Mega influencers Sooshi Mango joined the MasterChef Australia 2025 judging panel for Viral Week, but viewers were left less than impressed at their cameo.
The trio of comedians — made up of brothers, Joe and Carlo Salanitri, and their best friend, Andrew Manfre — impersonate “Italian Nonnas” on their social media accounts, and have racked up over 4.5 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The men also opened an Italian eatery called Johnny Vince & Sam’s Ristorante in Melbourne in 2023.
Sooshi Mango stepped in as judges for Episode 21 of MasterChef Australia 2025. They judged the Mystery Box Challenge and asked the contestants to cook their version of an Italian dish. However, the home cooks weren’t told who had set the challenge, and Joe, Carlo and Andrew watched them make their creations from a private room with a TV screen.
During the cook, Sooshi Mango weighed in on the happenings in their typical “Italian nonna” characters, which they broadcast online. Once the dishes were ready, they entered the MasterChef kitchen and gave feedback to the contestants. However, viewers quickly took to social media to share that they found the men’s appearance “hard to watch.”
Fans criticise the MasterChef Australia Sooshi Mango episode
The online feedback from viewers ranges from some people just straight out calling the trio “unfunny”, to others accusing them of “cultural appropriation”.
“Horrible episode. Major fail by the producers. How is this cultural appropriation OK today?” One person wrote on Reddit.
However, another user pointed out that Joe, Carlo and Andrew are Italian, and making fun of their own culture.
“I’m Italian and it’s funny AF,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, another person said that they think that Sooshi Mango’s humour is better suited to shorter clips.
“I think their humour is totally fine in the short video format it was created for, it just seemed a stretch over a whole MasterChef episode, as it is fairly one note. It was definitely a bit cringe, but I wasn’t as riled up as some,” they wrote.
Then there were some people who straight up hated the episode.
“Imagine if you decided to watch MasterChef for the first time tonight. If you are, I promise, it’s usually better than this,” one person wrote, with another responding: “Probably the worst episode I’ve seen, I’ve been watching since season 1 episode 1.”
Well, the men must be doing something right, because they’ve got a helluva an online following, as well as a successful restaurant.
MasterChef Australia airs on Sunday at 7pm and Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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