MasterChef Musings: Week One
May 9th, 2012
Like a two-minute noodle sandwich consumed from the kitchen floor at 4:30am while drunk on cask wine and Malibu, MasterChef is a guilty pleasure of mine.
I know there are better uses of my time – such as exercising, socialising, or anything else – but as a fan both of food and watching people suffer, there’s just something about this show that floats my proverbial gravy boat.
That and I have a fetish for Matt Preston. It’s his fleshy jowls – they just do… something… to me…
Anyway. With Channel Ten clocking up a million-odd viewers every episode, I know I’m not the only one with a penchant for Preston. So butter your crème brulée pots and fire up your blow torches as I take you on a journey through the highs, the lows, and the deliciously cheesy in-betweens of MasterChef Australia – the most addictive thing since cupcakes.
Highlights so far:
The surreal opening sequence dating back to 1990
Here I was thinking that Australia had invented MasterChef – not true! Turns out it actually began in the dark days of 1990 in some little-known country called ‘England’.
Check out the original opening sequence! The saxophone! The state-of-the-art slow motion egg flying through the air from a totally impractical distance! Gold, I love it.
George having his own ‘When Harry Met Sally’ moment over spinach and ricotta gnocchi
A picture tells a thousand words (most of them unprintable):
Some dude having an emotional breakdown less than an hour into it
Upon being told he had a place in the top 50, this man (appropriately dubbed ‘Emotionally Volatile Guy’ by a writer far wittier than I) like, totally lost his sh*t. Keep it together, man! You’ve gotta pace yourself with the emotional outbursts. Save the tears for something worthwhile, like when you’re inevitably asked by Adriano Zumbo to construct an entire Boeing 747 out of spun sugar and then fly it into the sun. Until then, take it easy, geez.
A Canadian man chipping his tooth on a can during the first challenge
Contestant Kevin ‘Big Kev’ Perry learned the hard way that teeth are a poor substitute for can openers during the first big cook-off – chipping his front tooth during Monday night’s show.
But like a true hero, Kev soldiered on not only to finish cooking his cider-can-up-a-chicken’s-butt thing, but to win the challenge and thus a spot in the top 25.
Three episodes in and already there have been tears, injuries, and violated poultry – these are the sorts of dramatic moments that MasterChef naysayers are depriving themselves of.
BTW for those who are interested, Kevin’s weird chicken recipe is available on the MasterChef website.
But personally I prefer this blogger’s recipe for a kimchi ramen grilled cheese sandwich:
Stay tuned for more masterful MasterChef updates right here at the Appliances Online blog – the best thing since sliced ciabatta with a side of prosciutto and a drizzle of garlic aioli. (…IS IT LUNCHTIME YET?)
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