Has Channel 10′s MasterChef lost the plot?
Last week when I watched the first show in the new series, we met the three celebrity contestants (Kirk Pengilly, Indira Naidoo and Josh Thomas), each of whom cooked their favourite (or “signature”) dish in the first half (and let me tell you, I really liked the look of Indira Naidoo’s earthy meatballs!). That was fine. But when they got to the second part and Matt Moran came on (he owns ARIA, a swanky restaurant overlooking the Opera House at Bennelong Pt), I found it hard to stomach.
Moran had been asked to present two of his signature restaurant dishes, one of which the celebrities would have to reproduce.The one chosen was a very complicated Fig and Vanilla Bombe Alaska – there are seven different steps to this dessert – and that’s before you get it onto the plate. This is restaurant food, not food we want to cook, let alone eat, at home. It’s the reason we go to expensive restaurants – and pay through the nose for the privelege.
In a professional kitchen, at least three or four apprentices would help assemble a dish like this.Yes these celebrities are given only 90 minutes. It’s absurd. It’s beyond the realms of credibility. And these people already have high profile jobs – why would they want to subject themselves to the heat in Matt Moran’s kitchen?
This week it was the turn of another three celebrities: Michelle Bridges, Katrina Deleon and last but not least Peter Fitzsimons. I really liked the look of Peter’s classic ‘Coq au Vin’. And George clearly appreciated the flavour, commentin that the chicken was juicy while Matt told him it was absolutely beautiful. Mind you, he was well and truly ticked off for adding egg yolks to the mash (yes, yes I know reality TV shows are renowned for ritual humiliation – and young apprentices are often demeaned in the kitchen). I sure preferred it to chef Brent Savage’s very complicated roast spatchcock (dubbed “the mighty spatchcock ball”) with sweet corn polenta, pistachio and asparagus, for which they were given two and a half hours . Isn’t this just another media obsession with up-market restaurants and pictures on plates?

MasterChef Judges