Masterchef stars are deprived of their fancy gadgets. Australia has zero sympathy.

Sunday night’s episode of Masterchef saw the contestants taken ~back to basics~ in the kitchen.

No, they weren’t forced to cook in a firepit or to use a palm leaf instead of a knife. It was much, much worse than that: they were deprived of their “cheffy equipment”.

You know, the usual suspects: pressure cookers, liquid nitrogen, blast chillers.

To make the point brutally clear, hosts Gary, Matt and George literally lock the beloved gadgets up in a cage with a giant padlock and the camera team made sure to get some extra mournful close-ups.

Home Cooking Week just got real, friends.

Listen: Masterchef did in one episode what MKR couldn’t do in a season. (Post continues after audio.)

Panic visibly crossed the stars’ faces as they contemplated life without a blast chiller (oh, the indignity! the horror!).

Meanwhile, the rest of Australia had approximatey zero sympathy, giving the rookie chefs a good ol’ fashioned roasting on social media.

There were plenty of smartarse quips about the beloved blast chiller:

And plenty took the opportunity to ruminate on “kids today”:

Others had some great suggestions for future challenges to take things one step further:

Now THAT would be worth watching.

Over to you: do you know what a blast chiller is? More importantly, do you own one?