selection and although the gigantic casting of 1,0000 candidates will be shown at the gates of the Royal Palace, it will last a little longer than the rest of the programs.
But after this first, the division of two episodes per week will be as follows: on Mondays all the tests will be on set, now with one more set than in other MasterChef. There will be a first test and a second that will be qualifying. That is, each week two contestants will be eliminated, one in each program.
On Tuesdays there will be an introduction on the set and the outdoor test that this year will cover Spain from Cádiz to Andorra “going through everything in between,” says Samantha Vallejo-Nágera. From the cathedral of Toledo, to Cuenca, gastronomic capital 2023, to the ski slopes of Andorra, to a residence for the elderly, an exterior that MasterChef had been wanting to do since the pandemic and that they promise will be more than emotional.
The only thing that does not change is that at the head of all this macrocanstig, “the biggest we have done in years,” says Macarena Rey, CEO of Shine Iberia, are followed by Pepe Rodríguez, Samantha Vallejo-Nágera and Jordi Cruz. The three agree to ensure that “life two”, that is, MasterChef, “has ended up eating life one”.
They have never experienced such hard filming -filming that has not yet finished, so the winner of the MasterChef trophy still has an owner- and never before have they spent so many hours dedicated to culinary talent. “At first we were a little scared,” Samantha says about the day Shine told them that Masterchef 11 was going to be a double game. “We see Jordi or Macarena more than our families. It’s like a series that you have to get hooked on from the beginning, she points out.
And Pepe Rodríguez adds that “you leave your skin, that’s how they demanded it of us and that’s how we charge it”. Because for the three chefs and for the entire MasterChef team, its eleventh edition has been more than a challenge, but a challenge that anyone would dream of.
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