Netizens Debate After MasterChef AU Judge Criticises Wonton Centre For Being "Not Crunchy"
We're getting crispy rendang flashbacks.
By May Vin Ang — 04 May 2020, 07:02 PM
The 2020 season of MasterChef Australia, called 'Back To Win', is filled with talent as former contestants return to the show for a second chance to win the title
The show even features new judges - Season 4 winner Andy Allen, food writer Melissa Leong, and chef Jock Zonfrillo.
In the latest episode that has caused a stir on the Internet, contestants were given the challenge to make the judges dishes that "packed the best crunch" to avoid being sent home.
While some contestants pulled through with crunchy fried chicken and beer-battered fried fish, 26-year-old Brendan Pang failed to impress the judges with his crispy prawn wontons
Pang, a former top 10 contestant from Season 9, is a fan favourite on the show for his cooking inspired by his family's Chinese and Mauritian background.
According to his MasterChef Australia profile, after being eliminated in 2018, he started his own pop-up dumpling kitchen called 'Bumplings' in Perth, as well as wrote a book called This Is a Book About Dumplings.
However, in yesterday's episode, he did not pass the first round of eliminations after one of the judges, Andy Allen, found his crispy prawn wantons not crunchy enough.
"Sorry, but mine is not crunchy. That's soft," Allen said after taking a bite, while a crunch is clearly heard from Zonfrillo's mouthful.
"So, in my opinion, that doesn't meet the brief," Allen continued while pressing the side of the wonton with filling in it.
Malaysian-Australian celebrity chef Adam Liaw has since called Allen out for the judgement that sent Pang into the second round of elimination
"The meat-containing portion of a wonton does not need to be crunchy! This is like the crispy rendang all over again," exclaimed the season two winner on Twitter after the episode aired yesterday, 3 May.
"I would even go so far to say that if the 'ball' portion of a wonton is crunchy, it is a badly made wonton," Liaw added in a later tweet.
Many netizens came forward to support Liaw's sentiments about the wonton meat centre not needing to be crunchy, but some defended Allen's appraisal
"Fried chicken is just crunchy skin, so why has the wonton been so poorly judged?" asked a Twitter user, who echoed Liaw's reply that if a food is crunchy in the correct places, it should still be considered good.
"You'd be rightly annoyed if you served fried chicken and were told it wasn't good because although the outside was crunchy, the meat was moist and succulent," said Liaw.
Meanwhile this user suggested that Pang made a mistake by making wontons for the challenge in the first place, which makes Allen's evaluation fair.
"But I put it to you that if wontons don't need to be crunchy and the brief was to make something 'extra crunchy', then were wontons the correct choice for the challenge?" the netizen asked.
