It’s a little scary to think about the way Jordi Cruz treats his team in his restaurant after seeing their reaction last Wednesday on Masterchef12 when Tamara, one of the edition’s contestants, decided to leave the program because she didn’t feel comfortable. . The Russian candidate spoke of constant nerves, tension, pressure and frustration: “I don’t feel like continuing in the same dynamic, because I’m not well.” Unlike Pepe Rodríguez, who asked him for explanations, the Catalan chef only told him “Ciao.” He demanded that he return the apron and then pointed out the exit: “His door.”
Yes, it is scary to see how little empathy the star Jordi Cruz showed with a person just because he chose his own emotional well-being over the pressure of being in the kitchens of the popular public television talent show. Masterchef has not been created to teach cooking, but as an entertainment program to gain an audience. And to increase it, if the format is already tiring, you have to look for contestants who give play or start fights like the one starring Jordi Cruz.
The somewhat arrogant attitude of the chef as well as the increasingly common shouts of Samantha Vallejo-Nágera to the contestants in the outdoor tests are always justified for the sake of learning for when they have to work in a professional kitchen, and also because The 16 contestants are lucky considering the thousands of applicants who cannot enter the contest.
The latter is what Jordi Cruz blamed Tamara when he announced his abandonment: “You have taken away people’s opportunities.” It’s true. But perhaps Tamara, passionate about cooking, did not know how to measure the pressure of dedicating herself professionally to it until she was part of the program. And that’s how she expressed it the day before when the Russian contestant confessed “she wouldn’t even open a restaurant. It’s a very hard work. “I have a family and that is worth more than spending my life in a restaurant.” Cruz said that he felt offended by her words and Pepe Rodríguez asked her what she was doing on the program then, to which she responded “Living the experience.” Tamara was sentenced.
It is not the first time that Masterchef has been accused of seeming more like a reality show than a competition that aims to train amateur chefs, but anything goes for the audience… Or not. When mental health is a serious problem that worries and affects the population more and more, although it is not always diagnosed, a public media cannot act so lightly by rudely ejecting a contestant because it feels that she cannot withstand the pressure. competition. The final culprit is not the chef, nor those responsible for the Shine Iberia production company, it is Spanish Television, a public channel, which has to ensure the content. For this reason, the Minister of Health herself, Mónica García, has had to intervene, criticizing the program and applauding Tamara’s decision to “prioritize emotional well-being over frenetic rhythms of life.”
Masterchef has crossed the red line of pressure to which the contestants are subjected several times. The case of Verónica Forqué, in the sixth edition of Celebrity, was the most graphic example. The actress committed suicide six months after her participation, but in the program she gave continuous signs that she was not feeling well emotionally, exhausted she said when she submitted her voluntary resignation. Unlike Tamara, the three judges accepted and respected her decision and said goodbye to her with applause. The singer María del Monte also left the first edition because she said that she did not need to experience that pressure.
The lion eats shrimp is one of the most popular dishes in the history of Masterchef and has starred in the most memes. It was presented in the third edition by the Valencian Alberto Sampere. That 18-year-old young man was humiliated in front of the entire audience by the judges. The dish, it was true that it was a grotesque, left in the background that historic fight, as excessive as it was unnecessary, which sank the contestant who refused to participate in the repechage out of shame. So, in 2015, the emotional effect that these attitudes could cause did not make headlines in the media, but perhaps it would have been wise to give Masterchef the yellow card for abuse of power.
