MasterChef Review
By Lisa Gaytan-Berg | August 13th, 2010Gordon Ramsay hit the television once again this summer with a new show on Fox entitled ‘MasterChef’. After ‘Hell’s Kitchen’, ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ and ‘The F Word’ I wasn’t sure I wanted to dive into yet another one of his programs. Though I realize kitchen life isn’t as glamorous as everyone thinks, I found his approach to running the kitchens over the top and the bulk of his shows to be very similar and predictable.
I was pleasantly surprised however, by MasterChef. The show revolves around discovering the next great Chef from home kitchens across America. Joined by Joe Bastianich (a vineyard owner and restaurateur with Italian Chef Mario Batali) and four-star Chef Graham Elliot, Ramsay will test and award one home-based cook a prize of $100,000 and their own cookbook along with the title of ‘America’s First MasterChef’.
In the first few episodes, contestants were given their first cooking challenge. Each contestant had full access to pretty well every ingredient they could imagine and was asked to create their ‘signature dish’ in an hour, in typical Ramsay fashion. After preparing the major elements of their dish, contestants then went behind closed doors to present and plate their dish for the three judges. If two of the three judges said ‘yes’ to the contestant and their dish, they received a MasterChef apron for a chance to compete.
The episodes started off well, but then fell into the typical pattern of reality television.
Contestants came from all walks of life but seemed to have the same sob story. ‘I won’t let you down, I promise’, ‘Give me a chance, I know I can do this’ and ‘This is something I’ve wanted to do my whole life’ were just a few of the choice phrases used on the judges to make them vote ‘yes’.
Ramsay, in a few bold moves gave one lady the chance to redeem herself by going home, grabbing ingredients for an authentic dish and coming back for a second chance; in another case Ramsay told Elliot he had made a mistake in saying ‘no’ to a contestant that he felt should have received an apron.
Overall, though MasterChef may bring some new ideas and surprises to the screen, I felt that it is just like another one of Ramsay’s shows: predictable and common. It felt like ‘Iron Chef’ meets ‘American Idol’ in my opinion. One harsh judge (Bastianich), one judge that gushes and sometimes doesn’t know what he’s saying (Elliot) and one somewhat impartial judge (Ramsay). Sound familiar? Ramsay’s approach with the contestants was more forgiving however, and perhaps that will be the only surprise of the show. I’ll probably end up watching most of the episodes to see how it progresses but I’ll pass on next season-if it gets renewed. Great idea, good premise, not so good on the execution and creativity.
It feels like it is trying too hard to be Bravo’s Top Chef and failing. The fact that in the initial challenge of the episode (for the past two weeks, at least) the judges have all the contestants make a dish, but they only bother to taste the three that look the best. This week each person had to make a cupcake, but if it didn’t look the spiffiest, it wasn’t even going to be acknowledged with a taste test by the judges. This is unfair on so many levels– for one thing, these are amateur, at-home cooks who have never been schooled in food presentation, yet they are being judged on that rather prominently. They are also expected to be able to prepare all kinds of cuisines and bake without a recipe. I’ll probably give it one or two more chances but it’s hard to watch, it seems so unbalanced.
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August 26, 2010 at 3:12 pm
I agree with you Melanie. I haven’t liked the fact that the contestants are supposed to be experts in every type of cuisine as well. As you pointed out, they are ‘amateur, at-home cooks’ –how were they supposed to glean knowledge in so many different styles of cuisine? I struggle to find the overall purpose of the competition… The expectations are extremely high and in the end, the three judges will be left with someone who was lucky enough to have the largest repertoire of memorized recipes or perhaps was able to ‘squeak’ by on mediocrity.
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September 8, 2010 at 6:34 pm