There is no MasterChef without controversy. If in the last edition of Celebrity it was Patricia Conde and her accusations of cheating and “substances”, in MasterChef 11 it was massive food poisoning. The first that occurs in the culinary talent. “This is an absolutely exceptional case in these 11 years of MasterChef in Spain, a program where it is an absolute priority to guarantee the food care of the people involved,” Shine Iberia, the producer of the program, assured EL MUNDO after returning to be found in the target by the complaint of one of the diners affected.
Everything happened in the recording of the outdoor test of the fourth MasterChef 11 program, broadcast this Sunday after the cancellation last Tuesday of the Copa del Rey broadcast. The applicants went to the Oceanogràfic, in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, where they had to prepare different dishes for workers at the center to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the largest aquarium in Europe.
The teams cooked a menu by chef Rakel Cernicharo (one Repsol sun) for 120 workers at this aquarium, which paid tribute to the marine world. As always in talent, the teams were divided into two, the blue team and the red team that experienced a lot of tension during cooking. In fact, Cernicharo warned several times that the dishes had many manufacturing errors, but no one suspected that any of the ingredients could be in poor condition.
The menu was made up mainly of seafood: trip to India with Valencian clòtxina, a kind of mussel, but smaller; a first course, Valencian molluscada, made up of oysters, clams and algae-based pesto; the second course, suquet thai de lubina, “a more sophisticated and traveling stew”, with coconut, dates and peanuts; and the dessert, Japanese cheesecake and seaweed, “a very tasty dessert with many textures.”
Although the producer of MasterChef has recognized the poisoning, it is unknown which of all the dishes that were prepared and presented caused “more than half” of the diners to fall ill.
The diner, Irene, one of the Oceanogàfic workers, who after posting on social networks that “more than 70 people ended up intoxicated” had to close her Twitter account, recounted after the broadcast of the program that her company “informed MasterChef of what happened”, but “it didn’t come to anything”: “The following days we couldn’t go to work. Public Health called us to investigate what happened, but it didn’t come to anything”.
“Four of my colleagues and I are at the table,” she continues to follow the thread of a photograph of the day she was recorded with her colleagues at one of the MasterChef tables. “All with gastroenteritis. The next night I had to go to the emergency room to have Primperan injected into my ass to stop vomiting. I lost 5 kilos in three days,” he added, recalling that said program was recorded last January for what that all have recovered. However, what has outraged this diner the most is that “they haven’t even had the decency to write to us to apologize.”
“Thank you, MasterChef, for the worst gastronomic experience I’ve ever had in my life. Since we’re here, I encourage you to also investigate MasterChef’s relationship with intensive farming a little more. Besis!”, Irene finished.
The publication received thousands of comments in a matter of hours criticizing the exterior cooking processes of the program. However, the day of the recording of the outdoor test of the Oceanogràfic was not a day of high temperatures, since it was recorded in January and both the judges and the applicants are seen dressed in coats. Although Public Health has not ruled, the poisoning probably came from one of the shellfish used to prepare the dishes.
MasterChef’s response and apologies came hours later through a brief statement and with the controversy already on the table. Shine Iberia confirmed the poisoning and described it as “an absolutely exceptional case”. Indeed, in the 11-year history of the program there has never been a mass poisoning, not even a minor one.
Shine Iberia claimed to be “very sorry” for what happened and defended itself against the accusations of not having worried about the intoxicated diners, stating that “they were in contact at all times through the Oceanogràfic, as they were company personnel.”
According to the explanations of MasterChef, in the Valencia outdoor test, the food “was analyzed at source with positive results and its traceability was guaranteed throughout the process.” In fact, the producer ensures that the analyzes and documentation of the process and treatment of the food that was used and cooked in said test were presented to the competent authorities: “The competent health authorities were informed and documented when we became aware of the facts “.
At the moment, neither the Oceanogràfic nor the competent authorities have commented on the poisoning or on its origin.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project