It's boys against girls in Masterchef Kitchen

Star World's Season 5 of Masterchef Australia will start on September 10. A host of marketing gimmicks have been planned to promote the show

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | September 6, 2013

Star World is bringing back Masterchef Australia this month. The popular cooking reality show is in its 5th season. And the theme of this season has been decided as 'Boys versus Girls'. The show which goes on air on September 10, 2013, will air Monday to Friday at 9 PM. The show replaces Revenge in the primetime slot.

"Masterchef is one of the biggest properties in both India and abroad. And Masterchef Australia has always tried to bring in some novelty with each season. This time the theme pits men and women against each other. As the popular conception goes, women are great at cooking. They are the ones who generally cook in the house. But if you look at the top chefs around the globe, they are mostly men. So we took this as the starting point and themed the season around it," said Kevin Vaz, Business Head – English Channels, Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies, at Star India.

The same logic has been used for the show's promos which are doing the rounds on television. Other than the theme, several other features have been introduced this season. The show will start with 22 finalists – 11 men and 11 women. The face-off will continue in that fashion. There will be different themes each week. There will also be masterchef sessions and classes in front of a live audience. The show, which has been shot in Melbourne, has already garnered a positive response in India through the promos.

However, the channel has planned several other activities to keep the interest growing. There will be a tweet-up party for Twitter influencers on September 7 at Smaash. Online, the channel has tied up with burrp.com to come up with an innovative online interaction idea. Live tweets with the hashtags #MChefBoys and #MChefGirls will be streamed on the burrp.com website keeping with this season's theme of Boys vs Girls). The live streaming begins next week.

A Facebook app has also been designed and developed where users can upload their pictures on the application and their images will appear with an apron marking them as part of MasterChef Australia.

The channel has tied up with the daily newspaper DNA to host cook-offs in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. The venues for cook-off are as follows:

• Mumbai - Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel
• Pune - Hard Rock Cafe, Pune
• Bangalore - California Pizza Kitchen, Indiranagar

On the on-ground front, they have tied up with restaurants such as Hard Rock Cafe, Shiro's and California Pizza Kitchen where masterchef inspired dishes would be available from September to December.

Sohini.Sen@BestMediaInfo.com

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