There are two reasons why MasterChef: The Professionals works so well as a cooking show. One is seeing shining new talents get the attention they deserve, watching ambitious chefs rise to the top of the culinary cream on TV. The other (and arguably more enjoyable) aspect is the schadenfreude gained from seeing trained chefs make the most basic of errors. It makes us feel better about our own shortcomings as amateur cooks, and it’s always easy to criticise from the comfort of our sofas.
While we’re sure it’s the pressure of cooking under the watchful eye of Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti that causes most mistakes, that doesn’t stop us from shouting at the television as someone fails to do the simplest of tasks. It was Ryan, Gareth and Jamie who managed to prove themselves and make it through to the next round, but the other hopefuls donning their chef whites just weren’t up to the task.
The early stages of the competition are where you’ll find some of the biggest upsets of the series – we’ve collected some of the most obvious shortcomings of the contestants, so you won’t make the same mistakes.
