Sunday 7 August 2011

Mastercry Australia aka Masterchef

2011 finalists, Kate and Michael
Tonight marks the finale of Masterchef Australia, the end of another successful (contestable) season. Despite my many angry rants (tweets) and linguistic frustration towards the show, I can't help but watch it.

I guess (relating back to my earlier post regarding reality television), that this is the whole intention of reality TV shows, to target on the specific emotion and stir it to your favour (or not).

There are many things to note when watching predictable shows such as Masterchef. By predictable, I mean if you've watched reality television long enough, you'd be able to identify certain "spoiler cues". Here are some hints in identifying next year's winner:

1. The person who usually makes a lot of mistakes during the pressure test, presentation is not so great but alas triumphs the judges' tasting test
2. The person who manages to cry on cue when asked why they should be in the competition
3. The person with their results announced second/last after a pressure test - you see this creates "suspense"
4. The person with a "story"throughout the show i.e Kate was weak at the beginning, only know desserts, blah blah blah

What I absolutely hate about shows like this:

1. Back to point one on the former list, the judges always tend to go for "taste" rather than presentation. Why? Because it's TV, they like to go against the popular choice in order to create controversy and debate. We, as viewers, can not know what the dish tastes like, for all we know, it might be the worst dish but because it's TV and that this challenger "must" win, they'll win either way.

2. The judges would always comment "oh this is perfect, oh this is amazing" rah rah rah and yet when it's scoring time, scores that person a lower score than what the comments reflects...i.e in tonight's finale, I'm pretty sure the judges, by their tone and commentary absolutely LOVED Michael's snowman over Kate's yet scores him an 8/10? Once again, it's to stir controversy.

3. How the judges would ALWAYS rave on about how "closely matched" the replicated dish is to the original dish and how they "nailed" the exact flavours. Really? This year, all amateurs have beaten professional chefs for the immunity pin, what is this saying about the future of Australia's cooking? That we have a bright future or we are doomed because our current chefs are being beaten by amateurs?

In order to save this show from the frustration bestowed upon its viewers, they'd need to invite a mediocre guest (me), a normal person with no food background (however should love food and eating) and be a guest judge every week to eliminate any planned biases.

In conclusion, the showdown between Michael and Kate is over with Kate triumphing over Michael with perfect 9/10 scores from all 4 judges.
The dish which was used in the last pressure test, somewhat resembles last year's famous Quay's snow egg, only this time it's from award-winning restaurant Noma, and instead of snow egg, it's a "snowman"....wonder what's installed for next year?

Noma's snowman

Quay's snow egg

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