- MasterChef Grandparents’ will pay a well-deserved tribute to an entire generation. In this special presentation, led by Pepe Rodríguez, Jordi Cruz and the great Loles León, the 10 experienced candidates will share with the audience all the love and culinary knowledge they have inside.
- Then it will be the turn of the 8th generation of minichefs, who will surprise with their spontaneity and culinary skills. Pepe Rodriguez, Jordi Cruz and Samantha Vallejo-Nágera will have fun with the ‘MasterChef Junior 8’ candidates, they will demand from them in the kitchen to get the best out of them, and instill in them the need to lead a healthy life.
It’s going to be a very special Christmas for ‘MasterChef’. The culinary talent show produced by RTVE in collaboration with Shine Iberia will become one of the strongest bets of TVE for the coming weeks and is already preparing two very special gifts. Firstly, a special programme dedicated to the elderly that combines the best traditional cuisine with all the emotion that only our grandparents know how to transmit, especially those who have been hit by the pandemic. Then, a new and fun edition of ‘MasterChef Junior’ -the eighth ya- that will face a new batch of small chefs with great challenges on set and surprising outdoor team trials.
MasterChef Grandparents’, a well-deserved tribute to an entire generation
From the great chefs of our country to hundreds of amateur cooks began their journey in the culinary world motivated by their grandfathers and grandmothers, who were able to transmit them a love for cooking that is unparalleled. The special ‘MasterChef Grandparents’ will pay tribute to all that generation used to fight and, especially in these times of pandemic, will try to return all the love and the capacity of resistance that have known to transmit to us during these months so complicated inside and outside the kitchens.
Carmen, Lidia, Santiago, Aurelia, Carmen García, Stephen, Guadalupe, José, Pilar and Juan are the ten chosen ones who, representing all the elders of Spain, will live ‘MasterChef’ from the inside to make the spectators enjoy their love of cooking, their loved ones and life. The winner of this special will take home the trophy that will accredit him as the champion of ‘MasterChef Abuelos’ and 12,000 euros in cash.
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Loles León, ‘MasterChef’ jury for a day
Pepe Rodríguez and Jordi Cruz will be repeating as members of the ‘MasterChef’ jury, but in this very special programme they will be accompanied by one of the most charismatic and fun-loving applicants who have been through ‘MasterChef Celebrity’: the great Loles León. The three will emphasise traditional cuisine as the basis of the most avant-garde gastronomy and will cover the ten applicants, experienced in life but new to ‘MasterChef’.
Furthermore, as if the surprise of Loles León were not enough, the programme will also include in this first ‘MasterChef Grandparents’ one of the most loved people in our country, Vicente Del Bosque. The former Spanish national coach will be hosting the event in his home country and will be one of the main protagonists in the outdoor event in Salamanca. Together with him, great friends of ‘MasterChef’ will visit the kitchens in this tribute to the grandparents: Josetxo, Candela and Pachu (‘MasterChef Junior 6’), Lu, Vega and Albert (‘MasterChef Junior 7’), Henar, Javier, Antony and Asier (‘MasterChef Junior 8’), Maribel (‘MasterChef 1’), Churra (‘MasterChef 2’), Edurne (‘MasterChef 5’), Juani (‘MasterChef 8’), Bibiana Fernández (‘MasterChef Celebrity 2’), Carmen Lomana (‘MasterChef Celebrity 3’) and Celia Villalobos (‘MasterChef Celebrity 5’).
Haute cuisine was also present in ‘MasterChef Abuelos’ and chef Loles Salvador, “the mother of Valencian gastronomy”, and the father and son chefs Pedro and Marcos Morán, from Casa Gerardo with a Michelin star, will be advising the candidates and joining in the well-deserved tribute.
The icing on the cake will be a visit from an actor who, despite not having taken part, has been very much present in ‘MasterChef Celebrity 5’: Máximo Valverde.
MasterChef Junior 8′, avant-garde cuisine, sport, solidarity and fun
From a very young age they tasted the dishes of their fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers to start their journey linked to cooking and gastronomy. Now is the time to demonstrate everything they have learned. 16 new candidates have already prepared everything to face the challenge of ‘MasterChef Junior 8’. They are Iván, Pablo, Manel, Celia, Adriana, Inés, Ariadna, Manu, Antony, Gina and Nina, Asier, Javier, Aurora, Luna, Henar and Nicolás. They form a new generation of minichefs that will have to demonstrate, in addition to their love of cooking, their joy and companionship to move all the spectators.
In spite of their young age, the young aspirants arrive with the desire to conquer the palate of the demanding jury, formed by Pepe Rodríguez, Samantha Vallejo-Nágera and Jordi Cruz. The winner will take home the trophy that accredits him as the eighth ‘Junior MasterChef’ in Spain, a prize of 12,000 euros for further training and a four-day cooking course at the prestigious Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences Basque Culinary Center. In addition, week after week the programme will surprise the children with great prizes to enjoy with the family.
Sport, more than ever in ‘MasterChef Junior 8
The kitchens of ‘MasterChef Junior 8’ will be converted into a football field. Atletico Madrid players Koke and Marcos Llorente will visit the candidates in what will be the first time that two professional footballers will step onto the MasterChef set. With healthy food and physical exercise as the pillars of a healthy life, the young chefs will learn about the diet of a sportsman.
It is not only football that will play a major role in the eighth edition of ‘MasterChef Junior’. Basketball will also play a role. The candidates will travel to Valencia to visit L’Alquería del basketball, the facilities where players of all categories of Valencia Basketball are trained, and there they will cook for part of the first team of the Valencian team. A real luxury! Magic will also play an important role in one of the trials with the visit of the magician Jorge Blass, who will leave the aspirants open-mouthed thanks to his incredible magic tricks.
Among the great challenges of this edition, the aspirants will be faced with different desserts, they will cook for their grandparents, they will have to prepare complex menus of avant-garde cuisine, they will use foie gras as a central element of their creations, and they will take care of a meal that will pay tribute to the volunteers who distributed food during the confinement.
In addition, the ‘MasterChef Junior 8’ programme will once again tour unique locations in Spain. From the Altamira Caves in Santillana del Mar, to the Madrid Zoo, passing through the Castillo de la Mota in Medina del Campo (Valladolid) or the Royal Palace. The judges, without losing their demanding judgments, will have fun with the young hopefuls, whether as the friendly protagonists of children’s stories or as the fearsome villains of horror films. Pepe Rodríguez, Jordi Cruz and Samantha Vallejo-Nágera will even show their “more animalistic” side.
To support and advise applicants, some of the protagonists of previous editions will return to the kitchens of ‘MasterChef’: Silvia Abril (‘MasterChef Celebrity 2’), Mario Vaquerizo (‘MasterChef Celebrity 3’), Florentino Fernández, Josie and Raquel Meroño (‘MasterChef Celebrity 5’), Luna (‘MasterChef 8’) and Albert and Lu (finalist and winner of ‘MasterChef Junior 7’). On the other hand, prestigious chefs will visit this eighth edition and will share some of their gastronomic tricks: Martin Berasategui (12), Jesús Sánchez (3) and Ángel León (3), Oriol Castro (2), Mateu Casañas (2), Toño Pérez (2), Alberto Ferruz (2), Óscar Calleja (2) and Dani García.
MasterChef’, also a leader in social networks
The 2,500,000 followers who follow ‘MasterChef’ on social networks (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok) speak for themselves about the strength of the brand and the projection of its community in digital. In this edition much of the focus will revolve around the 16 candidates, as many of them are true tiktokers. As a great novelty, the programme is preparing special actions in TikTok for ‘MasterChef Junior 8’, which will come after the success of #RecipesWithFlavour and #playlistMasterChef launched during ‘MasterChef Celebrity 5’.
In addition, Abel Arana will continue to live each broadcast of ‘MasterChef Junior 8’ with a lot of humour in his Live Tweeting and will connect with surprise guests in his live shows on Instagram, in which he offers his particular chronicle of the edition and includes exclusive contents.
On YouTube the growth of the official ‘MasterChef’ channel is unstoppable: more than 445 million views and more than 609,000 unique subscribers. Week after week, fans of ‘MasterChef’ will be able to continue enjoying the best moments of ‘MasterChef Junior 8’ or previous editions.
The Bible, the restaurant, the Club … Another way of living ‘MasterChef
The success of television’s toughest culinary talent is not limited to the small screen. The MasterChef Bible has broken all previous book records, and the ninth edition is already underway. The ‘MasterChef’ experience is completed with the ‘MasterChef’ Online School – with nearly 10,000 active users, the MasterChef Restaurant – with more than 13,000 diners over the past 6 months and its Delivery and Take Away service with dishes from the judges and the restaurant at full capacity – and the MasterChef Camps – with more than 1,500 children enrolled, 100% occupancy for another summer.
The derived products are also a guarantee of success: in addition to the cooking wines, the range is increasing with the launch of the online sales platform for high-quality table wines, clubmasterchef.com. The most demanding talent show in the world discovers in its new proposal some of the best wines of our country, selected by Javier Gila, president of the Madrid Association of Sommeliers and five times champion of sommeliers in Spain. The collection includes a Ribera del Duero tempranillo, an albariño from Rías Baixas, a verdejo from Rueda, a rosé from Cigales, the Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc wines from Vinos de la Tierra de Castilla-La Mancha, a cava from Brut del Penedés…