Ericandblueboy Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 From Baltimore Sun: In "Master Chef," home cooks from all across the country have to prepare their best dish in one hour in order to earn an apron to qualify to move forward in the competition. America's ultimate Master Chef will win a quarter-of-a-million dollars and will get to publish his or her own cookbook. I watched the last couple of segments of this show. One dude baked some mac 'n cheese, forgot to salt it. Formerly fat boy partner of Batali Joe Bastianich gives him the thumb down. Fat boy judge Graham Elliot Bowles gives him a thumb up because he has the secret ingredient - love. Where's the hurl emoticon? Gordo calls the sack's wife out on stage and asks her what it means to him to be on the show. Yup, the wife's whining plea saves the guy who forgot to salt his mac 'n cheese. Anyone else watching this train wreck? From HollywoodChicago.com the three judges on “Masterchef” have a DIRECT correlation to “Idol.” Of course, Gordon Ramsay takes on the uber-critical role made popular by Simon Cowell and parrots the tough love of his fellow countryman. Chicago chef Graham Elliot takes on the Paula Abdul role, smiling a bit too much and coming across as the most understanding of contestant’s failures. He actually comes off as the most honest and genuine, as Ramsay’s tough guy shtick has grown old by now. Finally, there’s Joe Bastianich, who owns over twenty restaurants and several wineries. Clearly, he’s the Randy — somewhat in between the critical poles of the other two and with notable behind-the-scenes experience. The common structure of “no” from Joe and “yes” from Graham, which puts the ego-centric Gordon in the role of the decider, feels awfully forced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsDiPesto Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 I saw the last part of that last night, thought it was a total yawn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanCole42 Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 It's Fox at its best (worst?). Totally called the whole American Idol vibe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Delicious Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 Really boring. I hope (and expect) that the actual competition part of the show will have some excitement. Unfortunately, it looks like there'll be at least 1 more episode of this kind. Moreover, they need to stop playing up the angle about winning the title of Master Chef, which is totally meaningless (read: stupid), and instead focus on the fact that these people have a chance to win 250K, which is serious reality/game show money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monavano Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 Are these Master Chef contestants professional chefs, or home cooks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Delicious Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 home cooks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monavano Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 home cooks That's what I thought when I saw the commercials. How can one become "Master Chef", when they're not a chef to begin with? Seems insulting to the pros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanCole42 Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 That's what I thought when I saw the commercials. How can one become "Master Chef", when they're not a chef to begin with? Seems insulting to the pros. It is. Kind of like if they made a first aid show and awarded the winning EMT the title of Doctor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 I'm guessing this is spinoff of the British and Australian MasterChef shows. I'm on a cooking list with a number of Australians and they discuss the show a fair amount. It features amateur cooks who aspire to be chefs, rather than people who already are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Boy Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 Anyone manage to stomach it through Masterchef? It looks like the next episode will actually show the people in elimination. Gordon Ramsay is kind of a nut on these sorts of shows, but he could also team up with better producers and editors if you ask me. Still, it looks like it could be an OK show. Or horribly pathetically awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericandblueboy Posted August 8, 2010 Author Share Posted August 8, 2010 Anyone manage to stomach it through Masterchef? It looks like the next episode will actually show the people in elimination. Gordon Ramsay is kind of a nut on these sorts of shows, but he could also team up with better producers and editors if you ask me. Still, it looks like it could be an OK show. Or horribly pathetically awful. Seems like Joe and Graham switched roles based on the last half of the that I caught. Joe was waving everyone thru while Graham was playing the hard to please tough guy (giving his thumb down to a guy born with only 3 fingers on each hand). At one point, Gordo gives this Mexican (?) lady a second chance by sending her home so she can cook stuff she cooks at home instead of the soul-less fancy schmancy crap she cooked the first time. It's gonna be a train wreck and I'll be there to adding more coal to the fire (assuming I've got nothing else better to do). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericandblueboy Posted August 19, 2010 Author Share Posted August 19, 2010 The elimination round is a little more interesting. Last night they sent two contestants home for cooking lousy Chinese food. With the exception of the two Asians on the show, no one else's dish looked any good. Those two Asians' dishes didn't really look all that good either. In the second episode, the losing team has to taste and name the ingredients in chili. That's a new twist to elimination and I enjoyed it. Surprised that the woman from TX lost because she only named 7 ingredients - really, no chili-powder in TX chili? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandynva Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 The elimination round is a little more interesting. Last night they sent two contestants home for cooking lousy Chinese food. With the exception of the two Asians on the show, no one else's dish looked any good. Those two Asians' dishes didn't really look all that good either. In the second episode, the losing team has to taste and name the ingredients in chili. That's a new twist to elimination and I enjoyed it. Surprised that the woman from TX lost because she only named 7 ingredients - really, no chili-powder in TX chili? was i the only one flummoxed by the decision to pick mandarins over the mushrooms? i could understand not choosing the duck if you're unfamiliar with it, but i thought choosing mandarins was much more limiting than mushrooms, especially because they knew that they'd be doing chinese food and thus probably shouldn't do desserts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandynva Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 I think the reasoning is that she doesn't know how to cook Chinese so she picked something that would be hard for everyone else. It ultimately worked to her advantage. Why did so many people cook chicken though? Was that the only protein available? hmm. that's a good explaination, i guess that's why she did it. if you're not familiar with chinese food (many of the contestants seemed to have little contact with it), i'm guessing what you're used to seeing from carry out places is beef or chicken, and maybe they thought chicken went better with the orange? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrXmus Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 I watched last week's show on DVR tonight. That'll be my last one. I erased the episode I had waiting for me from this week. I was hoping it'd get better, but when these "amateur chefs" couldn't identify more than 9 ingredients out of 25 for a challenge, I decided they're not worth wasting my time watching. I'm mean, c'mon,the ingredients were things like starfruit, blackeyed peas, chayote squash, lotus root, catfish, papaya and many others that anyone who wanted to be a chef should've known. When the correctly named the few ingredients they knew, like rhubarb, golden raisins, plantain, and rosemary, they were treated like geniuses. I'm so done with that piece of drek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mame11 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Not to be contrary, regardless of the absurdity of the pressure challenge, I am blown away by the talent on the show. I bake all the time and the only recipe I have ever memorized was a brownie recipe. These contestants made cupcakes without a recipe, one of whom had never made them. Not really sure how he did that but as far as I can tell there were no recipes provided. Also they are given ingredients that they must use which many have never tasted much less cooked. It's impressive that they have enough knowledge in the kitchen that they can improvise effectively. I think many participants on the dr.com board are likely better chefs than any of the contestants but they are not on the show. And hey, I've been using more salt and pepper since I started watching the show and have to say my food tastes better... :-) P.S. this week's pressure challenge was making pasta and sauce from scratch... in 90 minutes. I think that's the point of the pressure challenge, limit the time to increase the stress and cause someone to slip up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Boy Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 The show is a train wreck, filled with way, way too much reduandant and replayed shots. And two hours?! Seriously, cut it to an hour. I can't not watch it (skim it anyway), just to see what happens. DVRs are convenient that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericandblueboy Posted September 3, 2010 Author Share Posted September 3, 2010 There are a few very talented contestants but many duds as well, and it seems like the show can't get rid of them fast enough. Double elimination on the last episode and another double elimination on the next episode. Instead of just Gordo being mean, we now have his tag-team partner Joe Bastianch. It's mildly entertaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdt Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Not to be contrary, regardless of the absurdity of the pressure challenge, I am blown away by the talent on the show. I bake all the time and the only recipe I have ever memorized was a brownie recipe. These contestants made cupcakes without a recipe, one of whom had never made them. Not really sure how he did that but as far as I can tell there were no recipes provided. Also they are given ingredients that they must use which many have never tasted much less cooked. It's impressive that they have enough knowledge in the kitchen that they can improvise effectively. It is rather amazing considering, as mentioned above, how many ingredients they could not identify. I am sure that there are things going on behind the scenes as I find it hard to believe that these "home" cooks have spent that much time memorizing an entire array of recipes to whip up on the spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrXmus Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Not to be contrary, regardless of the absurdity of the pressure challenge, I am blown away by the talent on the show. I bake all the time and the only recipe I have ever memorized was a brownie recipe. These contestants made cupcakes without a recipe, one of whom had never made them. Not really sure how he did that but as far as I can tell there were no recipes provided. Also they are given ingredients that they must use which many have never tasted much less cooked. It's impressive that they have enough knowledge in the kitchen that they can improvise effectively. I'll agree that some of the contestants are good cooks. I could never whip up food like they can. BUT, there is no way in hell all of those people could make a cupcake that looked like a cupcake without a recipe in front of them. My assumption is that they were given a basic recipe and then told to do what they wanted with it. I just can't see every one of them, especially the winner (who's never made a cupcake), formulating a baking recipe from scratch with precise measurements for leaveners, flour and liquids. There's just no way in hell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoramargolis Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 we now have his tag-team partner Joe Bastianch. It's mildly entertaining. I glanced at part of one episode and was amazed by how much weight Joe B has lost. Now if he could get his buddy Mario Batali to do the same... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choirgirl21 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 The show is a train wreck, filled with way, way too much reduandant and replayed shots. And two hours?! Seriously, cut it to an hour. I can't not watch it (skim it anyway), just to see what happens. DVRs are convenient that way. Exactly. I absolutely despise the show for all of the reasons you listed and yet I keep watching. I'll agree that some of the contestants are good cooks. I could never whip up food like they can. BUT, there is no way in hell all of those people could make a cupcake that looked like a cupcake without a recipe in front of them. My assumption is that they were given a basic recipe and then told to do what they wanted with it. I just can't see every one of them, especially the winner (who's never made a cupcake), formulating a baking recipe from scratch with precise measurements for leaveners, flour and liquids. There's just no way in hell! My thoughts exactly. Same for the pasta if you ask me. Or they are getting demos beforehand that we aren't seeing. Did anyone watch the original British show? I did and it was NOTHING like this show, which makes me abhor it all the more. I actually liked the original a fair amount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericandblueboy Posted September 9, 2010 Author Share Posted September 9, 2010 they're given a recipe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monavano Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 they're given a recipe! I just saw that! First time I've watched, so has anyone else caught this in the prior "pressure" challenges? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericandblueboy Posted September 9, 2010 Author Share Posted September 9, 2010 I just saw that! First time I've watched, so has anyone else caught this in the prior "pressure" challenges? No but I suspect they were given some guidance....it's otherwise too consistent in terms of what they made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Boy Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 I have to say, they have improved this year's version a tad. They still milk this now in the form of two shows a week, and there are now serious product placements, but they all have to make money I suppose. That said, despite there being less annoying performances by Gordo and Joe this season, the episode I just watched with Gordon Ramsay yelling at people echoed his Hell's Kitchen show performances. If I really wanted to see you rant, Gordon, I would watch Hell's Kitchen, so save your performance for that. But I keep watching. I think the contestants are better this year and I am being entertained a bit more. Anyone else still watching? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericandblueboy Posted August 10, 2011 Author Share Posted August 10, 2011 I watch Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef back to back, two days a week and love it. It's like a soap opera without a storyline. I think Christian is the by far the best home-cook but he's arrogant and not much liked by his fellow competitors. Of the remaining 4, only Adrien isn't a trash talking fool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choirgirl21 Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 I watch, only because I'm desperate for anything to watch this time of year and find I must watch food TV even if it's bad food TV (same reason I keep watching Next Food Network Star season after season, despite having never watched a single episode by any of the winners). Christian is really on my last nerve with his arrogance though. Sadly I think he's the most deserving of the win, but I find myself every week wishing that if they won't just send him home for being so damn arrogant, that they would at least rip him a new asshole. Sadly, they never really do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ericandblueboy Posted August 11, 2011 Author Share Posted August 11, 2011 Christian is really on my last nerve with his arrogance though. Sadly I think he's the most deserving of the win, but I find myself every week wishing that if they won't just send him home for being so damn arrogant, that they would at least rip him a new asshole. Sadly, they never really do. They've been getting on his case about it lately. I think Joe basically said if you shut your piehole and focus, you can win this thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pool Boy Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I enjoyed this season. It's a far, far better show than Hell's Kitchen for sure. I'm a sucker for these food competition shows, though. Anyone trying out for season 3 (haha)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 They are now casting for Season 3 of Masterchef, and there will be an open call in DC on Saturday, November 12 at Trinity Washington University, 125 Michigan Ave, NE, from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Further information here. To audition without attending an open call, look for details here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenticket Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 They are now casting for Season 3 of Masterchef, and there will be an open call in DC on Saturday, November 12 at Trinity Washington University, 125 Michigan Ave, NE, from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Further information here. To audition without attending an open call, look for details here. Word is that Gordon Ramsay will be at the DC casting call. I sure hope some of the talented folks on here will represent for us at the casting call...and who knows, maybe on the show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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