Previously unreleased footage from Masterchef Australia Series 11 includes contestant Bruce Mason serving parts of his own left leg to judges Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston.
Mason wound up in an elimination round after being on the losing end of a team challenge the previous day at Barwon Prison, a maximum security facility near Geelong. The Yellow team, with Mason as leader, failed to impress after their deconstructed tripe offering – raw tripe and a whole uncooked onion – sparked a riot and subsequent lockdown of the entire wing. With the prisoners confined to their cells, the Yellow team’s dessert, a re-chewed eucalyptus semifreddo, was not even tasted.
“After all the effort we put in fighting the koalas for those leaves, to lose half the points in one hit was absolutely gutting.”
The subsequent “Meat Me” elimination challenge involved an open pantry and the contestants’ choice of protein. While fellow competitors Becca Ridgeway and Stephen Bennetts opted respectively for pork and venison, Mason elected to gamble on what he calls “the other white meat”.
“I really need to show the judges what I can do”, said Mason at the time, casting about the Masterchef kitchen for a suitably sharp boning knife.
We were denied access to the following ten minutes’ footage, which has been refused classification by the Australian Communications & Media Authority, despite the objections of Mehigan and Calombaris.
“It was some of the neatest butchery we’ve seen on this show.”
The censored coverage resumes with traumatised members of the Red, Blue and Green teams clutching each other for support on the mezzanine balcony. The usual calls of encouragement to the contestants below are absent; the deathly silence punctuated only by faint sobbing.
“Come on you guys, harden up” chides Preston. “If you can’t handle the realities of a professional kitchen you shouldn’t be here.”
The view then cuts to Mason’s bench, where he is leaning white-faced, propped up on a crutch which has clearly been improvised in haste from an aluminium camera tripod. Given the loss of blood, he is remarkably upbeat. “I am so totally in with a chance now; I just have to really make sure I hero the meat.”
Over the next thirty minutes Mason expertly flame-grills a section of gluteus, creates a Chinese-inspired quadriceps noodle stir fry and completes the trio with a calf-muscle and celeriac broth. Taking things right to the wire he is still spooning the plum jus on to the gluteus steak as the buzzer sounds.
The three contestants are called to the judges’ bench one by one, with Ridgeway returning to help a limping Mason which earns him a “Way to go Stephen” from the gallery.
It fell to Matt Preston to deliver the final verdict.
“Becca, your pork was cooked beautifully, but what nailed it for us was the presentation. Plating both eyeballs on top of the sliced meat was a winner, and that is why you’re safe.”
“Which brings us to Bruce and Stephen. Both your dishes had issues.”
“Stephen, the antlers should have been removed from the deer prior to plating.”
“But Bruce, the gluteus was stringy and undercooked and you clearly needed to have worked out more.”
“And that is why you’re going home.”
After the customary over-emoted kitchen farewell, the departure sequence which follows appears to show Mason climbing into a white van in place of the usual black Holden Equinox. Producers Shine Australia deny that Mason was collected by Ambulance Victoria.
They also deny that legal clauses denying the judges final veto over which dishes must actually be tasted, are the real reason all three have departed the programme.