This Is How The MasterChef ‘Confessional’ Interviews Are Actually Filmed

They're the parts of the MasterChef Australia episodes that bring the emotion and personal detail to the forefront. And now we have some insights into how the confessional scenes are actually filmed (one of the many questions about MasterChef that I've had for a while).

For those wondering, these are the sequences featuring the contestants speaking directly to the camera about how they're feeling before, during and after the cook. The videos and audio are interspersed throughout the episode as the cooking unfolds, allowing us to know exactly what the contestants are thinking throughout the challenges.

Previous contestant Mindy Woods told us last year that while we may only see up to 90 minutes of action in the kitchen per episode, filming usually takes a whole day, and the individual confessional interviews are not quick to shoot.

"When you look at the production itself, you might have a one-hour or two-hour cook and sometimes pressure tests which are obviously much longer than that," Woods told Refinery29 Australia.

"But we will be on set at 7 o'clock in the morning, we'll do a lot of walk-ups [from the car] that are done time and time again to get the different angles and different expressions. Then we go onto set and we'll finally do the cook, which will last maybe two hours.

"We can be on set anywhere from like eight to 14 or 15 hours. They're huge days of filming."

Slotting in the filming of the individual interviews then depends on when the cooking challenge ends. Contestants are asked to talk through what was going on in their minds at different moments — for example, reacting to the selection of ingredients, what the judges say or how the other contestants' performances impact them.

"If there's a short cook, you might do your little interview straight after the cook," explains Woods. "If it's been a really long day, then we'll do a catch-up [with producers] after but they try and keep it as close to the story and to the experience as possible so everything's very fresh."

While there are strict time pressures during the actual challenges, the rest of the filming schedule can often drag out.

"It's a funny saying on set of, 'Hurry up and wait'," she laughed. "Because we're always hurrying to get ready, to get mic'd up and get our aprons on and then it's a lot of waiting."

This year's season of MasterChef is different to last year's season MasterChef Australia: Fans & Favourites, which featured 12 returning contestants from previous seasons and 12 amateur home cooks.

The contestants are Adi Nevgi, Alice Han, Amy Tanner, Andrea Puglisi, Antonio Cruz Vaamonde, Brent Draper, Cath Collins, Declan Cleary, Grace Jupp, Jessica Perri, Larissa Sewell, Malissa Fedele, Phil Conway, Ralph Kahango, Rhiannon Anderson, Robbie Cooper, Rue Mupedzi and Theo Loizou.

In addition to MasterChef judges Melissa Leong, Andy Allen and Jock Zonfrillo (who recently passed away), this year there's a star-studded lineup of guest judges including Jamie Oliver, Curtis Stone, Maggie Beer, Rick Stein and Peter Gilmore.