Opinion
The MasterChef expert on why Meghan will make this the sweetest, the spiciest, and the most satisfying series we’ve seen yet (or not).
We all love MasterChef. We really have no choice, given we are Australian and do not wish to abandon every last scrap of humanity within ourselves.
We know that no television show can match MasterChef when it comes to inspiration, heartwarming positivity, thrilling competition and handy hints for making the most of your deconstructed paella. And maybe the greatest thing about the show is the way it keeps on raising the bar for itself.
You thought the croquembouche was a challenging dessert? Meet the snow egg. You thought Ben and Andy personified the true meaning of friendship? Meet Jess and Sashi. And you thought Katy Perry was a high-calibre guest judge? Meet Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Yes, this year’s MasterChef will feature the woman who some people have called the most important Duchess of Sussex since some lady who probably was one before. Meghan Sussex, actress, duchess, influencer, lifestyle guru, philanthropist and friend to woodland animals everywhere, is coming to kitchen headquarters to give her views on what the aspiring master chefs dish up. This is probably the best news MasterChef fans have heard since we found out that, actually, Matt Preston didn’t think Aaron’s tortellini was disgusting at all.
There are several reasons why the Duchess’ arrival in MasterChef HQ is news to gladden all our hearts and give us hope that the world might not be such a cold, cruel place after all.
Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.
This is probably the best news MasterChef fans have heard since we found out that, actually, Matt Preston didn’t think Aaron’s tortellini was disgusting at all.
Firstly, it will give the show a much-needed fillip of class. If MasterChef has had a flaw in the past – I did say IF! – it’s been that it’s tended towards the downmarket. I mean, all these people baking cakes and cooking pasta and showing off photos of them going fishing with their dads: it’s got a real thongs-and-stubbies vibe, doesn’t it? It’s a bit RSL, a bit Hey Hey It’s Saturday. It could definitely do with a bit of glamour – the kind of thing an actual royal, who is also the star of When Sparks Fly (2014), is well-placed to deliver.
Once Meghan has graced the MasterChef stage, nobody can ever again say that this show is the televisual equivalent of a meat tray raffle. It will have the Sussex stamp of approval, a Buck House-cum-Hollywood imprimatur that will last eternally, making explicit what MasterChef fans have always known deep down: this really is the Duchess of reality shows.
But glamour is one thing; Meghan also brings a unique element of serious culinary heft to the role. Unlike her predecessor Ms Perry, nobody can say this appearance is just surface pizazz with no substance behind it. Bear in mind that Meghan Markle is the creator and host of the hit Netflix show With Love, Meghan, in which she has been showing off her kitchen chops – as in skills, not actual chops – since way back in 2025.
This is no cooking dilettante, this is a woman who has literally built a global brand off her skills at the stove, who has literally created an internationally acclaimed TV series on the foundation of her cooking mastery, who has literally cooked food in front of cameras, who has literally met Chrissy Teigen.
She is at least as accomplished a professional chef as the others who will be guest judging this season, such as Jimmy Barnes and Robert Irwin. Of course, in a sense it doesn’t matter anyway – being a guest judge isn’t about cooking but about eating, and well-placed sources indicate Meghan has done so on several occasions.
But perhaps the greatest asset Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Queen of Suits, will bring to MasterChef this year is that most beautiful of gifts: empathy. No judge yet seen on the show has been able to offer contestants the sort of emotional support Meghan gives to people as a natural function of her own inner essence.
There is a reason why she so quickly became the most beloved member of the royal family since Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) and why all the other members of the royal family are constantly seething with jealousy at her. It is because her ability to connect with ordinary people is simply beyond compare.
You only have to see her on her own program, or any of her myriad appearances on chat shows, or simply during a public appearance, laying hands on the commoners, to realise that here is a woman who understands humans and is able to provide them succour in their toughest moments.
On a show like MasterChef, where stress and exhaustion are the rule and all involved are constantly on the brink of extremely marketable tears, every contestant finds themselves in sore need of a friend even more than a functioning Hibachi. And Meghan, friend to the world, will be there to soothe their worries and calm their raging minds; to give them a shoulder to cry on, an ear to talk into, and a lap to curl up in and have a good old cry.
For all these reasons and more, Meghan is a coup beyond compare for the MasterChef producers, and for this reason alone this year’s show will be the sweetest, the spiciest, the most satisfying and toothsome series we’ve yet seen.
The Duchess of Sussex truly is the ingredient everyone’s been waiting to hero.
MasterChef Australia returns on Sunday, April 19, on Network Ten and Play.
