After a four-year break, Soneva MasterChef is back, and this year it’s bigger than ever! Are you ready to pit your most impressive culinary skills against your fellow hosts and wow the judging panel? As well as winning the title of Soneva MasterChef 2022 and the coveted MasterChef trophy, the victor will also see their dish become part of our guest-facing menu, along with other special prizes.
Follow the latest Soneva MasterChef news on Workplace here and see all the latest pictures from the competition below.
Round 1 for all resorts has now taken place, and the semi-finalists have been chosen! The next, semi-final round is planned for Wednesday, June 29.
The two finalists from each resort and The Hub will travel to Thailand for the final at Soneva Kiri on July 6. The finalists will enjoy round-trip air transfers to/from Thailand, one night in a hotel in Bangkok plus three nights accommodation at Soneva Kiri, as well as a meal at one of Bangkok’s best restaurants.
This Year’s Theme – Healthy Food
The theme this year is food for health and wellness – across each round of the competition, we want you to create the kind of cuisine that doesn’t just taste and look wonderful, but nourishes mind, body and soul, too.
The Heats
Select carefully as this is the qualifying round and must focus on child-friendly food. Only four hosts from each location will qualify for the next round.
The permitted cooking time is 1 hour.
This must be a different dish from the first round, prepared for an adult diner. Only two hosts from each location will qualify for the finals.
The permitted cooking time is 1 hour.
Each finalist will present their dishes to a panel of Michelin-starred chefs at Soneva Fushi.
The permitted cooking time is 2 hours.
MasterChef Round 1 at Soneva Fushi
See the photos and watch the action from the first set of MasterChef heats at Soneva Fushi.
MasterChef Round 1 at Soneva Jani
See the photos and watch the action from the first set of MasterChef heats at Soneva Fushi.
MasterChef Round 1 at Soneva Kiri
See the photos and watch the action from the first set of MasterChef heats at Soneva Kiri. As tensions simmered, the talented team crafted a mouth-watering selection of children’s dishes to serve to the judging panel.
Creating Your Menu
- This year’s health and wellness theme should play a big part in your choice of dish.
- Tell us about the two dishes you plan to make for Round 1 and Round 2.
- Round 1: Healthy Children’s Food.
- Round 2: Wellness Food for Adults.
- Final: Theme TBC.
- Your menu must adhere to Soneva’s principles on food and cuisine: no items on our No-No list are permitted, and deep-fried items are not recommended.
- To keep things reasonable, all ingredient items in your menu should be available at the location of the competition.
- A maximum budget of USD 25 (THB 800) is permitted for the meal ingredients in your full menu (Rounds 1 and 2).
- Each dish will be judged on 9 criteria:
- Communication
- Colour
- Quality
- Environmental cost
- Creativity
- Soneva element
- Texture
- Aroma
- Flavour
Top Tips!
- This is not just a cooking competition – it’s a test of creativity!
- The way you communicate about your dishes is just as important as what you create.
- Sponsored by the hub, Soneva MasterChef is a fantastic team-building activity as well as helping us expand our culinary horizons to further strengthen our F&B experience for guests and hosts alike.
- There is no separate category for chefs. Chefs who decide not to participate can become mentors.
The Rules
- Contestants must submit a menu of 2 dishes that are good enough to be featured on guest menus across all Soneva resorts.
- The dishes presented must be for one guest only.
- The contestants must prepare and cook all dishes themselves without any help or assistance from others, except the judges’ recommendations.
- The cooking time for Rounds 1 and 2 is 1 hour. The Final will be 2 hours.
- Your menu must adhere to Soneva’s principles on food and cuisine: no items on our No-No list are permitted, and deep-fried items are not recommended.
- To keep things reasonable, all ingredient items in your menu should be available at the location of the competition.
- A maximum budget of USD 25 (THB 800) is permitted for the meal ingredients in your full menu (Rounds 1 and 2).
- Each contestant is allowed to bring utensils and any cookware from his/her own kitchen. If a dish requires a longer preparation time (such as a marinade or stewing), the participant is allowed to prepare at the venue the day before, however the prep time (excluding stewing/marinating time) will be subtracted from the cooking time the following day.
- Contestants are not allowed to bring in sub-recipes, such as home-made pastes or sauces. If needed, contestants are allowed to use commercially produced sauces or pastes but any ‘home-made’ sub-recipes must be made by the contestants during the competition time.
- Each contestant may supply his/her own dishes and plates for the presentation of the cooked food, or use the plates the cooking venue supplies. Other table dressings are not required, and will not be taken into consideration by the judges, so there is no need to bring them along.
- Photographs, video and interviews will be taken throughout the competition and may be used in promotional material.
- Contestants are welcome from all areas of Soneva including Chefs, however Executive Chefs, GMs and Judges are excluded from participating in the contest.
- Contestants must be over the age of 18, as of April 2022.
- Contestants must be available to participate on all dates of the competition.
- Contestants must submit their menus and ingredient lists at least one week before the start of the event (dates to be announced soon).