The Hair-Raising MasterChef Crab Moment That's Stunning TikTok
Content warning: The linked video includes violent treatment of an animal.
"MasterChef" is a popular cooking competition show in which contestants must avoid elimination by overcoming challenges set forth by the judges, who currently include celebrity chefs Aarón Sánchez and Gordon Ramsay and restaurateur Joe Bastianich. While the series is beloved by foodies, it's also notorious for shocking moments. Some of the biggest scandals to hit "MasterChef" have involved contestants stealing each other's recipe ideas or even killing animals onscreen. The latter issue is what's currently making waves on TikTok.
Contestants on "MasterChef" are asked to work with a variety of ingredients, including live animals. A number of episodes have required chefs to cook live crab, which presents a moral challenge for everyone on the show. Though there are a number of ways to prepare live crab (none of them particularly pleasant), TikTok couldn't prepare itself for the method implemented by one contestant on the show.
TikTok isn't sure there's any humane way to kill crab
A clip from "MasterChef" Season 1 resurfaced on TikTok, showing competitor Kim Dung "Slim" Huynh preparing a live crab. To the horror of many viewers, she tore the crab open with her bare hands before Ramsay stepped in to call it inhumane and warn that it would dry out the meat. "The crab is alive, so you're torturing it now," he said.
Many viewers turned to the comment section to express their shock, writing things like, "WHO JUST PULLS APART A LIVE ANIMAL." Ramsay advised boiling it alive instead, but even then, you may want to think twice before boiling crab: A report from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences confirms that creatures like crabs and lobsters "are capable of experiencing pain or suffering." While the most "humane" way to kill a crab, per Crustacean Compassion, is to first stun it with electricity and "spike" its nervous system, Ramsay doesn't appear to use this method.
On "The F Word," Ramsay taught chefs to place a live crab on the counter, drive a large knife down through its center, and swiftly follow through until the blade reaches the counter. The movement is pretty similar to the one used by Huynh; as one TikToker pointed out, "I'm no biologist, but I think ripping it in half probably killed it relatively quickly." Others suggested that some cultural methods call for the tearing motion used by Huynh, while others summed up their feelings: "There's no humane way to kill."