r/MasterchefAU • u/Equivalent_Ear_6431 • Sep 14 '26
Time Auctions should have the last (free) item be considerably the worst
I just find it sometimes unfair that some people can get lucky since the item they wanted was free.
It'd make it a lot more interesting and fair if the last section/item was really that bad.
Nowadays, a lot of it is relatively decent. Especially like the ones towards the end.
Sometimes, they do have challenging ones for proteins like tripe in S14, or at most tofu (which somebody wanted). But most of the time, the last ingredienrs are eggs.
There was another show that had a similar concept with an auction and really had odd ingredients as the last.
So maybe for proteins, it can be like canned meats maybe or other more unknown meats
If there are no eggs or dessers as options, I would love to see a dessert pantry, to challenge to incorporate those into a savory dish.
Point is, that someone can't get a free pass and get an easy ingredient. So it makes like the time vs ingredients thing more challenging.
1
u/GrimRecapper Sep 15 '26
Yeah, it's way too easy now, to the point it basically doesn't matter unless you spend so much time buying a whole cut of meat that you're not going to have enough left to actually cook it. I'd probably go with something like protein/vegetable/condiment as the three categories, with a bunch of harder and more specific options all around (versus just saying eg "grains!" and letting them serve it with a scoop of rice or whatever), and make it so you don't know what items are coming up in each round until the previous round is bought. My suggestions, from best to worst in each round:
Proteins: 1) Duck 2) Kangaroo 3) Goat 4) Eel
Vegetable: 1) Cauliflower 2) Okra 3) Turnip 4) Horseradish
Condiment: 1) Garlic butter 2) Chutney 3) Chicken salt 4) Vegemite
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u/Equivalent_Ear_6431 Sep 14 '26 edited Sep 14 '26
My pantry thoughts:
Proteins:
1 - Kobe Beef
2 - Chicken
3 - Dried Fish or (a Hunk of Ham?)
4 - Rattlesnake/ Haggis (Something unfamiliar and just doesn’t look good to work with)
Wildcard Pantry
1 - Flavor Bombs (Has all umami and some acidity, all you can ask from different cultures)
2- Vinegars (all different ones)
3 - Chip Pantry (Just store bought chips₱
4- Sundae Pantry - Everything you’d find at a sundae shop
Then some other pantries can’t really think of how to make it really something to fight. But this will be other substantial ingredients like other fruits or veg.
Then there would be a set of staples obviously. And all of the usuals