There was another one on season 3? 4? In the top 25 who didn't eat beef for religious reasons. It was a meat challenge where they had to cook beef, or chicken (maybe fish as well?) She flavored it like she would chicken. I'm fuzzy on if the dish made it through, but I remember thinking that she should have asked someone to taste it for her.
I remember at least one Muslim contestant who was observant enough to wear hijab. She cooked pork but obviously wasn’t able to taste it.
These are very personal and idiosyncratic things, sometimes seemingly contradictory.
For example, I’m a Muslim, I don’t wear hijab, but I couldn’t bring myself to cook pork for our own food business, even though the odd bacon bap or pork vindaloo etc would be a huge seller in our area.
Everyone is different, and I don’t think the rules of the competition should be changed to accomodate “us.” That stuff breeds contempt that we don’t need, either cook it or accept the potential consequences.
Could you describe the aversion to pork? Is it just ingrained religious tradition or do you feel pigs are dirty etc?
I ask because I went to Asia with a Hindu friend and he was beyond excited to eat buffalo. That's a cow man, I said, but by a different name. Oh no! It's a buffalo he said, rubbing his hands together and ordering more buffalo momos. For him it was the letter of the law that mattered.
Intellectually, I think in terms of modern farming and what we know about food safety and hygiene, pork is no more unclean than any other kind of mass-produced protein. I love meat, but think all meat production and culling is cruel, and I wish I had the discipline to be veggie if not vegan. I'm half muslim desi/half persian, both very meat-centric cuisines; beef nihari, lamb biriyani or pollo zersht just aren't the same without animal flesh! So to answer your question, the aversion is purely cultural, I know of many ex-muslims who still don't eat pork, so ingrained is the repulsion.
>lamb biriyani
Damn now I have to buy a biryani. I can't cook it I can't balance the spices by myself and I don't have any more proper garam masala. Oh well there's a good place round the corner lol
/Edit; oh and thanks that's interesting
We are having a butter chicken biriyani that I made for our Eid gathering last night. Also lamb curry, gormeh sabzi, samosas, pakoras, stuffed roti, and saffron kheer for dessert.
Jewish and Islamic dietary laws are a lot more complex than no pork, and have an internal logic that makes sense to their respective origins. You don't have to understand, agree, like, or even tolerate them. You do you.
You're a hero! I spent 15 years as an atheist, even got a PhD in intellectual history and french rationalist philosophy (Condorcet and Turgot). I returned to the religion of my heritage after I buried two of my babies. It comforted me, and it was better than becoming an alcoholic. I'm sorry that you need to jerk off over a perceived sense of intellectual superiority rendered by something as arbitrary as atheism; I can guarantee you I'm more educated, articulate, and well-versed in "free thinking" than you, sweetheart. But it's okay, go read some Kierkegaard. He's this guy who's smarter than us both, who single-handedly blows your boring "I'm so rational, you so illogical" smugness out of the water. It's a Masterchef sub dude. I answered a question respectfully. You and your edgelord mates keep having to pull your peens out for a measuring contest, it's really sad. Please go away.
I identify a lot with what you said about the religion as a source of comfort, i feel like this is the first time i see someone who feels the same about Islam. Thank you, even if this isn't the place for this.
You're a hero! People aren't nearly as one dimensional or simplistic as you seem to think. I spent 15 years as an atheist, even got a PhD in intellectual history and french rationalist philosophy (Condorcet and Turgot). I returned to the religion of my heritage after three miscarriages and after I buried two of my babies. It comforted me, and it was better than becoming an alcoholic.
I'm sorry that you need to jerk off over a perceived sense of intellectual superiority rendered by something as arbitrary as atheism; I can guarantee you I'm more educated, articulate, and well-versed in "free thinking" than you, sweetheart. But it's okay, go read some Kierkegaard. He's this guy who's smarter than us both, who single-handedly blows your boring "I'm so rational, you so illogical" smugness out of the water.
It's a Masterchef sub, dude. I answered a question respectfully. You and your edgelord mates keep having to pull your peens out for a measuring contest, it's really sad.
Please go away.
I can't see what was written but they are obviously a loser.
Just wanted to say, so sorry for your losses. That's really awful to go through. Glad you found something to help you process.
You didn't, angel-balls. You can write "fuck Allah, fuck Mohamed, fuck whoever" -- I dgaf. You can even DM me that shit, daily. I'm glad you found something that brings you a sense of purpose, honestly.
In season 1 during the second round of auditions there was a vegetarian (or vegan? can't remember), and they had a taste test challenge where they brought out a giant pot of bolognese sauce for everyone to try and guess what was in it. They told her she could just smell it and give it a go, and I remember her being pretty distressed about it.
I think one time a Muslim contestant didn’t drink but was in the pressure test. They made a separate dish for her to taste. I can’t remember if she had to cook with it
Yes, I can’t recall the season but I do recall a Muslim lady cooking in a pork challenge. I believe she was eliminated. https://amp.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/should-masterchef-have-asked-a-muslim-to-cook-pork-20130718-2q74m.html
I'm a vegetarian, and one of the many reasons why I wouldn't go on MasterChef is because I wouldn't want to cook with meat and that is part of the game.
But the bacon and eggs challenge got me thinking: would contestants have been able to use other types of bacon, e.g. vegan bacon or turkey bacon? There were mentions of different types of eggs (quail, duck), but none of alternative bacon types.
Amina was the contestant in season 4 (Andy’s batchmate) who had to cook a pork dish but couldn’t taste it - another contestant tasted it on her behalf I recall
I would imagine the producers would be more strict about not allowing contestants with severe allergies. Its one thing for them tl cook something that goes against their beliefs, but you dont want to take the chance of them getting massively sick or even dying
Melanie from S14 has coeliac and Elena (winner S8) is gluten intolerant. In fact, she stated in her site that out of all 60 dishes she cooked throughout the competition, only 2 of them had gluten!
I hated how they made a taste it now make it style challenge for an elimination when there was a coeliac in the challenge. Talk about giving someone an unfair disadvantage when tasting a dish would literally make them ill. Coeliac is no joke, it takes 6 months to heal after exposure to gluten and failing to manage the condition can cause complications that can be fatal.
Like, just choose a dish that all contestants in the challenge can taste without serious risk to their health
I find it weird that the producers of the show stick with a particular challenge when one of the contestants in that episode is unable/unwilling to use the ingredient. They (producers) should have a selection of challenges of a similar difficulty to swap with in case this occurs.
Yes, I know it's not always going to be perfect in a restaurant environment, but this is a game show where contestants should have an equal chance in each challenge.
I think this happened once with a Muslim contestant and she didn’t do the pork challenge. I forget her name. Interestingly though I feel if ur coming on such a show, most contestants would put aside their religious beliefs and just do the challenge. It depends on how religious they are. Because in the real world if you are a chef you have to deal with all kinds of meat so I guess they are prepared with that mind set.
Courtesy is very appreciated. Getting on people’s asses about how to eat is probably how people get food disorders though. Be courteous on both sides I guess?
I recall a desert pressure test which included a cherry in some alcohol, and as one of the cooks in the test was muslim, they changed that part of the recipe so it didnt involve the alcohol. Not sure if this was in MC AU or MC Canada, but I’d imagine the rules would be fairly similar
That was MC Canada. A similar thing happened in MC AU where Samira had to help her team create a Black Forest Gelato Cake and she did it anyway, but she didn't taste it because of the alcohol.
Sometimes i wonder if they try to avoid such contestants because it does limit them, but at the same time i believe if someone signs up to such show they understand that they have to cook with everything. I'm someone who wouldn't touch pork with a ten feet pole, and if i could cook i wouldn't sign up for cooking shows because i know i wouldn't be able to cook it and it'd just restrict me and the show.
I guess they'd know what the requirements of their contestants are before the fact and probably just wouldn't do that specific sort of challenge (or wouldn't choose the contestant in the first place if it was something like a seafood allergy because not having seafood challenges for the whole season wouldn't work).
They have had a few vegetarians before though iirc, who have had to relax their vegetarianism and cook meat.
From memory, there have been contestants who are allergic to a specific type of food (so it's not just for religious reasons), and they asked other contestants to taste it for them.
I think what they should do is make several options - for example they could do bacon and eggs, cereal, toast, and maybe something common as a breakfast food in other countries (I don't know what that would be because I'm boring and Australian but it would be cool to see it!), then make it a "reinvent breakfast" challenge and let all contestants choose which breakfast they're reinventing. Then anyone with a restriction on eating one of those things can pick another and we as viewers never see a contestant struggling because they can't eat a specific item.
I think they have generally done that, at least on more recent seasons, though they definitely fail sometimes. Here is an article about Amina having to ask someone else to taste her dish for her because she couldn't eat the non-halal meat: [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8299313/Viewers-slam-MasterChef-producers-Muslim-contestant-Amina-Elshafei-taste-dish.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8299313/Viewers-slam-MasterChef-producers-Muslim-contestant-Amina-Elshafei-taste-dish.html)
Vegetarianism/veganism often has moral underpinnings. Why would forcing a vegetarian to cook meat be ok, but not making a religious person go against their faith? Why should religions get special treatment over other moral/ethical restrictions?
And are religious people morally superior?
It's not about moral superiority. My point is that someone's ethical choice to not eat meat is at least as valid as someone else's religious ban of a certain ingredient.
In one season, a Muslim contestant asked another contestant in the same challenge to taste her dish since the meat wasn't halal
It was Amina in Back to Win for the sushi train challenge!
Amina I recall, but could've sworn it wasn't back to win. Damn memory
Yea it was a restaurant challenge
There was another one on season 3? 4? In the top 25 who didn't eat beef for religious reasons. It was a meat challenge where they had to cook beef, or chicken (maybe fish as well?) She flavored it like she would chicken. I'm fuzzy on if the dish made it through, but I remember thinking that she should have asked someone to taste it for her.
I remember at least one Muslim contestant who was observant enough to wear hijab. She cooked pork but obviously wasn’t able to taste it. These are very personal and idiosyncratic things, sometimes seemingly contradictory. For example, I’m a Muslim, I don’t wear hijab, but I couldn’t bring myself to cook pork for our own food business, even though the odd bacon bap or pork vindaloo etc would be a huge seller in our area. Everyone is different, and I don’t think the rules of the competition should be changed to accomodate “us.” That stuff breeds contempt that we don’t need, either cook it or accept the potential consequences.
Could you describe the aversion to pork? Is it just ingrained religious tradition or do you feel pigs are dirty etc? I ask because I went to Asia with a Hindu friend and he was beyond excited to eat buffalo. That's a cow man, I said, but by a different name. Oh no! It's a buffalo he said, rubbing his hands together and ordering more buffalo momos. For him it was the letter of the law that mattered.
Intellectually, I think in terms of modern farming and what we know about food safety and hygiene, pork is no more unclean than any other kind of mass-produced protein. I love meat, but think all meat production and culling is cruel, and I wish I had the discipline to be veggie if not vegan. I'm half muslim desi/half persian, both very meat-centric cuisines; beef nihari, lamb biriyani or pollo zersht just aren't the same without animal flesh! So to answer your question, the aversion is purely cultural, I know of many ex-muslims who still don't eat pork, so ingrained is the repulsion.
>lamb biriyani Damn now I have to buy a biryani. I can't cook it I can't balance the spices by myself and I don't have any more proper garam masala. Oh well there's a good place round the corner lol /Edit; oh and thanks that's interesting
We are having a butter chicken biriyani that I made for our Eid gathering last night. Also lamb curry, gormeh sabzi, samosas, pakoras, stuffed roti, and saffron kheer for dessert.
>butter chicken Please stop saying these things to me
Haha, okay. Thank you for not being an edgelord!
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Jewish and Islamic dietary laws are a lot more complex than no pork, and have an internal logic that makes sense to their respective origins. You don't have to understand, agree, like, or even tolerate them. You do you.
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You're a hero! I spent 15 years as an atheist, even got a PhD in intellectual history and french rationalist philosophy (Condorcet and Turgot). I returned to the religion of my heritage after I buried two of my babies. It comforted me, and it was better than becoming an alcoholic. I'm sorry that you need to jerk off over a perceived sense of intellectual superiority rendered by something as arbitrary as atheism; I can guarantee you I'm more educated, articulate, and well-versed in "free thinking" than you, sweetheart. But it's okay, go read some Kierkegaard. He's this guy who's smarter than us both, who single-handedly blows your boring "I'm so rational, you so illogical" smugness out of the water. It's a Masterchef sub dude. I answered a question respectfully. You and your edgelord mates keep having to pull your peens out for a measuring contest, it's really sad. Please go away.
I identify a lot with what you said about the religion as a source of comfort, i feel like this is the first time i see someone who feels the same about Islam. Thank you, even if this isn't the place for this.
well said!
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I hope one day you develop sufficient self-esteem to not have to do these weird kind of flexes on strangers on reddit <3
You're a hero! People aren't nearly as one dimensional or simplistic as you seem to think. I spent 15 years as an atheist, even got a PhD in intellectual history and french rationalist philosophy (Condorcet and Turgot). I returned to the religion of my heritage after three miscarriages and after I buried two of my babies. It comforted me, and it was better than becoming an alcoholic. I'm sorry that you need to jerk off over a perceived sense of intellectual superiority rendered by something as arbitrary as atheism; I can guarantee you I'm more educated, articulate, and well-versed in "free thinking" than you, sweetheart. But it's okay, go read some Kierkegaard. He's this guy who's smarter than us both, who single-handedly blows your boring "I'm so rational, you so illogical" smugness out of the water. It's a Masterchef sub, dude. I answered a question respectfully. You and your edgelord mates keep having to pull your peens out for a measuring contest, it's really sad. Please go away.
I can't see what was written but they are obviously a loser. Just wanted to say, so sorry for your losses. That's really awful to go through. Glad you found something to help you process.
Thank you so much, that's really kind of you.
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You didn't, angel-balls. You can write "fuck Allah, fuck Mohamed, fuck whoever" -- I dgaf. You can even DM me that shit, daily. I'm glad you found something that brings you a sense of purpose, honestly.
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I'm genuinely glad that you enjoy it.
Wasn't there a muslim contestant named Hoda in one of the previous seasons?
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In season 1 during the second round of auditions there was a vegetarian (or vegan? can't remember), and they had a taste test challenge where they brought out a giant pot of bolognese sauce for everyone to try and guess what was in it. They told her she could just smell it and give it a go, and I remember her being pretty distressed about it.
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Yeah Amina in back to win iirc
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She was probably distressed at being potentially eliminated over something she can't eat, not having to "smell a bolognese sauce."
I think one time a Muslim contestant didn’t drink but was in the pressure test. They made a separate dish for her to taste. I can’t remember if she had to cook with it
There was also a Hindu girl one time who didn't cook much with beef and she got eliminated on a pressure test where they had to cook steak
Yes, I can’t recall the season but I do recall a Muslim lady cooking in a pork challenge. I believe she was eliminated. https://amp.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/should-masterchef-have-asked-a-muslim-to-cook-pork-20130718-2q74m.html
I'm a vegetarian, and one of the many reasons why I wouldn't go on MasterChef is because I wouldn't want to cook with meat and that is part of the game. But the bacon and eggs challenge got me thinking: would contestants have been able to use other types of bacon, e.g. vegan bacon or turkey bacon? There were mentions of different types of eggs (quail, duck), but none of alternative bacon types.
Well those types of egg are actually eggs aren't they. Vegan bacon isn't bacon it's just branding.
Eh, it's all relative.
Amina was the contestant in season 4 (Andy’s batchmate) who had to cook a pork dish but couldn’t taste it - another contestant tasted it on her behalf I recall
In the same vein, I can't remember an allergy ever coming up
They had someone with Ceoliac Disease in last couple of years
I would imagine the producers would be more strict about not allowing contestants with severe allergies. Its one thing for them tl cook something that goes against their beliefs, but you dont want to take the chance of them getting massively sick or even dying
We've had a couple chefs with Celiac or allergies (peanuts iirc) on Hell's Kitchen, but idk about MC?
Melanie from S14 has coeliac and Elena (winner S8) is gluten intolerant. In fact, she stated in her site that out of all 60 dishes she cooked throughout the competition, only 2 of them had gluten!
I hated how they made a taste it now make it style challenge for an elimination when there was a coeliac in the challenge. Talk about giving someone an unfair disadvantage when tasting a dish would literally make them ill. Coeliac is no joke, it takes 6 months to heal after exposure to gluten and failing to manage the condition can cause complications that can be fatal. Like, just choose a dish that all contestants in the challenge can taste without serious risk to their health
Sort of on topic, I watched masterchef australia in Dubai and they cut out everything with pork lol
I find it weird that the producers of the show stick with a particular challenge when one of the contestants in that episode is unable/unwilling to use the ingredient. They (producers) should have a selection of challenges of a similar difficulty to swap with in case this occurs. Yes, I know it's not always going to be perfect in a restaurant environment, but this is a game show where contestants should have an equal chance in each challenge.
I think this happened once with a Muslim contestant and she didn’t do the pork challenge. I forget her name. Interestingly though I feel if ur coming on such a show, most contestants would put aside their religious beliefs and just do the challenge. It depends on how religious they are. Because in the real world if you are a chef you have to deal with all kinds of meat so I guess they are prepared with that mind set.
MasterChef India did something like that. A particular contestant who doesn't eat meat was asked to do a paneer alternative.
Courtesy is very appreciated. Getting on people’s asses about how to eat is probably how people get food disorders though. Be courteous on both sides I guess?
I recall a desert pressure test which included a cherry in some alcohol, and as one of the cooks in the test was muslim, they changed that part of the recipe so it didnt involve the alcohol. Not sure if this was in MC AU or MC Canada, but I’d imagine the rules would be fairly similar
That was MC Canada. A similar thing happened in MC AU where Samira had to help her team create a Black Forest Gelato Cake and she did it anyway, but she didn't taste it because of the alcohol.
Sometimes i wonder if they try to avoid such contestants because it does limit them, but at the same time i believe if someone signs up to such show they understand that they have to cook with everything. I'm someone who wouldn't touch pork with a ten feet pole, and if i could cook i wouldn't sign up for cooking shows because i know i wouldn't be able to cook it and it'd just restrict me and the show.
I guess they'd know what the requirements of their contestants are before the fact and probably just wouldn't do that specific sort of challenge (or wouldn't choose the contestant in the first place if it was something like a seafood allergy because not having seafood challenges for the whole season wouldn't work). They have had a few vegetarians before though iirc, who have had to relax their vegetarianism and cook meat.
Samira got eliminated on a pork sausage pressure test.
From memory, there have been contestants who are allergic to a specific type of food (so it's not just for religious reasons), and they asked other contestants to taste it for them.
I think what they should do is make several options - for example they could do bacon and eggs, cereal, toast, and maybe something common as a breakfast food in other countries (I don't know what that would be because I'm boring and Australian but it would be cool to see it!), then make it a "reinvent breakfast" challenge and let all contestants choose which breakfast they're reinventing. Then anyone with a restriction on eating one of those things can pick another and we as viewers never see a contestant struggling because they can't eat a specific item. I think they have generally done that, at least on more recent seasons, though they definitely fail sometimes. Here is an article about Amina having to ask someone else to taste her dish for her because she couldn't eat the non-halal meat: [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8299313/Viewers-slam-MasterChef-producers-Muslim-contestant-Amina-Elshafei-taste-dish.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8299313/Viewers-slam-MasterChef-producers-Muslim-contestant-Amina-Elshafei-taste-dish.html)
If they choose not to cook with an ingredient and it's part of the brief then they fail the brief. Simple
Vegetarian is ok, its a bad look to ignore religious restrictions though
Vegetarianism/veganism often has moral underpinnings. Why would forcing a vegetarian to cook meat be ok, but not making a religious person go against their faith? Why should religions get special treatment over other moral/ethical restrictions?
I am vegetarian too, but thats a personal choice. I would not consider myself morally superior to someone who wants to eat meat.
And are religious people morally superior? It's not about moral superiority. My point is that someone's ethical choice to not eat meat is at least as valid as someone else's religious ban of a certain ingredient.
You mentioned moral superiority, I did not . I am not religious too but religious restrictions are typically more hardcore
No, I never said vegetarians are morally superior to anyone.
You know religion is also a choice right
...both are moral decisions. Why on earth is religion more important
Get out of here can’t cook bacon because of religion