This is who really sets the tough MasterChef's challenges

It’s been a nail-biting season on MasterChef, with each cook getting more challenging and the competition getting fiercer.

And now, the lengthy process behind setting those challenges has been revealed, with the planning taking months to come to fruition.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald executive producer Marty Benson showed the reporter around the MasterChef ideas room, which has a massive whiteboard covering one entire wall.

"This year, we had to amp things up,” Marty said.

"We have a massive team of home economists and chefs, with about eight of them working on a daily basis, who might make a dish five or six times before we give it to the contestants.

"Time and ingredients are the two things we play with to [calibrate the level of difficulty]."

Unlike other years, where streams of well-known chefs would come through the doors at the MasterChef kitchen, Marty revealed that the reason they have cut down on guest chefs coming in for immunity challenges is because they decided “it wouldn't be fair on the chefs because our contestants are so good."

It’s not the only behind the scenes secrets that have been spilled this year, as former contestant Sarah Tiong revealed at the beginning of the month that they have a team of people to clean up after them.

“Oh look, there's an incredible team of people at MasterChef that, unfortunately for them, do the dishes,” Sarah said on The Project.

“But they are just spectacular people.”

After Simon Toohey got eliminated he also told The Project hosts what happens to all the food leftover after the cooks.

“A lot of the stuff goes to all the secondary charities like OzHarvest, Foodbank etc. and passed on from there if they aren’t used,” Simon revealed.

“And then if they are, then they go to the compost or they get spread around to people like us and the crew so there is actually zero waste within the MasterChef kitchen, which is unreal.”

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