I still can’t think of Masterchef without thinking of Loyd Grossman’s “MaaaaasteurChef” pronounciation, the Sunday evenings at home, and that dark studio with the three coloured kitchens, and the “deliberating, cogitating and digesting” remark he always seemed to use that wore out after the first use.
But the re-invention of the format - with the final episode on tonight - has been an absolute triumph. Until this series, I’d only ever caught it in the ‘Saturday kitchen’ repeats, and normally it was the shorter (but no less serious) ‘celebrity’ version. But this series I’ve seen most of the episodes, and last night I was quite frankly on the edge of my seat watching three amateur cooks cope with cooking a three course meal for cooks with 17 Michelin stars between them. And being given universally excellent praise. OK, they were following a recipe, but they were extraordinarily intricate recipes that were seven hours from start to finish. They pulled off the challenge with aplomb. Oh, and this was the day after cooking for 120 wedding guests: were the bridge and groom mad!?
Normally I avoid ‘reality’ TV shows (does this count as one?), but what I like so much about it is that there is a real and useful skill, with real enthusiasm on display. The contestants really are putting their all in to the challenges. Plus the judges are proving really very good at balancing enthusiasm and praise, with constructive criticism and solid advice.
The three contestants are all very capable cooks. My take is that the winner is going to be either Jonny or James. Emily, whilst clearly talented, struggles under pressure, and whilst has a mature pair of shoulders still has (it would seem) a frustrating teenage self-belief and lack of experience that is her undoing. I’m also baffled why an 18 year old with her educational options in front of her (a place at Oxford!?), is interested in a competition at this stage of her life. If she did this full-time she could go on to great things. Jonny and James seem to be neck and neck at times, with neither getting the edge, and both seem very determined to win, both with serious plans to make (or already have made) changes in their lives. Quite how the judges will separate them I know not. I suspect James could just edge it (being told to ‘give up your day job’ by 2 Michelin star Michael Cane is not to be sniffed at), although Jonny’s recent performances have been excellent too. Very tough decision.
There does appear to be a new seriousness about BBC food programming. Perhaps as a result of Gordon Ramsey on Channel 4? It began to be come through when the new Saturday Kitchen was launched, and they - I think for the first time - got Michelin star chefs doing cookery demonstrations. It’s great to see such esteemed cooks showing how great food can be made. That they are able to get them involved in more programmes - as last night on Masterchef - is also good. Or perhaps the BBC’s budget has been increased enough to afford them?
Whatever the result, the BBC’s food programming has come a long way in the last few years. Channel 4’s too. Not quite sure where ITV is, other than a bizarre Saturday morning programme that seems to be stuck in a strange ready-steady-cook style configuration. It’s not so much as aspiring as trying-too-hard-to-be-realistic. Life Style TV, I suppose, much in the same way as Top Gear isn’t about the cars we’re likely to drive, as a particular outlook on life.
Anyway, I’ll be gripped to the Masterchef final. It’s a long long way from Mr Grossman’s Sunday evening programme, and is really a brilliant and compelling re-invention.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Surpise, surprise - James won.
I wanted the other guy to win - liked his style more.
As to Oxford, what is more satisfying than seeing empty places and happy faces.
One can always pick up a degree even in your 80’s. See OU stats.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:49 am
I haven’t been following this series of Masterchef, but have done so in the past and completely agree that the reinvention of the format has improved its viewability beyond measure. I was similarly hooked on the series which Thomasina won (I was rooting for her). What, to my mind, makes it different from a reality TV show in the “Big Brother” mode is that the contestants are not invited to show off their worst possible attributes on camera in the hope of ingratiating themselves to a public salivating over excess. Instead of encouraging attention-seeking through bad behaviour, it concentrates on skill and a sort of Bildungsreise, as the challenges become more difficult and the remaining few discover new depths of resilience and talent. The emotional highs and lows are put on display true enough, but at least the participants are not held up for public ridicule. From that point of view, the programme possesses a broader appeal.
But what are we to do if nobody sees any merit in less esoteric pursuits?
As for an 18-year-old showing an interest in the competition as opposed to an education, read some of the opinion polls papers like the Daily Mail periodically proffer as evidence of the terminal decline of our society…fame is the prize to be striven after at all costs and Masterchef provides a lot of free exposure in front of a very wide audience, the perfect springboard for a later career in the media. Half of the battle is being “discovered”. Masterchef hands publicity to you on a plate, as it were.
Then there is the issue of academic versus other, more practical, talents. Another lament of the right-wing papers is the snobbery concerning academic achievement, consigning people with genuine ability, just not of a book-oriented nature, to the scrapheap because the middle-classes look down their noses at “trade”, a nasty habit they picked up to differentiate themselves from the class below them. Please don’t read into this that I am accusing you of snobbery, far from it, I have the great pleasure of having met you and can say with impunity that there is no trace of snobbery about you
Having said that, if the girl in question were to make the grade as a chef and earn a Michelin star or two she would, in all honesty, be able to command an infinitely higher income than the legions of academics ensconced in their comfortable studies far removed from the hustle and bustle of the non-contemplative life…so perhaps their is some reward after all. For those at the top at any rate.