A former contestant says the MasterChef NZ home had bedrooms that smelled like mould with dead cockroaches in them.
A former contestant says the MasterChef NZ home had bedrooms that smelled like mould with dead cockroaches in them.
A former MasterChef NZ contender was more than happy to leave this season's MasterChef house after complaining of cockroaches and the smell of mould in bedrooms.
A source told Spy the eliminated contestant had thought the experience of making the MasterChef competition would be a lot more glamourous than it turned out.
Expectations of the fabulous houses seen in past seasons of MasterChef were ruined for this five-star guest, who said their house had no gym, spa or pool.
There were seven bedrooms and two bathrooms for 16 people and our fussy contender hated the tiny room shared downstairs, described as pokey with no views.
It was cold and smelled mouldy and the contestant claimed to have seen at least six dead cockroaches.
Where there is an up, there is a down. The house is said to sit on the arterial before the harbour bridge, so traffic noise was a problem for our contestant.
The contestant agreed that upstairs was nicer, and the kitchen was amply supplied with sponsors' produce: My Food Bags galore, Best Ugly Bagels and a farmyard of meat from The Neat Meat Company, a business Josh Emett uses for his Chef Series food range.
The house may not have passed one contestant's white glove test, but overall it is understood that other contestants have embraced living in it and camaraderie has formed even though they are competing with each other in the new MasterChef NZ kitchen in a West Auckland studio warehouse.
Has the Auckland housing market put the squeeze on reality shows?
The MasterChef rumours join a list of 'not quites' for recent reality shows that offer the sleepover quotient.
Finding the perfect Bachelorette mansion was difficult for the first series of The Bachelor.
The houses on offer at the time were underwhelming for a reality fantasy fairy tale.
The Bachelor Art Green.
Producers ended up decking out a two-story country style house in Karaka with masses of fairy lights.
The same malaise seemed to strike the last series of The X Factor NZ when a contestant moaned to Spy about how pedestrian and "un-rock star" the contestants' house in Epsom was.
The heady days of staying at Seeby Woodhouse's multi-million dollar luxury North Shore homes and living life vicariously through the internet mogul's digs as a reality TV star contestant are over.
Have there been any MasterChef hook ups?
Sadly no, but Victoria Koszegi who left the show in a double elimination on Sunday evening is said to have had a few crushes.
Insiders tell Spy that Koszegi had a crush on a producer, a cameraman and even Judge Josh.
Her hopes of a hook-up may have come true, as we hear former house mate Gideon Marisa has introduced her to a friend of his and things are said to be turning out well.
The new judges are also as nice as they appear on TV. For Spy, the most exciting part of the series so far has been seeing Al Brown remove his trade mark cap.
Spy is told this is a nod to the etiquette involved when chefs take part in tastings.
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