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Exclusive: Shocking secrets from behind the scenes of a MasterChef taping

A MasterChef audience member has revealed some eye-opening secrets from behind the scenes of a taping, just after viewers slammed Monday night's episode.

Judge Andy Allen told the contestants the day's team challenge involved seeing whether they were able to cook in front of a screaming audience.

MasterChef challenge in front of audience
A MasterChef audience member has revealed shocking behind the scenes secrets from the filming of Monday night's episode. Photo: Ten

Returning contestant Poh Ling Yeow said she found the experience "overwhelming" and fans took to social media revealing they felt similarly and were even switching stations.

One person took to Twitter, writing: "Okay, I've got a headache. Switching to Sam Neill on Australia Story."

"Combination of loud drum music, loud Andy rev ups and screaming crowds is totes overwhelming the cooking aspect. I'll sign off tonight and catch you all on the next episode,” another person added.

Now Melbourne mum Donna De La Rue, who was at the taping with her daughter has said that "not everything is as it appears", calling it an “unpleasant experience to be honest”.

Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle, Donna said things got off to a bad start with production crew members apologising to the audience members upon arrival because the air-conditioning wasn't working and it was a 36˚ day, making things seriously uncomfortable.

MasterChef judges
Donna revealed that the audience was never introduced to the judges and spent the whole time not knowing who they were. Photo: Ten

She explained that the audience members weren't even told very much about what was happening during the taping.

"We weren't really told anything, we were revved up by an MC which was fun, we were all very excited and, of course, at that stage we didn't know anything – we didn't know the judges or the contestants."

"We were given hand signals to say 'Ooh' and 'Aah' and clapping and cheering and 'Aww' if something went bad, which we did for quite a few hours and other than that we couldn't hear anything that was going on. Nothing. You couldn't hear unless someone screamed out '30 minutes left' or something. That's about all you could hear, you couldn't hear any of the interaction between the judges and the contestants."

She added that they could barely even see anything from where they were sitting.

"We had Hayden in front of us and I think we knew he was cooking fish and you could smell the hibachi, that was awesome, so that experience was really good,” she said.

"We were really looking forward to [Monday] night because we were like, 'Now we can finally find out what everyone actually cooked', because we had no idea.

"But yeah, it was really disappointing that there was no audio in the whole thing, even though everyone was mic'd up, we couldn't hear a thing. And I get that it probably would have echoed if it had, I get that's why, but we didn't hear anything."

Donna then revealed the most interesting part of the day came as quite a huge surprise to her and her daughter.

MasterChef audience members
The audience members were unable to hear or see what the contestant were saying or cooking, making it a less enjoyable experience. Photo: Ten

"Every single one of those contestants had a cooking helper. Every single one of them,” the mum claimed.

"There were people running around in black T-shirts everywhere, there were people telling them whether it needed more spice etc.”

She claimed Laura had an issue with her deep fat fryer and someone was telling her how to control the temperature on it.

The mum also says the ‘helper’s cleaned up after the contestants but she claims they were edited out of the episode.

"Every single one of [the contestants] had a food coach, every single one of them," she claimed.

Donna added that the one other thing that "genuinely" surprised her was that the time limit was real and people couldn't go over time if they wanted, but there were also some people that finished "way earlier".

"Poh finished really, really early, she probably stood around for 15 minutes and did nothing and then when they started to do the countdown she fussed around a little bit, but none of them were right on the buzzer for the countdown, that was all crap."

Donna also said that every contestant got the same amount of attention and time when it came to taste testing by the judges, even if it might not look that way on the show.

She explained that as soon as the chefs stopped cooking, their dishes were taken away to a fridge or somewhere to be kept warm if it was a hot dish while they waited around an hour before the actual taste testing, which lasted around 90 minutes.

MasterChef
According to Donna, every contestant had a "cooking helper" that would give them advice. Photo: Ten

One thing that also took time was the fact the cameras were constantly stopping and starting and the judges often needed their makeup touched up.

"Andy probably spilled food on his T-shirt four times so we had to wait for him to go and get changed and then come back again," she said.

One of the most disappointing parts of the day, Donna revealed, was the fact they were never introduced to the judges or contestants.

"We were really disappointed because we weren't introduced to the judges, we didn't know who they were, we also weren't introduced to the contestants."

Donna revealed that due to the high temperatures that day, many people left at around six or seven o'clock, before filming had even finished.

"We knew that when they were doing the filming there wouldn't be much that they could use from our audience because I think at the end there was probably ten of us left. So, it was really interesting,” she said.

Yahoo Lifestyle has contacted Channel 10 for comment.

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