MasterChef fans say that recent years of the show have been “lacking”.

MasterChef fans have revealed what they think is ‘missing’ from this season of the show, with some saying it’s ‘lacking’. Photo: Ten

MasterChef fans have previously shared their criticism over Channel Ten bringing back another Back to Win version of the show this year, citing they’d prefer to see regular people fighting to win. Every contestant this year is someone fighting to win after not making the cut previously, and many of them are people who now work in the food industry professionally.

Now, many fans are sharing their other gripes with the show, with some saying they miss the audition rounds of the show, as well as “the more restrictive challenges”. But previous contestant Hayden Quinn responds to fans and tells Yahoo Lifestyle why the Back to Win seasons are much harder than regular seasons.

MasterChef fans angry over missing moments from this year’s season

Taking to Reddit, one fan asked their fellow MasterChef fans, “Does anyone miss the Top 50 week? Been rewatching season 4 lately, and I miss the Top 50 ‘Bootcamp’ styled week to determine the Top 24. It gave us more depth to the contestants and we can see their growth before the competition started.”

They added that the bootcamp made the “top 24 feel exclusive” and showed it was a “challenging” road to get there.

Many others agreed, with one person writing, “Yeah I won’t lie, I miss watching auditions! It was always a good introduction to the incoming contestants.”

“Totally miss it,” another said. “I’m…not hating the new season – great cooks, entertaining cast, nice people. But, the new season is lacking all the things I traditionally love about MC AU. Namely, watching kitchen amateurs do their best to impress, and then grow as cooks and people while we watch and get to know them.

MasterChef fans have revealed they miss the boot camp style episodes to narrow down the final 24, and also the mystery boxes. Photo: Ten
“The two (or more) episodes of auditions, and then the helterskelter of a huge batch of people battling out to ‘actually be on the show’ was a blast. It was a great set-up to the rest of the season.”

“The auditions were my favourite part,” a third said. “It helped me get to know the contestants.”

Another suggested the reason behind it is likely the budget and the difficulty of filming such big-scale episodes like that.

“I do miss it, but I can see that production wants to really limit [the show],” they said. “That must have been really hard to film [not gonna lie]. Like many reality shows nowadays across different formats have really reduced those big bootcamp stuff and are now more condensed.”

Others also said they “miss the more restrictive challenges”, with one user asking if others felt the same. They wrote, “I fondly remember in earlier seasons (back when I was still a child) that a fair few challenges highly restricted what people were able to use or the tools in which they had to prepare the meal.

“Mystery box challenges come close, but I find the ‘can only use a wok to cook’ or ‘dish must use fish’ challenges to always be the most interesting to watch. Hope there’s more like that coming this season.”

“I agree tbh, too many challenges for last couple of years seem to be cook almost what ever you want, open pantry and garden,” another said.

“Yes. Just an emphatic yes,” a third wrote. “Every challenge is basically ‘cook whatever you want.’ I miss when they pushed contestants outside their comfort zones in every episode.

“I miss mystery boxes without eliminations too. Most of the contestants are not professional chefs, even though it’s Back to Win. It’s good to get a bit of feedback and familiarise yourself with the judge’s palate. And it rewards creativity.”

“I want them to bring back the everything mystery box,” someone else said. “It was always so fun to see how they could creatively cram all the ingredients into their dish in some cohesive way.”

Hayden Quinn reveals why Back to Win seasons are harder than regular seasons

Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle, previous MasterChef contestant Hayden Quinn reveals that while there may be some changes to Back to Win seasons, it is actually much harder to compete the second or third time around.

“I think it was harder, not only because the skill and the level was better, but also you put yourself under more pressure, because the expectation’s a lot higher,” he tells us. “When you go on there the first time, no one knew who you were, no one really cared, [the viewers were] there to be entertained, watch the show, you know, cheer for the people they liked and watch some massive stuff ups for the others.”

Hayden says Back to Win seasons are harder than regular seasons. Photo: Instagram/hayden_quinn
He continues, “But when you go back a second and third time, it’s like you’ve got a brand to represent, you’ve got a style of food that you’ve got to try and cook. The pressure’s definitely on, it’s a different vibe for sure.”

Hayden also defended the show from fan comments, saying, “I can understand where they’re coming from, but I do love seeing some of those familiar faces, because there’s definitely people from past MasterChef seasons that we’re like, ‘Oh, that person could have done, you know, really well, kept on going, or they just made one little mistake,’ and they missed their chance to continue on.”

He also adds that while many of the contestants in the Back to Win competition work in food, not everyone does.

“I also think that people don’t realise that all of these guys and girls have complete different lives outside of the MasterChef kitchen, whether it be running restaurants, or catering, or you know, totally not having careers in food, but still loving cooking,” Hayden tells us. “There’s a whole mix of people, someone like Callum, who’s got a catering company, a cooking store, a restaurant, you know, he’s deep in it.”

“And then others like Declan, he lives in a food world, but he’s a chippy, he works on tools everyday, so he’s not the same as someone like Callum or Sarah Todd or these people that are in restaurants every day.”

Hayden adds, “So, you know, you’re sort of a little bit behind because, you know, [Declan’s] making a living building beautiful buildings, and other people are in the kitchen every day. So it can definitely be a big difference between all the people in the kitchen. That’s for sure.”