‘There’s no favouritism whatsoever’: MasterChef judges Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen defend being close to two contestants on the show and deny that they have an unfair advantage
MasterChef judges Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen have defended being close to two contestants on the show and have denied that they have an unfair advantage in the competition.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph this week, the pair insisted that there is ‘no favouritism whatsoever’ on the cooking show.
Jock had previously employed Laura Sharrad as a chef at his restaurant Orana in South Australia and Andy has starred on another food show with Ben Milbourne.
‘There’s no favouritism whatsoever’: MasterChef judges Jock Zonfrillo (right) and Andy Allen (left) have defended being close to two contestants on the show and denied that they have an unfair advantage. Pictured centre is new judge Melissa Leong
Jock said there is even extra pressure on Laura to perform on the show.
‘I said it in the first tasting, there is no favouritism,’ he said.
He added: ‘If anything, Laura will be at a disadvantage carrying the weight of cooking for her mentor.’
Interesting! Jock had previously employed Laura Sharrad (pictured) as a chef at his restaurant Orana in South Australia
Laura agreed that she will be under the pump while cooking for Jock.
Andy said he’s actually friends with a lot of contestants on the show but said he’s not playing favourites and will purely judge based on the quality of the food.
‘However we judge the plate of food that is put in front of us and not the person that puts it there,’ Andy said.
Andy and Jock are joined by Melissa Leong as the new judges of MasterChef Australia, replacing Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston.
Connections: Andy has starred on another food show with Ben Milbourne (pictured)
New lineup: Andy and Jock are joined by Melissa Leong as the new judges of MasterChef Australia, replacing Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston. The new judges are seen with Dave Hughes and Osher Gunsberg
On Tuesday, George surprised his Instagram followers when he praised the competition after the show’s grand debut on Monday night.
‘OMG. A massive result last night on MC12 launch night,’ he wrote underneath a photo of this year’s returning contestants.
The 41-year-old, who was judge on the series between 2009 and 2019, continued: ‘Congrats to Channel 10, Endemol Shine Australia, all the awesome crew, the contestants and the new judges. Well done!’
No hard feelings: On Tuesday, George (pictured) surprised his Instagram followers when he praised the competition after the show’s grand debut on Monday night
MasterChef Australia: Back to Win seems to have all the right ingredients this year, doing well in the ratings.
Monday’s episode also marked the highest ratings premiere for the show in five years, with 1,228,000 viewers across the five-city metro.
Tuesday’s episode of the hit Channel Ten cooking series pulled in almost 1.1 million viewers, with only Seven News and Nine News beating the program.
On Wednesday, an impressive 1,032,000 viewers tuned in.
MasterChef: Back To Win continues Thursday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten
Success: MasterChef Australia: Back to Win seems to have all the right ingredients this year, doing well in the ratings