Introducing: 'Under Bench Staples' –– A MasterChef Australia Reaction Podcast

We're deep-diving into Season 15 of the best cookery reality show on TV, are you keen to come along?

“Right-o,” as Andy Allen would say… here we are!

We’re kicking off a new series on Chip Paper under a brand new section (based around a new podcast!) which we’re calling Under Bench Staples. This is the home of our MasterChef Australia content, kicking off and coinciding with the UK/Ireland broadcast this August for the next couple of months.

If you’ve followed us since 2020 or so you’ll know we adore MasterChef Australia and have written quite a bit about it before, like this post on our website gastrogays.com about getting through various Covid-19 lockdowns by binging on MasterChef Australia and what it taught us, as well as one of our first long-read features on Chip Paper from 2022 below:

It’s the best iteration of the format worldwide. It’s the benchmark and the bee’s knees. It’s got heart, humour and high stakes, all in one perfectly balanced package. It envelops the audience cosily in contestants’ storylines, setting you up to root for each one of them. It’s not overly shouty or dramatic, and even though it can be a long, drawn-out series it keeps itself exciting and evolving compared to than the stale, boring iterations of other regions.

The Format

Each week we’re going to do post-show reactions and catch-ups across several podcast episodes. Sometimes we’ll do an episode-per-episode and sometimes it might be one episode covering a couple of nights of watching. There’s 50 episodes in total for season 15 and we’re going to be watching along and sharing our thoughts on them all. We’re kicking off with the first Under Bench Staples episode (which covers the first and second episodes of the series) a little further down in this post, and we’d love you to come on this journey with us.

For speed, we’re focusing on audio, recording after each episode airs and getting it to your eardrums as soon as possible. In each episode (which will be 30-59 minutes, always under an hour) you’ll hear us dish about the episode, offer our thoughts on the challenges and dishes plus we pick our ‘Smash or Pass’ dishes, two dishes from the challenge(s) in that episode –– the one dish each we would each absolutely smash, apply-to-face style and one which we’d each politely pass on.

We might even include a little feature called “THIRTYYYYYY SECONNDDDDDDDS” down the line, who knows. We’re also open to expanding the written element of this new section of Chip Paper, and we have some plans up our sleeves for guest content and supplementary posts.

Spoiler alert! Be warned, this is a post-watch format –– we’re reacting to what’s already been broadcast, so best to tune in once you’ve watched yourself to avoid having anything spoiled. For example, in the first episode of Under Bench Staples, we’re covering lots about the very special guest who appears in the season opener…

The name - Under Bench Staples - is, of course, a nod to the very basics afforded in the MC AU kitchen –– when the pantry, garden and even equipment is out of bounds, the under bench staples are always there to build a dish from the ground up so it felt like a fitting place to begin ourselves.

How do I watch/listen?

You don’t need to have watched any previous seasons of the Down Under iteration, each MasterChef Australia season stands alone, if you ask us. So, why not kick off from this one (then catch up on the previous ones later!). You can watch on W at 7pm weeknights, or catch-up afterwards on the UKTV Play website. You can, of course, also follow dodgy links online to binge the whole series (as it has already concluded as of mid-July 2023 in Australia).

Episode one is above, and you can also soon find the new podcast (and future episodes) wherever you get your podcasts.

Free for all + Opting in/out

We’re keeping this section FREE to all subscribers, no paywall on any part, and for the first mailing and podcast we’ve included ALL our subscribers, however you can opt-out if you wish at any time (but you’ll miss out on the fun!)

If you don’t feel the Under Bench Staples content is something to interest you, you can remove yourself from the mailing list in your ‘Account’ section on Substack where you manage all your subscriptions. We hope that if this particular niche is not of interest that the main Chip Paper still will be, as we value all our 1,000+ subscribers. Note: if you opt-out of Under Bench Staples all your future newsletters and content from us will be strictly the rest of Chip Paper, so rest assured.

Why MasterChef Australia?

Even though MasterChef Australia has been broadcasting since 2009, two things: we’re based on the other side of the world in Ireland and we’ve actually only been devout fans of the show since 2020. However, even with those two things, we sure did make up for lost time because we’ve watched almost every season within those two to three years. As we’ve caught up on almost every season in a short (and recent) time so it’s still quite fresh which allows us to compare, contrast, identify and interject all the similarities, differences, faces and names.

It’s our favourite TV show, so we hope by coming on this journey with us it will become your favourite too.