MasterChef star Reynold Poernomo's 'secret advantage'

Reynold Poernomo and his desserts are certainly a fan favourite on the current series of MasterChef: Back To Win.

But some are wondering whether the 26-year-old pastry chef has a bit of an unfair advantage given his brother is a MasterChef judge on the Indonesian series of the show.

Arnold has been a judge on Masterchef Indonesia since 2013 after he first appeared as a guest judge on the second season of the show.

He then returned as a permanent judge and is known for taking the time to teach contestants to help improve their basic cooking techniques.

Reynold also co-owns Sydney's popular Koi dessert bars with Arnold and their other brother Ronald.

The revelation that MasterChef does appear to run in the family was first made when Reynold appeared on MasterChef back in 2015.

He quickly became a household name and was dubbed the ‘Dessert King’ after his appearance on season seven.

Back then some people took to social media to debate whether having a judge in the family was ‘fair’ or not.

“I didn't know Reynold's brother is a judge on Masterchef Indonesia! And his family are basically all experts. Seems slightly unfair,” one person wrote at the time.

But others defended Reynold saying: “He's brother is not on the Australian show so who cares? How's that unfair?”

Brother Arnold also responded on Twitter when the story started doing the rounds again earlier in the season saying: “Isn’t this old news?”

Earlier this month it was revealed that Reynold actually pulled out of this year’s MasterChef when he discovered the original judges had been axed.

“I said yes, then the judges got changed, and I said no, then I had to say yes again because I thought OK, this is actually an opportunity that doesn’t come around often,” he told news.com.au.

He went on to say that his ‘time is really valuable in the business’ and he was worried that he would put too much of a burden on his family being away filming for that long.

However, he decided to accept the Back to Win offer and is now glad he did, after the new judges, Melissa Leong, Jock Zonfrillo and Andy Allen have made their mark.

“I’m so glad I said yes because it’s really refreshing to see new faces,” he said.

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