MasterChef has once again caused outrage with fans after a controversial food challenge on Monday night’s episode.
WATCH: MasterChef’s Jock Zonfrillo reveals thoughts on indigenous food culture
The reality TV cooking show angered viewers when producers chose Scottish-born chef Jock Zonfrillo – rather than an indigenous cook – as a guest chef for a challenge which focussed on native Australian ingredients.
The celebrity chef is the owner of Adelaide restaurant Orana – and creator of not-for-profit foundation, The Orana Foundation, whose mission is to preserve the sophisticated cooking techniques and ingredients of The First Australians.
However, Jock’s credentials were lacking one key ingredient for MasterChef fans – Jock himself isn’t an Indigenous Australian – and so they took to Twitter to slam the show.
“I would have loved to see an actual Indigenous chef like Clayton Donovan or Mark Olive come in to teach the contestants about Indigenous foods rather than the white guy they brought who they later called Australia’s best representative of Indigenous ingrediants [sic],” said one disgruntled fan.
“Is a white Scottish man really a true representation of indigenous Australian cooking? Really? #MasterChefAU” asked another.
Jock told contestants he’d become hooked on indigenous culture when he “started getting an inkling of how complex their culture was” and how that “culture integrated with food and the earth”.
He then assigned each amateur cook with a native ingredient – from lilly pillies to aniseed myrtle – and asked them to come up with an original dish.
Not all comments about Jock were negative, with some praising the choice of chef.
“I’ve just realised maybe it’s harder to get an Indigenous chef onto MasterChef Australia than we assume, because of the cultural belief around cameras and photography?” one fan said.
“Great challenge set by Jock Zonfrillo on #MasterChefAU This is what I want to see – the contestants being pushed out of their comfort zones. More of this please!” said another.
