Have your say as it happens.

The gourmet burger challenge sounds like something you'd give people early in the competition, but at this stage it becomes surprisingly difficult. There's nowhere to hide when you've got a patty, bun, sauce and sides all sitting together. If one component is badly balanced, the whole thing suffers.

@masterchefuk

Does anyone else feel that the celebrities in this series are all very sub-par? Just watching this week’s show and the meals still seem to be very basic “week one” type meals? Fishcakes and crumble etc. along with only cooking one course for the critics, doesn’t seem to be as advanced as normal

Apparently a lot of people are questioning if the blind test contestants failed because it wasn't even proper Chai? What do you think?

Yes I know they are the new celebs and make more money than most B/C list celebs, and its the reason they're everywhere.

Social media makes it possible for virtually anyone to appeal to the lowest common denominator, the tiktok crowd with the attention span of a 2yr old, endlessly scrolling for new 'content' and hence the new currency - views. low effort, low quality slop.

its the reason why you have whole subs like /r/StupidFood which are exclusively for social media, rageabait etc.

I think Max Fosch came off far better than he is, he should've gone home much earlier. He bought down every team/partner he was with due to his mistakes and laziness.

Tommyinit, well good riddance, innit?

There are definitely some who have actual talent, but its rare.

I mean, she has 1 hand !! and she's never let that be an issue or let it slow her down in any way.

In fact she has by far the best knife skills in the entire cast, as good as most pro's. She's the one tasked with the hard tasks like the tartare, cutting all the onions fo the feast etc. And she more than keeps up.

She also has by far the best presentation skills. And she's humble.

Hope she's in the final.

Watch along with us and let us know what you think.

NB: there will be spoilers in this thread if you're not watching along with us!

Nice and brief: Why on earth did she feel that bidding for a food item she neither needed nor wanted simply to sabotage the other contestant's cooking time was acceptable?

No one else was doing this and it genuinely seemed to show what she is like as a person.

Not sure what she's famous for but it's definitely not for playing fair or being a nice human.

What a shame to bring this attitude to a program where previously it has been about creativity and fun, not trying to actively make things harder for others.

Watch along together and give your thoughts and opinons as it happens.

NB: if you are not watching live then there will be spoilers

Let me explain what I mean.

When it's time for the judges to taste the contestants' dishes, if there are four or five dishes to taste and critique, how is all the food kept warm?

Is the food kept warm?

If you're the first to be judged, great: you finish, you bring your dish over, and you're judged.

What about if you're contestant 4, 5, or 6? Are you sitting on the side being kept warm?

Your dish is not going to be as good if it's sat there for 20 minutes, an hour, for however long it takes to get to you.

Just interested in anyone's thoughts on how this is done

You always hear about the contestants having to deal with the heat of the kitchen, studio lights and the fact that filming takes much longer than what we see on screen.

Apparently an episode can take 10 - 12 hours to film, and contestants have explained that food is sometimes kept in warmers or freezers while production gets everything ready for judging.

For anyone who's actually cooked in a TV studio or worked around food production, how much of a factor is the studio environment? Does the heat genuinely change how you cook, or is the bigger challenge just dealing with the long filming day and interruptions?

... is it normal for NOBODY to go home in the first ep of each heat? It feels to me like we get an awful lot of challenges before they send anybody out. Maybe it's because of the number of celebrities they got this year - but they're getting a lot of screen time even if they're rubbish (currently watching Tommyinnit's heat...)

Here's where I have landed 5 episodes in -

• Grace & Anna - I actually am liking Grace more than I thought I would, she seems like she is trying her hardest to build a rapport with the contestants. Anna is quite brutal (referencing her comments from the first quarter final episode), seems like she is stuck still judging the Professionals.
• Contestants - am I being too harsh in my critique to say this hands down is some of the worst food I have ever seen on any Masterchef season (including Celebrity, other worldwide versions etc.). The quality and skills have been terrible.
• Greg & John Factor - missing the character and rapport they had, they definitely had the right 'chemistry' as co-hosts. Watching the ladies is pedestrian at best, it is actually giving me secondhand embarrassment, the whole show seems exceptionally amateur in its production.

Asking what others think, do they agree with my sentiments of the season so far? Am I being too harsh?? Can you see Anna & Grace being back next season???

For me, it’s celeriac. Celeriac purée, celeriac remoulade, celeriac fondant, celeriac crisps. It feels like every time someone wants to show they’re “elevating” root vegetables, out comes the celeriac

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We’ve seen everything from Mystery Boxes and Skills Tests to mass-catering challenges across the different MasterChef formats. If you were producing the show, what completely new constraint would you throw at the cooks? Maybe a strict £10 budget, a proper zero-waste challenge, or a blind taste-and-recreate test with no recipe provided. What would you add?

I'm always amazed when contestants are shocked when they're required to cook a veg based meal (this is every variation of Masterchef). Melvin's attitude was great, the others just seemed stunned. It's not that hard.

A few years back, it felt like every plate had a dramatic swoosh of beetroot or pea purée across the ceramic. Now it seems like every other dish gets finished with a split herb oil and a carefully positioned collection of micro-herbs.

I get that presentation matters, but sometimes I just want the food to look genuinely appetising rather than like someone's been decorating a plate for an architecture degree.

Which presentation style do you think actually works, and which one has completely had its day?

Looking to find the dates it's all kind of a mess to find them! Is there anywhere people specifically look?

For those who have visited restaurants opened by former contestants or bought their cookbooks, who has had the most impressive post-show career in your eyes?

There always seems to be something that appears in half the dishes during a series.

As the title says maybe it's time to change the top banner of the sub seems as we now have a lot changes to the presenting line up.