# MasterChef (Uruguayan TV series)

MasterChef Uruguay is an Uruguayan competitive cooking game show based on the original British series of the same name, open to amateur and home chefs. Broadcast by Channel 10, debuted on April 3, 2017, it is presented by Diego González. Sergio Puglia, Laurent Lainé and Lucía Soria served as judges for the first three seasons, while in the fourth one, Ximena Torres replaced Soria.

## Format

The winner plays for a prize that includes chef training from Crandon Institute, a trip to Girona to go to learn for 3 days at El Celler de Can Roca, and UYU$200,000 in cash.
The competition takes place in the MasterChef soundstage located in La Aguada, Montevideo which includes a supermarket, a restaurant, and a large kitchen area with several cooking stations which is overlooked by a balcony.

### Challenges

In each episode the participants must overcome a challenge
* Mystery box: In this challenge, contestants have a box that hides ingredients or other things. With what they have in the box they have to cook a dish, without being able to go to the market to look for more ingredients. They can use all the ingredients they want from the box, be it one or all.
* Elimination Test: In this test will be the worst dishes of the previous test. They have to cook any dish, but that dish has to have a main ingredient chosen by the Chefs (in each elimination test the main ingredient will be different). In this test there is always only one loser, which is removed from MasterChef. This is the only test that is in every episode.
* Team Challenge: In this challenge the cooks are split into teams by team captains who is the one who chooses his teammates and who chooses what dishes to do. Captains are almost always the 2 winners of the previous test. Always in this challenge the judges are not the main Chefs but other people, generally several people.
* Challenge in pairs: In this test teams of two participants are formed. They have to make a dish chosen by each team. While one cooks the other stands to the side and can help you by talking and giving advice or warn you about something but cannot help you by cooking or touching something. After a certain time they rotate and the one who cooked, stands on one side talking to him and the other cooks. They always rotate more than 1 time.
* Master class: In this challenge, the contestants taste a dish cooked by a guest chef, and then they cook it with different ingredients for a certain time.

## History

The rumor that a Uruguayan version of MasterChef started in October 2016. In February 2017, the presenter and the judges were confirmed. The show debuted on April 3 of that year, while on Monday, May 8, in the chapter of that day, the second season of MasterChef was confirmed, it was also announced that the registrations for that edition would begin shortly and that people who signed up for the first season, they wouldn't need to do it again.
The day before the end of the first season of Masterchef, on Sunday, July 23, 2017, a special called Road to the Grand Final was broadcast. It showed the life of the 4 finalists MasterChef participants.

## Series overview

| Season | Episodes | Premiere Date | Finale Date | No. of Finalists | Winner | Runner(s)-up | Judge 1 | Judge 2 | Judge 3 |
| 1 | 17 | April 3, 2017 | July 24, 2017 | 18 | Nilson Viazzo | Leticia Cicero | Sergio Puglia | Lucía Soria | Laurent Lainé |
| 2 | 18 | August 21, 2017 | December 11, 2017 | 18 | María Gracia Sosa | Luciana Dangelo | Sergio Puglia | Lucía Soria | Laurent Lainé |
| 3 | 15 | April 2, 2018 | July 9, 2018 | 17 | Alicia Patella | Gisela Meissner | Sergio Puglia | Lucía Soria | Laurent Lainé |
| 4 | 40 | April 22, 2019 | September 5, 2019 | 28 | Natalia González | Sebastián Piñeyro | Sergio Puglia | Ximena Torres | Laurent Lainé |
| 5 | TBA | June 11, 2024 | ― | ― | ― | ― | Sergio Puglia | Ximena Torres | Laurent Lainé |

## 1st season: 2017

| Contestant | Age | Occupation | Hometown | Final position |
| Nilson Viazzo | 36 | Police | Florida | Winner |
| Leticia Cicero | 35 | Chemical engineer | Libertad | Runner-up |
| Nicolás Rolando | 35 | Dentist | Sayago | 3rd classified |
| Lourdes Galván | 37 | Employee | Piedras Blancas | 14th eliminated |
| Martín Méndez | 41 | Merchant | Libertad | 13th eliminated |
| Sibila Ibarra | 24 | Architecture student | Durazno | 12th eliminated |
| Amparo Pereira | 27 | Employee | Prado | 11th eliminated |
| Silvia Pírez | 46 | Publicist | Malvín | 10th eliminated |
| Ana María Florentín | 65 | Retired doctor | Canelones | 9th eliminated |
| Víctor Bello | 28 | Pharmaceutical chemist | Treinta y Tres | 8th eliminated |
| Francisco Boezio | 55 | Marketing analyst | Paso Carrasco | 7th eliminated |
| Cristina Buroni | 52 | Interior decorator | Pocitos | 6th eliminated |
| Mercedes Carballo | 33 | Carpenter | Unión | Abandons |
| Danilo Britos | 40 | Craft brewer | Ciudad de la Costa | 5th eliminated |
| María Pía Cardozo | 22 | Military navy | Rocha | 4th eliminated |
| Manuel Aispuro | 38 | Butcher | Centro | 3rd eliminated |
| Gonzalo Teixeira | 26 | Veterinary student | Tacuarembó | 2nd eliminated |
| Chantal Tuttle | 43 | French teacher | Cordón | 1st eliminated |

## Spin-off editions
### MasterChef Profesionales: 2018

A spin-off featuring professional chefs as contestants. It premiered on August 20, 2018 and ended on November 27. It had 16 episodes.
The judges were Sergio Puglia, Lucía Soria, Laurent Lainé and Narda Lepes. The winner of this spin-off was Carlos Telechea.

### MasterChef Celebrity: 2020

A spin-off featuring celebrities, it debuted on September 1. The judges are Sergio Puglia, Laurent Lainé and Ximena Torres. The winner of this edition was the singer Aldo Martinez. On August 3, 2021, the second season premiered, with actress Paula Silva as the winner.

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Recipient (s) | Result |
| 2018 | Iris Award | Best Talent Show | MasterChef Uruguay | Won |
| 2018 | Iris Award | Best TV Revelation | Laurent Lainé | Won |
| 2018 | Iris Award | Golden Iris Award | MasterChef Uruguay | Won |