So was she right?
I unfortunately missed the MasterChef Quiz episode when Courtney Roulston was eliminated after being told by the judges that it was in fact 'mint' not 'spearmint' (pictured above). I've recently heard there's been plenty of household debate about this particular episode with many viewers believing she was in fact correct and that the judges got it wrong. There's also been many reader comments on MasterChef Mint news, and Herald Sun Speared by mint mistake giving mostly support to spearmint over mint.
I've done a little bit of my own research and searched for mint, spearmint and peppermint on the Coles online catalogue which is one of the MasterChef sponsors and found mint was the only fresh variety that comes up (see below) although it doesn't really look like the one they had on the TV show which had more elongated and serrated style leaves. If you do a search for spearmint (Mentha spicata) in Google I get the wikipedia description which notes it's native to most of Europe and southwest Asia. Searching for mint (mentha) provides a wikipedia description noting a wider distribution to Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and North America. If I was shopping for mint at the supermarket or fruit market I'd be asking for mint and not spearmint — I don't think I've ever asked for spearmint. But that's not to say that what we saw on the show really looks quite like how spearmint is described ie leaves are 5–9 cm long and 1.5–3 cm broad, with a serrated margin.
So I'm not really sure if she's correct or not but I guess MasterChef get the final say and what they think is right or wrong. Perhaps she was even more correct than the other two contestants because 'mint' is known as the genus or common name for apparently 25 species and hundreds of varieties and to simply call it mint is perhaps not technically quite correct. As one reader commented it's like calling a Holden Commodore a Holden.
Were the judges in fact wrong? And if so, should they actually now face their own elimination? What do you think?
