The Dalai Lama on MasterChef: Exciting or an Odd Fit?

When the Dalai Lama visited Australia a month ago he wasn’t only treated to one of Karl Stefanovic’s jokes — he was also presented with a grand lunch prepared by the remaining MasterChef contestants in Melbourne, which was shown in last night’s episode. The brief was to cook vegetarian dishes inspired by the philosophies of the Dalai Lama, and the amateur cooks received tips from Kylie Kwong on things His Holiness loves, such as coriander, mushrooms and tofu. Dani just beat out Michael with her vegetarian Sri Lankan curry (though we thought Michael’s goat’s cheese tortellini looked beautiful) while Kate, Billy and Ellie will be competing in tonight’s pressure test.

Kylie, a Buddhist, was instrumental in securing the Dalai Lama’s guest role on MasterChef, and the contestants were certainly overwhelmed by who they were cooking for. When he addressed the contestants after tasting all their dishes, he said he couldn’t rate one higher than the other, so the decision of the best and worst fell on the judges and the other guests. While the challenge of combining food with a spiritual philosophy was unique, do you think the Dalai Lama was a good or odd fit for the show?