Sharper with less cheese: MasterChef 3.0 promises fewer stunts, better skills

Now, standing next to Gary Mehigan on a makeshift stage inside the famous kitchen where the reality cooking show is made, is a new batch of a boy/girl-next-door types, suburban mums and dads and university students who are about to be propelled into the MasterChef orbit.

Wearing pristine white aprons emblazoned with the show's logo and their first name in a subtle Helvetica stitch, they're on show for the first time, to about 300 invitees at the recent launch of the show's third season.

They're unknowns tonight but that's all about to change. Formalities done with, they mingle with the crowd, fending off inquiries about who's already been eliminated (filming began last November) or the inside word on which of the wannabes will be this year's golden boy or girl, or its polar opposite, the One You Love to Hate.

But details are few. The blond surfie, the 61-year-old of Sri Lankan heritage, a couple of pierced and tattooed Gen Yers and the middle-aged women in funky specs have all been carefully coached by the network minders to not give away any spoilers.

Yet, as anyone familiar with the show knows, one of the secrets of its success is that it isn't cast according to the rigid formulas that deliver reality shows their predictable quotients of alpha bullies, villains, win-at-any-cost aggressors or heroes. If somewhere on the stage is this season's version of previous dudes-with-attitude, Chris and Aaron, bubbly mum Julie or unpredictable Callum, they're disguising it well.

Culling the 7000 hopefuls

MasterChef executive producer Margie Bashfield insists that on this show, contestants aren't cast according to personality ''types''. Seven thousand people applied for this season. Only the ones who showed a love and knowledge of cooking were asked to audition. ''If they just want to be on TV, this is not the show for them,'' Bashfield says.

For the first stage of the auditions, which took place over several days around the country, applicants brought a prepared cold dish from home.

A food producer, who is also a chef, assessed those dishes with a score according to its potential. ''They may not have got it right but he can see if they have technique and potential,'' Bashfield says. Those with ''a fighting chance'' were then interviewed by the show's producers.

''In the interview, what we're looking for is that confirmation that they want to make a contribution to the food industry, that they are comfortable with the [filming] process and understand what they're getting themselves in for,'' Bashfield says.

''People don't understand it takes months and months to film these shows. It's not a couple of months, it's a massive commitment. We talk everyone through what the realities of day-to-day life are and we drum home to them that it's not easy, it's not for everyone. They need to ask themselves, 'Is this really for me?''' The producers also look for the ''X factor'', which isn't just enthusiasm for food and cooking but the ability to express it.

''It's one thing to be great with food but … we need them to be able to communicate that. If they can do those three things - understand what they're getting themselves into, cook really well and invigorate us with their energy about what they want to do - they come in and cook for the judges.''

Judges reign supreme

At this point, Bashfield says, the producers walk away from the selection process. From here, she maintains, everything is in the hands of judges Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston. (Matt Moran will appear as a regular guest judge.)

''It's a strange casting process, in that normally as the producer you have control over everything,'' she says. ''In this show you have control over nothing with the contestants once they step in front of the judges. It doesn't matter how much we love someone … if the judges don't think they can cook, they're not there.''

It sounds trite but Bashfield swears that this year's batch of amateur cooks is of a higher standard than before. Some applicants had previously auditioned but didn't make the cut, then spent the intervening year - or years - improving their skills.

And with more people cooking than ever, she says, ''opportunities for good cooks are opening up, so rather than becoming a smaller pool it's becoming larger''. Whereas in the past people came to MasterChef looking to change their careers or get away from something they no longer want to do - lawyers were over-represented in previous seasons - this year's contestants ''just want to do more of what they love'', Bashfield says.

''It's a subtle difference but it's brought a subtle energy to the group. They love the opportunities and experiences they're getting and they're quite humble about them. They're enjoying it for what it is. They're equally serious about the competition and in some ways, because they're more relaxed about what they're doing, they seem to be sucking in the knowledge more.''

Less tricks as mystery moves aside

Given that last year's second season increased the show's audience, Bashfield believes that the now-familiar format works for, rather than against, it.

''I think there's something very comfortable about coming to MasterChef,'' she says.

''You know what you're going to get but you don't know exactly what you're going to get. You know there will be the familiar things you've grown to love over the years but there will also be things you haven't seen before and ways of doing things you haven't seen before.''

In any case, what would have once been closely guarded secrets - such as a one-tonne mystery box suspended from a helicopter above Sydney's Cockatoo Island to kick off the first challenge; a masterclass with Rick Stein in Kuala Lumpur; and a challenge in a West Australian mine - are now being used to advertise the show.

Again it will screen six nights a week and include challenges involving mystery boxes and celebrity chefs, taste tests, masterclasses, guest judges and Amazing Race-style overseas jaunts. The divisive ploy of bringing back eliminated contestants has been dropped, Preston has said, as have cheesy antics such as the time he threw a dish on the floor and then declared it disgustingly good.

Bashfield says the subtle tweaks to the format won't be noticed by viewers. ''We know that the food does the talking,'' she says. ''If they can cook, it will happen. We don't go into a challenge thinking, 'What can we do to cause something to happen?', we go into a challenge thinking, 'What is it we want them to do?'

''Obviously, we put a level of difficulty into it but we ask ourselves all the time, 'Are they going to be able to cook good dishes? Are we giving them enough opportunity to cook good dishes?' We want to see good food at the end.

''We don't want them to fail. It's a very different mindset. We don't go into a challenge thinking, 'I hope they fail', we go into a challenge thinking, 'Who's going to put out the best dish?'''

MasterChef Australia returns on Sunday, May 1 at 7.30pm on Ten.