While we’re used to reality TV contestants talking strategy on shows like Australian Survivor, when you put a bunch of experienced chefs together to battle it out over the MasterChef title, it’s no surprise strategy comes into play.
With challenges getting more extreme as the series goes on, our favourite chefs are often tasked with not only figuring out what they want to cook, but what kind of advantage they can take going into the cook to stand out from their counterparts.
The time auction challenge in the second-last episode saw the final three contestants – Laura Sharrad, Callum Hann and Jamie Fleming – bid on ingredients across three categories. They had 120 minutes in which to bid, with a catch: the more time spent bidding, the less they’d have less on their clock to cook. When the auction began, Laura spent 40 minutes securing ribeye eventually leaving her with only 50 minutes for her cook, while Jamie picked the tofu for free, giving him a full 120 minutes of cook time.
Jamie’s strategy in this moment was to coax out maximum depth of flavour from long cooking techniques by using the least-popular dish, tofu. In doing this, he believed he’d be at an advantage compared to Callum and Laura, due to the fact they’d have less cooking time than him.
MasterChef: Back To Win: Jamie reveals why contestants are getting more and more strategic
Jamie’s strategic play paid off, with Jamie winning the vital 15-minute head start in the Semi-Final cook. While he unfortunately didn’t make it through to the finale, he told Chattr strategy has become an important part of being in the MasterChef kitchen.
“Strategy is super important,” Jaime told Chattr. “I think [that] Callum is a great strategist when it comes to the competition. I think that the people who always stand out, they do so from a strategic perspective.
“If everyone’s going one way and you go the other, it’s a great opportunity to stand out, and that’s a conscious decision by everybody within the game,” Callum elaborated. “And it is a game, we all know the rules very well, and we all know our strengths and how we can stand out, and I think that’s really important.”
Jamie says he wouldn’t do anything different if he had his time again on MasterChef
Jamie said his strategy in the semi-final was to be “completely different”, adding he wanted to make a menu that was “super aspirational”.
“I got a little bit ahead of myself and didn’t quite take into account everything that always happens in a kitchen, which, you know, generally comes down to everything taking about 50 to 60% more time that you thought it would, and then little things going wrong here and there,” he told Chattr. “So was it a misstep from me doing what I did, potentially. Would I do it very different next time? No, not really. I showed exactly what I wanted to show last night with the menu that I created. And even though the execution wasn’t quite there, the beautiful thing about food is I can go and cook it again another time, and smash that other parts. It’s just a learning experience.”
What’s next for MasterChef’s Jamie Fleming?
It’s already been a big year for Jamie, but he’s got his sights set on making the most of the opportunities MasterChef has provided for him.
“Post MasterChef for me is a lot more of saying yes to opportunity,” Jamie told Chattr. “We’ve got our little spot on the Sunshine Coast in the Hinterlands, Spill Wine, and we’re continuing to put out delicious little snacks, and that venue is, in itself, our little love letter to wine and celebrating a lot of beautiful producers from Australia and around the world.”
The MasterChef Australia 2025 finale airs on August 12 at 7:30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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