Courtney_Alvin_Jimmy.pngUp close and personal with celebrity chefs at the Masterchef LIVE event last weekend showed that they’re all human and even manage a few failures. Want to find out who burnt the squid, who hasn’t got a clue about football and which celeb chef used to only eat vegemite sandwiches.
All the celebrity masterchefs and guest chefs were incredible at Masterchef LIVE last weekend. They were on the go the whole time, running from one presenter’s corner to the next with hardly time for their entourage to collect, empty, wash and prep everything again between all the sessions they conducted throughout the day. Yet, they all still managed a smile and maintained a convivial manner under their own pressure test.

Maggie Beer over-cooked the squid on the BBQ but that’s okay because we weren’t allowed to eat it anyway, so the char grill “burnish” marks were what she was looking to show us. Maggie’s so passionate about Barossa Valley that she was thrown into a total spin when she found out the night before that authorities wouldn’t allow her fresh produce to be transported interstate!

Adriano Zumbo confessed to being a fussy eater as a kid, only eating vegemite sandwiches, Milo and chicken schnitzel before undertaking a chef’s apprenticeship because he hated school. Can you believe that it was only through peer pressure from the other trainee chefs that coerced him into trying new flavours! Imagine a world without Adriano’s macarons now.

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Vincent Gadan played out part of the mean and arrogant Frenchman as he sternly judged his cooking class students’ attempts at mini macaron towers (not as easy as it seems, according the condition of some towers that I saw). But with his rugged good looks, chiseled body and a French accent that would make anyone melt, he had everyone enjoying lots of laughs and an unforgettable cooking adventure.

Queenslander Skye Craig couldn’t get the footy code right for Sydney Swans AFL stars trying their hardest to make a bunch of cupcakes look dainty. She may have been dwarfed by the football players who flanked her on either side, but Skye redeemed herself sufficiently with the delicious and innovative flavoured icecream at her Wild Sugar stand.

Who could forget the disappointment when Courtney got eliminated from Masterchef for specifying “spearmint” instead of just simply writing mint. Take a look at her reaction when I told her that, as a horticulturist, I also knew it was spearmint.

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With a laugh, Courtney said she’d send the producers over to have a quiet chat! Courtney teamed up with Alvin and Jimmy to put on a great show for the crowd.

With the likes of Peter Kuruvita from Flying Fish, Peter Gilmore from Quay, Mark Best from Marque and the legendary Tony Bilson among others also available for “grilling” and teaching us new things, is there any wonder we went home exhausted every night.