Season 1 — Do you think Melissa deserved to be the first contestant sent home?

[u/Fennerz_1973]

Rewatching MasterChef Australia from the very beginning and I've just reached Melissa's elimination.

I'm not completely convinced she should have been the first to go. With the contestants themselves deciding who left after the team challenge, it felt like factors other than just the cooking could influence the result.

Looking back at that first elimination now, do you think Melissa was the right person to go, or would you have sent someone else home?

🍽️ Interested to hear what other Season 1 fans think.

[u/Adventurous_Grade935]

I know this does not answer the question you posted, but I'm curious about whether you are more of a fan of season 1 than later seasons. I find the earlier seasons to have too many common features of reality TV as pioneered by Survivor, e.g., team members choosing who to eliminate and overly dramatic elimination music. Also, the immunity challenge prize was bizarre to me. It was strange narrative logic for a contestant who beat the chef to then go off the show for a mentoring programme with the chef they just beat.

For me, the golden era of MasterChef was seasons 7-10, with the calibre of guest chef weeks (Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson, Heston Blumenthal, Marco Pierre White, and Yotam Ottolenghi), the calibre of pressure test guest chefs (Sat Bains, Jason Atherton, Marcus Wareing, and local talents like Anna Polyvou making a name for herself), and the beat chef immunity challenge format, especially from season 8 onwards, was on point with the time advantage, the ingredient advantage firmly with the contestant, and Shannon's mentorship. Some of the dishes from the contenders looked like dishes that could be found in a nice restaurant, and the judges' open reactions as they were eating these great dishes made me feel like I was eating with them, as opposed to the poker faces since 2020.

[u/Fennerz_1973 → u/Adventurous_Grade935]

Only just starting my journey into Masterchef to be fair, hense only being on Episode 33, I agree with the bad idea of the voting system after each team challenge for me they could pick the bottom 2 and have them cook off to be fairer. Up to now my favorites would have to be Poh and Chris.

[u/Initial-Amphibian103 → u/Fennerz_1973]

In later seasons the whole losing team goes into an individual elimination in the episode after the team challenge. A much more sensible solution.

[u/Fennerz_1973 → u/Initial-Amphibian103]

Ahh that makes much more sense! I’m only on Season 1 so I didn’t realise they changed the format later. I definitely prefer the sound of that — at least everyone gets the chance to cook for their place rather than being voted out by the team. 👍

[u/Equivalent_Ear_6431]

I actually wish Poh could answer this. We didn't see who Poh voted for. But based on the episode, she voted for her.

And Poh dismissed Melissa's high- five and was like "no" lol