An edition marked by dishes and flavors and increasingly cosmopolitan guests: many young competitors, but the bar of talent has risen, according to the starred judges "we will see surprises and we ourselves found it difficult to decide" are the aspiring chefs who aspire to enter this year's Masterclass of MasterChef Italia, Sky Original show produced by Endemol Shine Italy, which starts again with a new season starting Thursday 15 December, on Sky and streaming on NOW.
Evaluating all the dishes and deciding which of them deserves to be among the 20 competitors this year, the irresistible trio in the jury made up of starred chefs Bruno Barbieri, Antonino Cannavacciuolo (his Villa Crespi was crowned with three Michelin stars) and George Locatelli.
A close-knit and now solid jury, confirmed for the fourth consecutive year to elect the best amateur chef in Italy, a title that at the end of the last edition went to Tracy Eboigbodin originally from Nigeria.
We will see Bruno Barbieri, "they are the historical memory I have done them all. But this time we will bring out the best from the competitors, they have amazed us since the selections, the ages decrease with the years but it is a sign of the times".
"He is our spearhead, you cannot imagine a MasterChef without him", adds Cannavacciuolo, columnist of the show since 2015. Who reveals that the first to compliment the three stars were his Masterchef colleagues" Arrived in 2018 but absolutely well inserted Giorgio Locatelli, in the role of "lawyer"
among his colleagues who like to pretend to tease each other during the episodes: "The trio worked, and this year we let go, we really enjoyed ourselves".
Given the harmony — Barbieri, Cannavacciuolo and Locatelli have selected truly talented competitors for this 12th edition of MasterChef Italia.
"We have raised the bar: first of all because after the selections we immediately cook a dish with ingredients chosen at the moment. And then because there have been various technical tests. We ourselves have demanded competence", they say in chorus.
"This edition will be really high-level - Barbieri reveals that he recalls how in the Skill Test, this year he will have an external commissioner, an extra eye on the competitor".
Locatelli adds "Seeing how these people have made Italian cuisine their own, mixing it with other flavours, demonstrates how much food is a glue, a bridge. After all, a kitchen that closes, that doesn't welcome, is a dead kitchen".
This edition of MasterChef also applies to Cannavacciulo "as a message of inclusiveness against ignorance that leads us to fear the different.
The product comes from the harvest.
Even starred chefs come here who have made their fortune abroad because it is a program that enjoys respect.
Diversity is a richness, we must remember this.
What you will see in the kitchen in the talent show is a mirror of the Italy of tradition and of the future together". "Dedicated to those who cook at home.
MasterChef is a very apt form of entertainment.
He speaks in an easy language of a technical world, it is not a school and it must be specified, but it informs: today if people are more attentive when they go to the restaurant and look at what arrives on their plate, we also owe it to Mastechef, before we went to a place and you didn't know the type of product, the origin, what you were eating.
And many small producers have had the opportunity to get noticed», say the three.
"
"I took some ideas from the competitors", they admit that we then did it our own way.
Once this year's class has been formed, the challenge will begin according to the tested mechanism - which will not lack of novelties.
Mystery Box, Invention Test, Pressure Test and Skill Test are back, and the "surprise exams" that will involve all the competitors.
But what we care about say Cannavacciulo, Locatelli and Barbieri and that external tests are back, "in Italy from North to South from Val d'Aosta to Tropea", important because you understand the value of an aspiring chef and who gets confused".
"I took some ideas from the competitors", they admit that we then did it our own way.
Once this year's class has been formed, the challenge will begin according to the tested mechanism - which will not lack of novelties.
Mystery Box, Invention Test, Pressure Test and Skill Test are back, and the "surprise exams" that will involve all the competitors.
But what we care about say Cannavacciulo, Locatelli and Barbieri and that external tests are back, "in Italy from North to South from Val d'Aosta to Tropea", important because you understand the value of an aspiring chef and who gets confused".
Mystery Box, Invention Test, Pressure Test and Skill Test are back, and the "surprise exams" that will involve all the competitors.
But what we care about say Cannavacciulo, Locatelli and Barbieri and that external tests are back, "in Italy from North to South from Val d'Aosta to Tropea", important because you understand the value of an aspiring chef and who gets confused".
Mystery Box, Invention Test, Pressure Test and Skill Test are back, and the "surprise exams" that will involve all the competitors.
But what we care about say Cannavacciulo, Locatelli and Barbieri and that external tests are back, "in Italy from North to South from Val d'Aosta to Tropea", important because you understand the value of an aspiring chef and who gets confused".
And yet many guests including starred chefs and international guests who will submit the amateur cooks to the most insidious tests, the Master of Italian Pastry Chefs, Iginio Massari, is back, a real bogeyman for the competitors of all editions;
and Jeremy Chan, chef Davide Scabin;
Mauro Colagreco;
Enrico Crippa;
Giancarlo Perbellini.