MasterChef fans up in arms after guest chef tells contestant Brendan Pang to smile

MasterChef fans are up in arms after guest chef Benjamin Cooper told fan favourite Brendan Pang ‘to smile’.

During the pressure test on Tuesday, the chef who hails from Chin Chin in Melbourne, approached the clearly stressed out contestant to offer him advice.

‘I saw you smile earlier on… There was a bit of cheekiness in it, right?’ he said, before adding, ‘I feel like there’s a bit of cheekiness in you.’

Brendan agreed, then the chef told him to: ‘Lose the stress, bring the cheekiness back… And enjoy it, ’cause cooking stressed isn’t going to give you the result you want.’

Before departing Brendan’s station he urged Brendan to ‘show me the smile’.

Brendan, with one eye on his hibachi grill, awkwardly responded: ‘I’m trying to smile!’

On Twitter, one fan took offence and wrote: ‘How [condescending] is this Chef telling Brendan to smile.’ It turns out they weren’t alone. 

‘Benjamin telling Brendan to be cheeky and smile is so creepy,’ one said. 

Another tweeted: ‘Errrrmmmm… I’m getting bad juju from the Chin Chin dude. The way he approached Brendan and asked him to smile. Sooo awks. *shudder*’

‘I hate being TOLD to smile in the middle of a highly stressful task… I feel for you @brendan_pang just let him cook,’ wrote another.

Tuesday night’s pressure test saw Sarah Tiong, Brendan Pang, Recce Hignell and Poh Ling Yeow go head-to-head.

They had to recreate a Jungle Curry, which contained between 30 to 40 chillies, from Thai food master Benjamin Cooper of Chin Chin in Melbourne. 

It’s probably MasterChef’s most difficult challenge yet because they had to recreate the dish with no measurements and no recipe.

Unfortunately, Sarah’s dish failed to impress and she was asked to leave the competition.

MasterChef Australia continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten